Getting Started with the Ada Claude Connector

Overview

The Ada Claude Connector links Claude to Ada, Optilogic's agentic AI for supply chain modeling. Once connected, Claude can list the model databases in your Optilogic account, open a conversation with Ada, attach one or more databases to that conversation, and relay prompts and responses back and forth — all from inside Claude.

In practice, this means Ada continues to do what it does best — reasoning over your supply chain data, running analyses, and answering modeling questions. Claude adds a complementary layer on top: turning Ada's answers into polished executive summaries, spreadsheets, slide decks, and interactive dashboards, and combining them with web research or other connected tools in a single workflow.

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Quick Start

1. Add the Optilogic Ada connector in Claude (Settings > Connectors) and authenticate with your Optilogic account. You can either (A) search for the connector in the Claude Connector Directory, or (B) add the Optilogic Ada Connector as a custom connector – for this, follow the Claude help center guide on custom connectors to add a new custom connector; when prompted for the URL, enter: https://mcp.optilogic.app/mcp
2. In a Claude chat, ask Claude to list the databases in your Optilogic account to confirm the connection.
3. Tell Claude which database(s) (Cosmic Frog models, DataStar projects, or other Postgres databases) you want to work with, by name.
4. Ask your question or describe your task in plain language. Claude will start an Ada session, attach the right database(s), and relay your prompt.
5. Review Ada's answer, ask follow-up questions, and — when you are ready — ask Claude to turn the findings into a document, spreadsheet, deck, or living dashboard.
6. Revisit or continue conversations anytime in Claude, plus you can see (and continue) these interactions with Ada and any work done by her in the Optilogic platform.

Understanding the Ada Claude Connector

What Is It?

The Ada Claude Connector is a Custom Connector for Claude built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It gives Claude a set of tools that let it act as an orchestrator for Ada conversations: discovering your models, starting and managing Ada sessions, attaching databases, and polling for Ada's (asynchronous) responses.

It is not a replacement for Ada or for the Optilogic platform — it is a bridge. Ada still does the actual modeling work; the connector simply gives Claude a way to ask it questions and receive answers.

A useful mental model: Claude is the orchestrator and communicator; Ada is the subject-matter expert on your models.

What Should I Use It For?

Teams are using the Ada Claude Connector for tasks like:

• Interrogating scenario outputs — cost drivers, service-level trade-offs, which facilities open or close
• Comparing multiple models or scenarios side by side
• Sanity-checking model data for missing values, outliers, or duplicates before a solve
• Turning Ada's analysis into executive summaries, board-ready briefs, and slide decks
• Building scenario-comparison workbooks and interactive dashboards from model outputs
• Filling gaps in a model with outside context — for example, pulling real-world wage or tariff data to round out a scenario

The Connector works best for grounded, model-based questions where Ada supplies the underlying facts and Claude handles synthesis, formatting, and communication. It is less suited to open-ended business strategy discussions that have no connection to an actual model or dataset - “What happens to warehouse utilization if demand is up 5% across category A?” is only meaningful when asked in the context of a model.

What the Ada Claude Connector Can and Cannot Do

*To learn more about using Optilogic Teams, please see this Getting Started with Optilogic Teams Help Center article.

**To learn more about Ada’s interaction style and agent options, please see the Create Your First Prompt section in the Getting Started with Ada & Agentic AI Help Center article.

Prior to Setting Up

Before you set up and start working with the Ada Claude connector, please take note of following:

• To use the Ada Claude connector, you need to have an Optilogic user account and a Claude user account.  
  • You can create an Optilogic account on the Create a Free Account page (step-by-step instructions are here)
• Claude is a third-party service governed by your terms with Anthropic (consumer, commercial).
• The connector is available on the web, desktop, and mobile versions of Claude.

Setting Up the Connector

Any user can add the connector to their own Claude account and authenticate with Optilogic directly — no admin setup required.

Step 1: Open Connector Settings

In Claude, go to your Account > Settings > Connectors, or navigate directly to claude.ai/customize/connectors:

Step 2: Add the Connector

Click on Connectors and then on Add in the top right corner. Select “Add custom connector” from the drop-down:

Step 3: Enter the Connector Details

Fill in the fields and click Add:

• Name: Optilogic Ada (or any name you will recognize)
• URL: https://mcp.optilogic.app/mcp

You can skip the Advanced settings.

Click on Connect in the next screen that comes up:

Step 4: Log In to Optilogic

Clicking Connect redirects you to the Optilogic login screen. Sign in with your Optilogic credentials:

Step 5: Confirm the Connection

Once signed in, you are connected. In your Claude chat, try a test prompt to confirm everything is working: “Show me what databases you have access to in Optilogic.”:

Step 6: Allow Access

When Claude requests permission to use the connector choose to Always Allow, Allow once, or Deny.

Disconnecting or Removing the Connector

Should you need to disconnect or remove the Ada Claude Connector, please take following steps:

1. In Claude, go to your Account > Settings > Connectors and click on the Ada Claude Connector (named Optilogic Ada here).
2. To disconnect without removing the connector, click on the Disconnect button – you will not have access to Ada from your Claude chats anymore, but you can re-connect without having to configure the connector again.
3. To completely remove the connector, click on the button with the 3 vertical dots and choose Remove. If you want to use the Ada Claude connector again in future, you will need to go through the steps of the “Setting up the Connector” section above again.

Example Prompts by Use Case

The prompts below are starting points — swap in your own model names, regions, priorities, etc.

Getting Oriented

• Inventory your models: “Using the Ada connector, list all the models in my Optilogic account and group them by what they appear to be for (production models, tests, training exercises).”
• Profile a model before diving in: “Start an Ada session with my ‘[MODEL NAME]’ model attached. Ask her to summarize the model: what tables it has, how many customers/facilities/products, what scenarios exist, and whether there are solved outputs.”

Analysis & Insights

• Interrogate scenario outputs: “Ask Ada (with ‘[MODEL NAME]’ attached): which scenario has the lowest total cost, what drives the difference vs. baseline, and which facilities open or close in each scenario? Then summarize her answer as a comparison table.”
• Compare across models: “Start an Ada session with both ‘[MODEL A]’ and ‘[MODEL B]’ attached. Ask her how the two models differ in network structure, demand, and assumptions, and which is more current.”
• Sanity-check model data: “Ask Ada to profile the data in ‘[MODEL NAME]’: missing values, orphaned records, duplicate names, suspicious outliers in demand or costs. Have her rank issues by severity, then give me a cleanup checklist.”

Deliverables — Where Claude Shines

• Executive summary from model outputs: “Ask Ada about the scenario results in ‘[MODEL NAME]’ (costs, service levels, key network changes). Then write a 1-page executive summary as a Word doc for leadership — plain language, decision-focused.”
• Scenario comparison workbook: “Get scenario-by-scenario cost and flow summaries from Ada for ‘[MODEL NAME]’, then build an Excel workbook: one tab per scenario, plus a comparison tab with deltas vs. baseline and a chart.”
• Results readout deck: “Interview Ada about ‘[MODEL NAME]’ — objectives, scenarios tested, key results, recommendation. Then build a 5-slide PowerPoint readout: context, approach, results, tradeoffs, recommendation.”

Broader Supply-Chain Scenarios to Try

• Network redesign trade-offs — build several distribution network scenarios and summarize cost, service-level, and risk trade-offs for the board
• Cost-to-serve diagnosis — run a cost-to-serve analysis by segment/channel and flag unprofitable segments
• Disruption stress test — simulate a supplier or port disruption and write an executive risk memo
• Greenfield site selection — weigh candidate sites against strategic priorities and draft a siting recommendation
• Reshoring / nearshoring business case — model a production shift and produce a cost-benefit summary
• Tariff shock scenario — re-run sourcing with a tariff increase and quantify the cost impact
• Demand shift scenario — model a demand shift and recommend how to rebalance the network

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Best Practices

• Name the Model Explicitly: Ada only sees databases attached to the conversation. Telling Claude the exact model name(s) ensures the right one(s) get attached the first time. If you are unsure of which database to use, ask Claude and you can pick from a list.
• Chain, Do Not Cram: Ask Ada focused questions in sequence rather than one giant prompt. Because sessions keep context, follow-up questions are cheap — you do not need to restate everything each time.
• Let Each Side Do Its Job: Use Ada for anything touching model data, and Claude for formatting, synthesis, web research, and file creation. Trying to get Claude to reason about model internals directly, without Ada, will produce weaker answers.
• Capture the Raw and the Polished: Before you ask Claude to build a polished deliverable, ask it to show you Ada's raw answer first. This makes it easy to catch a misreading early, before it propagates into a document or deck.
• Multi-Attach for Comparisons: When you need cross-model answers, one Ada session with two databases attached beats juggling two separate sessions.
• Give Context Before the Task: As with Ada directly, better prompts include business context, constraints, and the specific task — not just the task alone.
• Start Fresh for a New Topic: If you are switching to an unrelated model or question, start a new Claude conversation rather than overloading one thread.
• Ask for Multiple Options: Instead of one recommendation, ask Ada (via Claude) for several approaches and their trade-offs.
• Supplement Missing Data: If Ada flags gaps in the model, ask Claude to search the web for relevant proxy data to round out the story — and to cite where it came from.

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Data Handling and Privacy

When you use the Ada Claude Connector, prompts and the data Ada returns pass through Claude in order to be displayed, summarized, or turned into a deliverable. This is in addition to — not a replacement for — Optilogic's own data handling for Ada itself.

• Data users share with Claude is governed by Anthropic's privacy policy; Optilogic's privacy policy applies once data reaches Ada on the Optilogic platform.
  • Anthropic Privacy Policy
  • Optilogic Privacy Policy
• Optilogic’s data policies can be found here: Optilogic Trust Center; Optilogic’s specific data policies for AI can be found here: AI Data Security and Privacy.
• As with any connector, only attach the database(s) you intend to discuss in a given conversation.
• Avoid including sensitive information (PII, credentials, etc.) in prompts, table names, or column names, since these may be passed to the underlying AI systems on both sides of the connection.

What the MCP Server Collects and How it is Used

The MCP Server connects AI agents to Optilogic's Public APIs and Ada, Optilogic’s native AI agent. Ada and the Public APIs have logging in place; MCP server calls are logged in accordance with those practices with additional meta data to identify it as coming from the MCP, nothing additional - it does not have any user identifiers in it.

The MCP Server only processes the tool-call payloads needed to fulfill the requests; surrounding conversation context from Claude is not retained. In addition to serving the request, tool-call data is also used for the following purposes:

• Debugging: MCP request/response data and associated logs may be reviewed to investigate errors and user-reported quality issues.
• Analytics: Optilogic collects usage data (such as prompt counts, session activity, token consumption, timestamps) associated with the user account to understand adoption and improve the service.

For clarity, Optilogic does not use logs for model improvement.

Data Retention

MCP request/response data and associated logs are stored in accordance with Optilogic's Data Retention Policy. You can learn more here -- How We Safeguard Your Data: Backups & Retention Explained.

What happens when Disconnecting the Connector

Disconnecting the Connector on the Claude settings tells Claude to stop using and refreshing your Optilogic tokens — that is the immediate effect.

After disconnecting, the historical chats that were had through the connector are still accessible to the user, just no follow-up prompts that require accessing Ada can be added.

Visibility on the Optilogic Platform

Please note that users have visibility into the Claude Connector conversations and actions on the Optilogic platform in following places:

• Users can view the calls made by the MCP Server to Ada in their Optilogic account Chat history; they are tagged as MCP.
• Users can view model run activity from the MCP in their Optilogic account as a part of their broader account usage under the Account > Usage screen.

Ada Tools and Descriptions

The following tools for working with Ada are available to the connector:

Agent Lifecycle

Artifacts

Workspace Files

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Sharing

Account / Teams

Data

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Example Conversation Walk-through

Example Overview

In this example, we will:

1. Connect to a Hopper model named Territory Planning
   1. This model can be copied to your account from the Resource Library: Territory Planning model on the Resource Library
   2. The model is documented in this Territory Planning (Transportation Optimization) Help Center article
   3. We made 1 change: removed the Distance Cost of $1/MI in the Transportation Rates table
2. Inventory what is in the model in terms of inputs and scenarios
3. Identify any missing data and potentially useful scenarios to add
4. Fill the data gap using publicly available sources
5. Add several scenarios based on the recommendation
6. Run all scenarios
7. Generate a summary of the outputs, including an interactive map showing the routes by scenario

Summary of Prompts and Responses

The prompts used and a summary of the responses follows here, see the appendix for the full conversation captured in screenshots. Note that the “Please check” prompts to check back in with Claude if there is a response from Ada yet when Claude has stopped polling are omitted here.

Prompt 1: Using the Optilogic Ada connector, can you review the inputs of the Territory Planning model? Please give me a summary and also check which costs are being modeled.

Response:

• High-level description of the type of model and its scenarios
• Summary of the model inputs, including row counts and notes on the data in the tables
• Overview of costs populated and those available but not populated
  
  • The only cost used is fixed cost per route, and no variable transportation cost is included
• Summary of findings

Prompt 2: Can you find what the average per mile cost for trucks in the Atlanta region is and add this to the model?

Response:

• Found national spot dry van rates at about $2.30-2.70/mile
• Atlanta region runs above national average at about $3.20/mile
• Flags that these are long-haul, full-truckload linehaul rates, whereas the model is a local delivery/routing model where cost drivers are different and a per mile cost is harder to find
• Suggests 2 reasonable choices for Distance Cost. The user chooses $3.20/mile, the Southeast regional spot freight rate.

Prompt 3: Before re-running, can you suggest a top 3 of additional scenarios that would be interesting to run, based on the expected value / insights they may provide?

Response: lists 3 sets of suggested scenarios to add and the reasoning:

• Time cost + stop cost added, re-run across territory counts
• Territory count sensitivity – sweep beyond 3 and 5
• Truck capacity/fleet size stress test

Prompt 4: Please add the scenarios for your #2 suggestion, territory count sensitivity, then run all scenarios (Hopper). Once done running, please create the trade-off curve for number of territories vs cost and an interactive map where the multi-stop routes of each scenario can be visualized, including tooltips and main KPIs by scenario.

Response:

• After some time working on the request, the user is asked to confirm the logic for the minimum delivery locations per territory for the new scenarios and the scenario naming. The user approves.
• The result is a downloadable interactive html file which contains Route Map and Cost Curve tabs. Users can switch between the scenarios and hover over the map / chart to bring up a tooltip with information about the route / scenario.

Other Helpful Resources

• Getting Started with Ada & Agentic AI
• Modeler AI Agent

Questions or feedback on the connector? Reach out to the Optilogic Support team on support@optilogic.com. In addition, you can use the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons in Claude to send feedback directly to Anthropic on any specific response.

Appendix – Example Conversation Screenshots