Claude chat & Cowork

In Claude chat and Cowork, FreeRide catches you up on a project and saves ideas and decisions to it. There's nothing to set up per project: you just name it.

Before you start

Plugins need a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise). On the free plan, see Free plan below.
On Team and Enterprise, an Owner may need to allow FreeRide first.
Use the web or the desktop app to add it. The Claude mobile app can't add plugins, but once FreeRide is added it works there too.

Install

FreeRide isn't in Claude's plugin directory yet, so searching for it finds nothing. You add it by its GitHub address instead:

On claude.ai or in the Claude app, open Customize → Plugins, then Add → Add marketplace → Add from a repository.
Paste this address and select Sync:
```
https://github.com/freeride-dev/freeride
```
If Claude offers to connect GitHub, you don't need to. Pasting the address is enough.
Find FreeRide in your plugins and add it.

The same plugin covers chat and Cowork. If Claude Code is signed in with the same Claude account, it shows up there too.

In Customize → Plugins, click FreeRide to open it. Go to its Connectors tab and select Connect next to freeride (if it says Add, add it first). The FreeRide row in the plugin list has no Connect button of its own, and the Connectors tab shows up once the page has finished loading. A browser window opens: sign in (Google or email) and approve.

This step matters: adding the plugin doesn't connect it, and chat has no FreeRide until it's done.

Claude desktop app. If you chat in the desktop app, it runs FreeRide with its own sign-in. Connect FreeRide there too: Settings → Connectors.

Start using it

Just talk about your projects:

"Catch me up on Mealwise" → a short card with where the project stands
"New idea for Mealwise: import recipes from a URL" → saved, with a receipt you can undo
"What did we decide about pricing?" → searched, not guessed

If Claude isn't sure which project you mean, it asks instead of guessing. One chat can cover several projects.

Make it automatic. Chat doesn't read CLAUDE.md. For the most reliable results, add this line to Settings → Instructions for Claude:

For my projects, use FreeRide: catch up on the project before we discuss it, and save new ideas and decisions to FreeRide, not to your built-in memory.

Claude's memory and FreeRide. Claude's own memory remembers you: how you like to work, your preferences. FreeRide holds your projects: features, ideas, decisions with their reasons, docs and work history. When you save something to a project, FreeRide may offer once to note in Claude's memory that the project lives in FreeRide, so later "remember this" requests for it land in the right place.

Free plan

On the free plan, add FreeRide as a connector instead of a plugin:

Open Customize → Connectors → Add → Add custom connector.
Name it FreeRide and paste this as the MCP server URL, then select Continue and sign in:
```
https://mcp.freeride.dev/mcp
```

You get all of FreeRide's tools. What's missing is the plugin's skill, which tells Claude when to use FreeRide on its own, so the instruction line above helps even more.

Updates

Claude doesn't update a plugin you added by address unless you ask it to. Open Customize → Plugins → Add → Manage marketplaces, open freeride's menu and turn on Sync automatically. Check for updates in the same menu updates it once.

If something's off

Claude doesn't use FreeRide. Check that FreeRide shows as connected on its Connectors tab. Then ask once: "Use FreeRide to list my projects." If Claude can't find FreeRide, the connection is the problem.
Chat says FreeRide "isn't responding". Usually a sign-in that went stale. In the desktop app, go to Settings → Connectors → FreeRide, disconnect and connect again. Otherwise reconnect on the plugin's Connectors tab.
Claude saves ideas to its own memory. Say "save it to FreeRide" once, accept FreeRide's offer to note where the project lives, or add the instruction line above.
Claude refuses the address. Your organization may limit which marketplaces can be added. Ask an Owner.