Skip to main content
  1. Thought Industries
  2. Integrations
  3. Other Integrations
  • Updated

Thought Industries for Claude

  1. Jump to

  2. Use Case Information
  3. I've installed, now what?
  4. Install the plugin

This article covers how to start using Thought Industries for Claude once the plugin is installed, and how to enable it if you haven't done so yet.

About this plugin

Thought Industries for Claude connects your academy directly to Claude Desktop. You can browse your course catalog, build new courses with AI assistance, and update existing lesson content—all without leaving Claude.

Every action you take through the plugin creates a draft. Nothing goes live until you publish it manually from the Thought Industries admin UI.

Open Beta

Thought Industries for Claude is currently in Open Beta. Features and behavior may change as we continue to develop it.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following before proceeding:

  • ✅ Claude Desktop app (latest version)
  • ✅ A Thought Industries instance with Incoming REST API v2 enabled
  • ✅ An admin account on your Thought Industries instance to generate an API key

Note

Claude Desktop required

This plugin doesn't work in the Claude.ai browser interface. You must use the Claude Desktop app to complete the setup flow and use the plugin.


 

I've installed the plugin, now what?

Once the plugin is configured, you're ready to go. You don't need to use special commands. Just describe what you want in plain language and Claude handles the rest.

Here are three things to try first:

  • Browse your catalog: ask Claude to show you your courses. It'll return your catalog with titles, IDs, and content types.
  • Inspect a course: ask Claude to show the structure of a specific course. You'll see the full hierarchy of sections, lessons, and topics.
  • Read lesson content: ask Claude what a specific lesson says. It'll fetch the topics and show you the actual content.

Build a new course

Ask Claude to help you build a course on any topic. Using the /author-course skill, it'll walk you through a five-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Claude asks about your audience, objectives, and tone before writing anything.
  2. Outline: Claude generates a structured outline and asks for your approval before continuing.
  3. Content writing: Claude writes each topic and presents it for your review.
  4. Refinement: Claude offers adjustments to tone, length, or consistency based on your feedback.
  5. Summary: Claude presents the final course structure and word counts.

Tip

Better metadata means better output

The quality of AI-generated content depends on your course metadata. Courses with clear titles, descriptions, tags, and learning objectives produce better results. Assessments aren't created automatically—you'll need to set those up manually in the Thought Industries admin UI.

Rewrite existing content

Ask Claude to rewrite any lesson in a different tone or for a different audience. Claude reads the current content, rewrites every topic, and shows you a before-and-after comparison. It won't stage the update until you explicitly approve it.

What the plugin will and won't do

Every skill in the plugin has built-in safety rules that can't be overridden by prompting.

Guarantee What it means
All content stays as a draft The plugin never publishes content. You release it manually from the Thought Industries admin UI.
Approval required before writes Claude shows you what it plans to create or update and waits for your confirmation before proceeding.
No fabricated IDs Claude always reads IDs from the API first. It never invents or guesses course or content IDs.
No content destruction Existing content is never overwritten or deleted without your explicit permission.


 

How to enable the plugin

Follow these steps to connect your Thought Industries instance to Claude Desktop for the first time.

Step 1: Get your API key

  1. Log in to your Thought Industries instance as an admin.
  2. Go to {your-instance-url}/learn/manager/security-settings (Settings > Security).
  3. Under the API section, create a new Ancillary API key.
  4. Name it something like Claude Key so it's easy to identify later. Make the role Admin.
  5. Copy the key value and store it somewhere secure. You'll need it in Step 3.

Step 2: Install the plugin

  1. Open Claude Cowork or Claude Code.
  2. Go to Claude → Customize → Plugins → Personal → Add marketplace.
  3. Enter thoughtindustries/ti-admin-plugin and click Sync.
  4. Click the plus icon on the Ti admin plugin tile to install the plugin in your Claude experience.

Once installed, the plugin appears in Claude as the Ti admin plugin.

Step 3: Configure the plugin as needed

As you work in Claude to perform tasks, it will ask for your TI instance URL and API key to execute tasks.

export TI_BASE_URL="https://your-instance.thoughtindustries.com"
export TI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Tip

Replace your-instance.thoughtindustries.com with your actual TI subdomain, and your-api-key-here with the key you copied in Step 1.

Result

Once setup is complete, you can browse your catalog, build courses, and update content directly from Claude Desktop. Every change stays as a draft until you're ready to publish it from the Thought Industries admin UI.