Claude Code

Fastest install: the one-line curl — it detects the agent frameworks you already have and installs Telem into as many of them as you select in one pass. The steps below are the manual path.

The telem plugin connects Claude Code to Telem’s hosted MCP server (https://mcp.telem.ai/mcp) — no local process, no Python — and adds the two things a bare MCP connection cannot:

Your searches arrive in the console as one connected record per conversation, without the model spending tokens to keep them together.
A preference skill that tells the model Telem is the search tool to reach for.

Install

Get an API key in the Telem console, under API keys in your project — see Authentication.
Run the one-line installer and pick Claude Code, or skip the menu:
Terminal window
```
curl -fsSL https://docs.telem.ai/alpha_install.sh | sh -s -- --client claude-code
```
It installs the plugin through Claude Code’s own plugin mechanism and stores your key in the plugin’s config — inside the Claude config directory, never on a command line.

Verify it connected:

claude mcp list   # telem should appear, connected via the plugin

The installer’s direct npm form is npm create @telemai -- --client claude-code.

What you get

The hosted tools: telem_search (multi-provider web search, one normalized envelope), telem_fetch (read whole pages by URL) and telem_providers (the live provider roster). The full table is on the MCP server page.

The plugin does not disable Claude’s builtin WebSearch — a Claude Code plugin cannot ship permission denies. Preference is carried by the tool descriptions and the bundled skill; disabling the builtin outright is a separate, consent-gated step the installer offers.

Configuration

.telem/telem.json applies here — the same file every other Telem surface reads, in the same order: a project file, then your user file, then TELEM_* variables. Set a tier or a provider set once and searches from Claude Code follow it.

{
  "tier": "extended",
  "providersInclude": ["exa", "brave"]
}

Full parameter reference →

Two limits worth knowing: provider_overrides is not carried on this surface, and the model never sees these settings — they are yours, not something it can choose per call.

Troubleshooting

`telem` missing from `claude mcp list`

Restart Claude Code after installing — plugins load at startup.

Searches work, but the console shows them as unrelated

Something is stopping the plugin’s hook from running — usually a permission rule or another hook matching the plugin’s tool names. Check your settings for mcp__plugin_telem_telem__….

`401` on every call

The key stored at install time is missing or was rotated. Re-run the installer, or check the plugin’s config for TELEM_API_KEY.