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This walkthrough takes you from nothing installed to Claude working in your Hiveku account. It takes about ten minutes. The steps are the same for one account or fifty; where they differ, the page says so. When you are done, each Hiveku account you connect has its own folder on your computer. Open a folder in Claude, and Claude works in that account and no other. A folder that is not linked to an account has no Hiveku tools at all. Hiveku calls this one folder, one account.

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Before you start

You need:
  • A Hiveku login with access to the accounts you want to work in.
  • A Claude plan that includes Claude Code: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise, or an Anthropic Console account. The free Claude plan does not include it.
  • Node.js, which the Hiveku plugin runs on.
  • On Windows only: Git for Windows. Claude runs the plugin’s commands in Git Bash, which comes with it.
1

Install Node.js

Download the LTS version from nodejs.org and run the installer. If you use Homebrew, brew install node does the same.
2

Check it

Open Terminal (in Applications > Utilities) and run:
It must print v22.12 or later (or v20.19 or later on Node 20). An older version cannot run the plugin: install the current LTS over it.

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Step 1: Install Claude

Use either one. The rest of the walkthrough covers both.
  • The Claude desktop app. Download it from claude.com/download and sign in. You will work in its Code tab.
  • Claude Code in a terminal. On a Mac, in Terminal:
    On Windows, in PowerShell:
    Then open a new terminal window, run claude, and follow the sign-in prompts.

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Step 2: Install the Hiveku plugin

1

Open Plugins

Open Settings (Cmd+, on a Mac, Ctrl+, on Windows). Under Customize, click Plugins.
2

Add Hiveku's repository

Click Add, choose Add from a repository, paste this and confirm:
3

Install the plugin

Adding the repository installs nothing by itself. Click the hiveku plugin in the list, then Install. If you are asked for a scope, choose the one for all projects, so Hiveku works in every folder.
Claude shows a red warning that the plugin can access everything on your computer. Choose Continue. Claude shows it for every plugin that runs a program on your computer, Anthropic’s own included. Hiveku’s server program, listed as hk, connects only to core.hiveku.com and uses only the key of the account whose folder you are in.

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Step 3: Connect your Hiveku accounts

In any Claude chat (desktop app) or session (terminal), run:
1

Sign in and choose accounts

Your browser opens Hiveku’s connect page. Sign in, then tick every account you want to use from Claude: one, or all of your clients at once.
2

Choose the access for each

Leave an account at full access, or mark it read-only for a look-but-don’t-touch connection, such as one for reporting. Hiveku itself refuses every change through a read-only connection, whatever Claude asks.
3

Approve

Click Approve. Back in Claude, it lists the accounts it connected and the access each one has.
You never paste or type a key. If the connection cannot come back to Claude on its own (this happens in the desktop app), the page shows a one-time code instead. Copy it and paste it into the chat. The code works for 10 minutes; if it runs out, run /hiveku:connect again.
Connect only works for accounts that already exist. For a brand-new client, create the account at app.hiveku.com first, then connect it.

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Step 4: Give each account its folder

Run:
It makes a Hiveku-Accounts folder in your home folder, with one folder inside for each connected account, already linked to it: Each folder is named after its account, for example acme-dental-1a2b3c4d. Running /hiveku:setup again later is safe: it adds folders for newly connected accounts and leaves the existing ones alone. Prefer a folder you already use? Skip /hiveku:setup. Open that folder in Claude and run /hiveku:bind. Claude asks which account the folder is for. Then start a new chat in that folder: Hiveku’s tools appear when a chat starts.

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Step 5: Open an account’s folder and start

In the Code tab, use the folder picker to choose the account’s folder inside Hiveku-Accounts, and start a new chat there.
Claude knows from the start which account the folder belongs to. To check it yourself at any time, run /hiveku:status: it shows the account, and whether its access is full or read-only. Then run /hiveku:start to see where to begin with this account, or just ask in plain words, such as “how did our Google Ads do last week?” or “draft three blog post ideas”.

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If you work with many accounts

  • Switch clients by switching folders. Open the other client’s folder and start a new chat. A chat only ever works in the account of the folder it was opened in.
  • See every client at once with /hiveku:fleet, from any folder: for each connected account, whether it is reachable, its access level, and anything urgent waiting.
  • Add an account later. Run /hiveku:connect again and tick the new account. The accounts already connected stay connected. Then run /hiveku:setup to give it a folder.
  • Change an account’s access, from read-only to full or back, by connecting it again with the access you want. The new key replaces the old one, and the old one is turned off.
  • Disconnect an account from this computer. Ask Claude: “Remove the Acme Dental account from this computer with hiveku accounts remove.” That turns the key off at Hiveku first and only then deletes it here. You can also turn off any key at app.hiveku.com under Settings > LLM Connectors.

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Commands to know

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Keep it up to date

  • Claude desktop app. The app does not update plugins by itself. When Hiveku has a new version, a chat starts with a one-line notice. Run /hiveku:update, then quit Claude completely and open it again (on a Mac, Claude > Quit Claude, or Cmd+Q; closing the window is not enough).
  • Claude Code in a terminal. With auto-update on (Step 2), new versions arrive on their own. You can also run /hiveku:update at any time. A session that is already open keeps the version it started with: start a new one, or run /reload-plugins.

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What keeps your accounts safe

  • One folder, one account. A chat can only reach the account its folder is linked to.
  • Read-only means read-only. Hiveku refuses every change through a read-only connection.
  • A connection can do what the person who made it can do, and no more. It follows that person’s role in Hiveku, so someone who cannot delete a project in the app cannot delete one through Claude either. See What a connection may do.
  • Claude asks before it changes anything. Reading is pre-approved; anything that changes data goes through Claude’s normal permission check, so in Claude’s default mode you approve each change first.
  • Every call is recorded. Hiveku logs each call a connection makes, with the account and the tool used.
  • Where the keys are kept. On a Mac, the plugin stores account keys encrypted, with the encryption key in your Keychain. On Windows, the plugin cannot use a keychain yet, so the keys are kept in a file in your Windows user folder, protected by your Windows account rather than encrypted. Keep your computer’s sign-in private, and disconnect accounts from a computer you hand on.

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Troubleshooting

Run /hiveku:doctor. It checks the plugin’s version, the settings Claude needs for Hiveku and the plugin’s data folder, fixes the settings itself, and says what is left in plain words.
Adding the repository only adds Hiveku’s catalog. Click the hiveku plugin and click Install.
In the desktop app, quit Claude completely and open it again. In a terminal session, run /reload-plugins.
Run /hiveku:status. If the folder is not linked to an account, run /hiveku:bind there, or open one of the folders in Hiveku-Accounts. A folder you just linked gets its tools in a new chat.
Finish the approval in the browser: Claude waits up to 10 minutes. If the page shows a one-time code, paste it into the chat. If the browser never opened, Claude shows the link to open yourself.
That account’s key was turned off or replaced. Run /hiveku:connect again and approve the account.
The connection follows the role of the person who made it. An account owner or admin can give that person the permission under Settings > Team Members > Manage Roles; the same connection works right after, with no new key.
Node.js is missing or not on your PATH. Install the LTS version from nodejs.org with Add to PATH selected, then quit Claude and open it again. Check with node --version in a new PowerShell window.If Node.js is there and the desktop app still shows no Hiveku tools, use Claude Code in PowerShell instead (Step 1). Anthropic is tracking an issue where some Windows installs of the desktop app cannot start a plugin’s program (anthropics/claude-code#98498).
Install Git for Windows, then quit Claude and open it again. If Claude still cannot find Git Bash, tell it where bash.exe is, in your Claude settings file:

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Remove it

First disconnect each account (see If you work with many accounts), so its key is turned off at Hiveku. Then remove the plugin: in the desktop app from Settings > Plugins, or in a terminal session with:
For tool search, permission modes, the gateway and everything else, see Hiveku for Claude Code.