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How to Make Claude Manage Your Second Brain (Full Setup Guide)
Why does Claude need a second brain?
Claude's memory only saves short summaries of your chats, so most of the detail gets lost. A second brain keeps your full documents, so Claude can read the real thing instead.
Cleve is a second brain that plugs straight into Claude. Once it's connected, Claude saves your work there as full documents, keeps it organized, and reads from it whenever you need context.
Setup takes about 5 minutes and works on any Claude plan, including Free.
What do you need before you start?
A Claude account. Any plan works, including Free.
A Cleve account. It takes 2 minutes to create one.
Step 1: Create a Cleve account (2 mins)
Go to app.cleve.ai and sign up with Google or email. You don't need to set anything up. Claude will do that for you.
Step 2: Connect Cleve to Claude
Add Cleve as a custom connector in Claude, then sign in. It's three short steps.
1. In Claude, click + in the chat box, then Connectors, then Add custom connector.
2. Name it Cleve and paste this link: https://app.cleve.ai/mcp. Click Continue, then Add.
3. A browser tab opens. Click Continue connecting, then sign in to Cleve.
Done. Cleve is now connected to Claude.
Make sure you are signed in to the same Claude account on both your browser and the desktop app to avoid a “account mismatch” error.
Step 3: Tell Claude to run your second brain
Paste the prompt below into your Claude chat. It tells Claude when to save, how to organize, and when to look things up.
How do I know it's working?
Ask Claude to make something, then ask for it again in a new chat. If Claude saves it to Cleve and finds it later, you're set.
For example, ask for a plan for your week. When it's done, Claude asks to save it to Cleve. Say yes.
Next time, just ask for "my weekly plan". Claude finds it in Cleve.
That's it. Cleve stores your documents, Claude does the thinking, and your context never gets lost.
Frequently asked questions
Doesn't Claude already have memory?
Yes, but it saves short summaries of your chats. A second brain keeps your full documents, so Claude can read the real thing, not a few lines about it.
Does this work on Claude's free plan?
Yes. Free plans can add one custom connector. Cleve can be that one.
How much does Cleve cost?
Cleve plans start at $8 a month (Starter), with Pro at $20 and Max at $100. Connecting to Claude works on every plan. See Cleve pricing.
I'm on a Claude Team or Enterprise plan. Why can't I add it?
On those plans, only the workspace owner can add custom connectors. Ask them to add Cleve with the link https://app.cleve.ai/mcp. Then you click Connect.
Will Claude delete my notes?
Not with this prompt. It tells Claude to never delete anything without asking you first.
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About the author
Lizzie · Co-founder & CMO
Lizzie is a co-founder and CMO at Cleve. She spent five years running an agency, building and managing her clients' knowledge systems on Notion. She started Cleve after watching how clients and teams struggled to build a knowledge management system they can rely on.
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