Connect Claude Code to iMessage

1. Create the connection token. In Beam, open Developer access, name the connection, and choose permissions. Read and train are selected by default; send, publish, automation and book require an explicit grant.
2. Copy the token immediately. It expires after 90 days and cannot be displayed again, so store it in your terminal environment or a private secrets file, never in a conversation, screenshot or public repository.
3. Register the server with Claude Code, with BEAM_TOKEN set in your terminal environment:

   claude mcp add --transport http beam https://beam.aisync.link/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $BEAM_TOKEN"

4. Restart Claude Code if it was already running, and check that the beam MCP server appears in its tool list.
5. Verify the connection before doing anything else: ask Claude to call workspace_read and confirm the workspace name and ID match the one you intended, without making any changes.

Claude Desktop and other clients that support stdio servers instead of bearer-header HTTP can use Beam's downloadable bridge. Download it, run it locally with Node.js 20 or newer, and point your client's MCP configuration at it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "beam": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/beam-mcp.mjs"],
      "env": { "BEAM_TOKEN": "YOUR_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Replace the absolute path with where you saved the bridge file, and keep the configuration file out of source control.

Work through these in order:

1. Confirm the endpoint. You should be connecting to https://beam.aisync.link/mcp, not a local preview address from a screenshot or tutorial.
2. Confirm this is Claude Code's HTTP transport, not Claude's hosted, OAuth-only web connector. Beam supports bearer-header HTTP and the stdio bridge today, not hosted OAuth connectors.
3. Check the token itself. Confirm BEAM_TOKEN is actually present in the environment of the running Claude Code process, not just your shell's history, and that the token has not expired (90 days) or been revoked.
4. Re-verify the workspace. Call workspace_read again and confirm it matches the client or workspace you intended; a token cannot switch workspaces.
5. Check permissions, not just connection. A tool call can fail with a permissions error even when the MCP connection itself is working, if the token was not granted that permission.