How to connect: which agent, which path
Last reviewed: 16 Sep 2026
Every agent connects to Naetive the same way underneath: through Naetive's MCP server, acting as you with your connection key. What differs is how you get there and what the agent can reach on your machine afterwards.
The one-minute path: a chat agent
ChatGPT, Claude on the web, Claude Desktop. Add Naetive as a connector by pasting one URL from the Connect page. Nothing to install. The agent can read and write everything on Naetive: the understanding, the work, the documents.
What it cannot do on its own is touch files on your computer. For that, start the tunnel (below).
The full path: Claude Code
Claude Code is a program on your machine, so it can do everything: work on your real files, report its activity to Work, and keep the understanding folder in your repo fresh. Connect it with the one-click installer on the Connect page. See Connecting Claude Code.
The middle path: Codex CLI
Codex runs in your terminal too. It connects through a short config entry (Connect shows it), and reaches your files through the tunnel like a chat agent, or by running inside the platform's Terminal.
What each path gives you
| Chat agent (ChatGPT, Claude web, Claude Desktop) | Codex CLI | Claude Code | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads and writes the understanding and the work | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shows up in Who's here on Work | When it makes a call | When it makes a call | Live, with what it did |
| Works on the files on your machine | Through the tunnel | Through the tunnel | Directly |
Keeps the .naetive folder in your repo current |
No | No | Yes, through the installed hooks |
| Runs in the platform's Chats page | No | Yes | Yes |
The tunnel, in one paragraph
The tunnel is a small program the installer puts on your machine. You start it inside a project folder, and from then on agents that live elsewhere (ChatGPT, Claude on the web) can read and change that folder, and only that folder, through Naetive. It survives Naetive's own deploys and refuses a call for a project it does not serve. See The tunnel and Installing the tunnel.
Your connection key
One credential does all of this. It lives on the Connect page under Your key, masked. The installer handles it for Claude Code; for chat agents it travels inside the connector URL you paste, so treat that URL like a password. If it may have leaked, click Regenerate: the old key stops working immediately, and you re-run the installer or re-paste the URL. A tunnel already running keeps its own session for up to half an hour, so stop that too.
Which should I start with?
Start with the agent you already use most. Most people connect a chat agent in a minute to see the understanding arrive, then install Claude Code when they want an agent working on the real code.