Start here: name it in your message
Once FermentAdvisor is connected, say its name in your message and Claude will bring it in. That one habit is the difference between generic fermentation advice and a plan built on your own jar’s real timeline.
- “Plan a ferment with FermentAdvisor.”
- “Ask FermentAdvisor if my kimchi is ready to check.”
- “What jars do I have going in FermentAdvisor?”
- “It’s done — log it in FermentAdvisor.”
After the first mention you can keep going normally; Claude stays with it for the rest of the conversation. If a reply ever looks like generic fermentation advice — no mention of your jar, no real schedule — name FermentAdvisor again and ask for the same thing.
What it is
The FermentAdvisor connector links your FermentAdvisor account to Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. Once connected, Claude can work with your real jars — your active ferments, your cultures, your history — instead of answering from general fermentation knowledge.
Everything the connector does runs through the same FermentAdvisor service as the app. A jar you start in a conversation appears in the app; a jar you check or finish in the app informs what Claude sees. One account, one set of jars, wherever you work. FermentAdvisor is live on the App Store for iPhone — the connector works the same either way, and you don’t need the app at all to use it.
On Claude apps that support interactive cards, results come back as cards right in the conversation — a browsable ferment roster, a jar’s own status and timeline, a photo picker built in — instead of a wall of text. On a host that doesn’t, everything still works the same way, just as plain text with links.
What you can do
Browse what you can ferment. Ask what FermentAdvisor covers, or about a specific ferment — sourdough, kimchi, yogurt, kombucha, hot sauce, miso, and more across a dozen-plus sub-domains — and get the real method, ratios, and safety notes, sourced from tested references, not guessed.
Plan a ferment. A free, unlimited conversation-only preview shows you the recipe and the full schedule — every check-in, feed, and safety window — before anything is created. Say the word and it becomes a real jar with its own clock.
Check in mid-ferment. Tell Claude what you’re seeing, optionally with a photo, and get a real verdict against your jar’s own stage and timeline — not a generic "looks fine." Safety calls (mold, off smells, a batch that’s genuinely gone bad) are never softened.
Log the finished result. Photo, notes, how it turned out — saved to that jar’s history, with a comparison against past runs of the same ferment so you can see what changed.
Manage cultures and reminders. Feed a starter or SCOBY, switch it active/dormant, and mark reminders complete as you go — FermentAdvisor tracks what’s due and won’t let a feed window slip by silently.
Work your jars. List everything you have going, pause or resume a jar, close one out, or delete it — your library stays accurate to what’s really on your counter.
Planning is always free and unlimited. Starting a jar, checking in, and logging a result draw from a shared free-use pool; FermentAdvisor Pro makes all three unlimited.
How to connect
You’ll need a Claude account (claude.ai) on a plan that supports connectors, and about a minute:
1. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors, search the directory for FermentAdvisor, and add it. (If you’d rather add it by hand, choose Add custom connector and give it the URL https://api.fermentadvisor.app/mcp — same thing.)
2. Claude opens FermentAdvisor’s sign-in page. Enter your email — we send a sign-in code to your inbox. No password to create, no card required.
3. Enter the code, approve the connection, and you’re done. If you’ve used FermentAdvisor before with the same email, your jars are already there. If you’re new, a free account is created on the spot.
Then send your first message with FermentAdvisor in it — see Start here above.
To disconnect at any time, remove FermentAdvisor from Claude’s Connectors settings. Access tokens expire on their own.
If Claude isn’t using FermentAdvisor
Almost always, it just wasn’t asked. Claude decides for itself when to reach for a connector, and a plain question like “why did my ferment mold” is one it will happily answer on its own — with general advice, not your jar.
Name FermentAdvisor in the message. “Plan a ferment with FermentAdvisor” engages it; “plan a kimchi” often won’t. This is the fix roughly every time.
Check it’s still connected. Settings → Connectors in Claude. If it’s missing, add it again — your jars and history are tied to your account, not the connection, so nothing is lost.
Photos and results, if you don’t see a card. Most Claude apps render an interactive card in place, and the result appears automatically once you submit a photo — no extra step. If you get a plain link to a form on our site instead, that’s the fallback for hosts that don’t render cards: open it, submit, then tell Claude you’re done and it will fetch the result. The form can’t message your conversation on its own, so it needs that nudge.
Sign-in code didn’t arrive. Check spam. Codes expire and can only be used once; start the connection again for a fresh one.
Still stuck? support@fermentadvisor.app — a description of what you asked and what came back is enough to go on.
How photos work
Photos never travel through the conversation. On Claude apps that support interactive cards, the photo picker appears right in the card — take a photo or choose one from your library, and it uploads directly, with nothing else to submit. On a host that doesn’t render cards, FermentAdvisor instead hands you a private, single-use link that opens the same picker as a form on our site. Either way, photos are held briefly and deleted once analyzed, and a shot taken in the card or form goes straight to the check without being saved to your phone — use your camera app first if you want to keep it.
Free and Pro
Planning a ferment through the connector — the recipe and schedule preview — is free and unlimited, for anything on the roster. Starting a jar, checking in, and logging a finished result draw from a shared free-use pool; FermentAdvisor Pro ($4.99/month or $39.99/year) makes all three unlimited, the same as in the app. There’s nothing extra to buy for the connector itself.
Privacy
The short version: we receive only what the tools need — the details of each request and the photos you submit through our own forms. We never see your Claude conversation, and Claude only sees what a tool returns. See the Anthropic section of our privacy policy for the full details.
Questions or trouble
Write to support@fermentadvisor.app. If a sign-in code doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder first — codes expire, and you can always request a fresh one by starting the connection again.