Get started with Unstructured Foundation

To jump immediately into this quickstart, skip ahead to the requirements.

Unstructured Foundation is an Early Access product. Unstructured must accept you into the Early Access program before you can begin using Foundation. Add your name to the Early Access interest list.Unstructured is currently accepting a limited number of participants into the Early Access program at its discretion, with plans to expand access to a more general audience in the future.The following information is being provided to give you an advance preview of possible future functionality. Unstructured makes no express claims as to what extent this information will reflect the state of the product upon initial general availability.

This quickstart demonstrates how to use Claude Code in your terminal, and Claude Desktop, to work with the Unstructured Foundation MCP server. The Foundation MCP server supports other AI tools that support MCP (Model Context Protocol) server connections. However, this quickstart does not demonstrate how to use those tools with Foundation. Some common tools include:

AI code editors and IDEs such as Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and JetBrains IDEs.
AI chat interfaces and desktop assistants such as ChatGPT.

To learn how to connect a specific tool to an MCP server, see the tool provider’s documentation. When connecting, be sure to use the Foundation MCP server’s URL, at https://mcp.foundation.unstructured.io/mcp

Requirements

Before you can begin this quickstart, you must have the following:

Acceptance by Unstructured into its Early Access program for Foundation. Add your name to the Early Access interest list. Do not begin this quickstart until you have received your Early Access acceptance email from Unstructured.
A Claude plan. Sign up for Claude.
Claude Code or Claude Desktop installed on your local development machine.
- Install Claude Code from your terminal.
- Install Claude Desktop.

Set up and use Foundation

Complete one of the following sets of instructions, based on your AI tool:

Claude Code
Claude Desktop

From your terminal, within a Claude session, add the Foundation MCP server plugin marketplace:
```
/plugin marketplace add Unstructured-IO/unstructured-foundation-marketplace
```
Use the marketplace you just added to install the Foundation MCP server:
```
/plugin install foundation@unstructured-foundation
```
Reload and then begin connecting to the Foundation MCP server from within a Claude session:
```
/reload-plugins
/mcp
```
Find and select the plugin:foundation:foundation entry, and then select Authenticate.
A web browser tab will appear, prompting you to begin authenticating with Foundation. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish authenticating.
Skip ahead to connect to and index your source.

Complete the following steps, depending whether you are a Claude Free plan user; or a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise user.Free plan users

Start Claude Desktop.
If prompted, sign in to your Claude Free plan.
On the sidebar, click the speech balloons icon (Chat).
On the sidebar, click Customize.
On the sidebar, click Connectors.
Next to Connectors, click the plus icon (Add connector), and then click Add custom connector. If Add custom connector is disabled, this is because Claude Desktop restricts Free plan users to having only one custom connector defined at a time. Disconnect and then Remove the current custom connector, and then follow the rest of the steps in this procedure to add a replacement custom connector for the Foundation MCP server.
In the Add custom connector dialog, for Name, enter Unstructured Foundation.
For Remote MCP server URL, enter the following: https://mcp.foundation.unstructured.io/mcp
Click Add.
Click Connect.
A web browser tab will appear, prompting you to authenticate with Foundation. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish authenticating.
Skip ahead to connect to and index your source.

Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plan users

Start Claude Desktop.
If prompted, sign in to your Claude plan.
On the sidebar, click Customize.
On the sidebar, next to Personal plugins, click the plus icon (Add plugin).
Click Create plugin > Add marketplace.
In the URL list, click Select a repository, and then click Search GitHub or paste a repository URL.

Enter the following:

Unstructured-IO/unstructured-foundation-marketplace

Click Sync.
In the Directory dialog, with Plugins and Personal already selected, click the Foundation tile.
Click Install.
Close the Directory dialog.
On the Customize page, on the sidebar, click Connectors.
In the list of connectors, click Foundation. It will have a Custom badge next to it.
Click Connect.
A web browser tab will appear, prompting you to authenticate with Foundation. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish authenticating.
Skip ahead to connect to and index your source.

Connect to and index your source

From your AI tool, prompt with the following:
- For Claude Code; and for Claude Desktop for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise users: /foundation:connect
- For all other users: Generate a link to connect Unstructured Foundation to a new source.
Click the link that appears in the response. If the link does not appear, go to the following link in your web browser instead: https://foundation.unstructured.io/connect
If prompted, log in to Foundation.
The Connect sources to use Foundation page appears. If this page does not appear after you sign in to Foundation, click the New Source button to show a page with similar functionality.
Click one of the available sources, and then click Connect.
Follow the on-screen directions to finish connecting to your source.
View the source files’ ingestion and indexing job’s progress. To do this, on the sidebar, click Summary.
Wait until the source’s tile displays Fully indexed.
If you’re not using Claude Desktop, then skip ahead to step 10 in this procedure. Otherwise, do the following: a. Click Open Claude.
b. Submit Foundation’s auto-generated prompt to get a summary about what was ingested and indexed.

You can now start using your AI tool to work with the generated index. For example, you can ask your AI tool questions such as the following:

What is a summary of the kinds of information that are available in the Unstructured Foundation index about my sources?

What are some examples of the kinds of questions I can ask the Unstructured Foundation index about my sources?

(Optional) Clean up

After you connect Foundation to your source files, Foundation periodically runs an automatic process to check whether any of your source files’ contents have changed. Foundation will then re-ingest and re-index each source file that it determines has changed since its last check. This process, if left running, can result in additional time and costs. To have Foundation pause or resume periodically running this automatic process, then follow the instructions to pause or resume the source. To stop Foundation from periodically running this automatic process, and to also have Foundation delete all of its ingested and indexed information about your source files, follow the instructions to remove the source.

Next steps

To learn more about how to use Unstructured Foundation, enter the following prompt in your AI tool:
- Claude Code: /foundation:help
- Claude Desktop (Free plan users only): Teach me how to use Unstructured Foundation.
- Claude Desktop (Max, Pro, Team, and Enterprise plan users only): /foundation:help
Manage your Foundation sources: Add, change, and remove sources from Foundation.
Foundation storage: Understand what artifacts that Foundation generates, indexes, and stores about your sources.
Troubleshoot Foundation: Solutions for common issues.

Questions? Need help?

For general questions about Unstructured products and pricing, email Unstructured Sales at sales@unstructured.io.
For technical support, see request support.

​Requirements

​Set up and use Foundation

​Connect to and index your source

​(Optional) Clean up

​Next steps

​Questions? Need help?

Requirements

Set up and use Foundation

Connect to and index your source

(Optional) Clean up

Next steps

Questions? Need help?