Claude Chat Integration

This guide walks you through connecting Claude.ai to your AppFolio portfolio using the Skywalk MCP server. Once connected, Skywalk shows up as a built-in tool in every Claude conversation on your account — you can ask questions about your properties, tenants, and financials in plain English.

What you can build

Once Claude is connected to Skywalk, a single prompt can pull live data from across your portfolio and turn it into an interactive, branded analytics view — no spreadsheets, no SQL, no BI tool.

Asking Claude to pull cash flow for two properties and build "an interactive graphical display in a professional, dark, neon theme" — KPI cards, monthly bar chart, operating expense mix, and automatic insights flagging WSE-driven costs and a 41% rebill gap.

That dashboard was generated from a single chat message. Claude called the Skywalk cash-flow tool, reconciled the numbers across both properties, and rendered the entire view itself — including the callouts that flagged a debt-service-coverage warning and an under-recovered utility expense.

Get an API Key

Create a Skywalk API key before you start — you'll paste it into Claude during step 5.

MCP Server

Reference for the tools Claude will have access to.

Before you start

You'll need:

• A Claude.ai account with access to Connectors (available on paid plans).
• A Skywalk API key — create one from your project's API Keys page.
• Talk to our team to enable AI Agents Tools for the key.

1. Open Claude's Customize menu

In Claude.ai, click the Customize button (toolbox icon) in the sidebar.

The Customize button in the Claude sidebar.

2. Open Connectors

In the Customize panel, select Connectors.

Connectors lives under Customize, below Skills.

3. Click Add connector

Next to the Connectors heading, click the + button (Add connector).

The Add connector button at the top right of the Connectors panel.

4. Add the Skywalk MCP server

In the Add custom connector dialog, enter:

• Name: Skywalk API
• URL: https://mcp.skywalkapi.com

Then click Add.

Adding Skywalk API as a custom connector.

5. Connect

Claude will show the connector with a Connect button. Click Connect to start authentication.

The connector is added but not yet connected — click Connect to authenticate.

6. Paste your Skywalk API key

A Skywalk-hosted page will open asking for your API key. Paste the key from your Skywalk dashboard, then click Connect.

Authenticate with the API key from your Skywalk project.

7. Confirm the tools loaded

Once connected, Claude lists the available Skywalk tools and lets you control when each one is allowed to run. The defaults are sensible — you can leave them alone and adjust later if you want fewer approval prompts.

Skywalk API tools loaded into Claude, ready to use.

8. Ask Claude a question

Start a new Claude conversation and ask anything about your portfolio. Claude will pick the right tool automatically — you don't need to reference the tool names.

Asking Claude "What is my current AppFolio user?" — Skywalk answers from live data.

See Example prompts below for more ideas, and the MCP Server guide for the full tool catalog.

Troubleshooting

• "You are not connected" stays after clicking Connect. Re-open the connector from the Connectors list and click Connect again. If a browser pop-up was blocked, allow pop-ups for claude.ai.
• Authentication fails after pasting your key. Confirm the key is active in your Skywalk dashboard and hasn't been revoked. Generate a new key if needed and retry.
• Tools don't appear in a new conversation. Reload Claude.ai — connectors only attach to conversations started after they were added.

What to expect

• Ask naturally. You don't need to know tool names — Claude picks the right one based on your question.
• Live status while it works. Long-running questions stream progress updates so you can see what Claude is doing.
• No partial answers. Tools return the full result set, paging through every result rather than stopping at the first page.
• Up-to-date data. If a report needs to refresh from AppFolio, the server waits for the fresh data before answering — you don't need to retry.
• Counts toward your API usage. A single question can fan out into several API calls — one per tool Claude decides to use, plus an extra call for each additional page of results. Large portfolios can therefore consume meaningfully more of your API key's usage than a single REST request would.
• Read-only. All tools are read-only; the MCP server cannot modify anything in AppFolio.

Example prompts

Once connected, try asking Claude things like:

• "List every vacant unit with property, days vacant, and unit details — then build me an interactive dashboard I can sort and filter."
• "Pull year-to-date cash flow across all properties and generate a professional one-page PDF executive report with charts and key takeaways."
• "Show me which units in my rent roll have an outstanding balance, group them by property, and visualize the totals as a chart."
• "Render my current balance sheet as a stacked bar chart broken down by property, with assets, liabilities, and equity color-coded."
• "Audit every unit that's been vacant for more than 30 days and produce a printable owner update grouped by property."

Next steps

MCP Server

Full reference for the Skywalk MCP tools Claude can call.

AI Agents Overview

Background on connecting other AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) to Skywalk.