Name the service, not just the expert
Your name may be the reason a reader trusts the offer. It is not a substitute for identifying the software involved. A connection could give an AI app access to the service delivering your skill; a separate connection could expose documents, calendars, or other information the reader holds elsewhere.
Explain those separately when both are involved. Do not imply that connecting your method automatically requires access to every workplace file, or that the same permission screen governs all services.
Shopify’s current AI-access documentation is a useful concrete example: it distinguishes data access from the user’s existing permissions and distinguishes reading from making changes. Its rules apply to Shopify integrations, not automatically to author skills. Shopify’s AI authorization guide.
For your product, write down the actual services and permissions before drafting reassuring copy. If you cannot explain a requested permission, resolve that question with the platform before asking readers to approve it.
Use this annotated connection explainer
The following is an original template. It is not a description of Skillfully’s current permission screen, and its bracketed fields require verification before customer use.
| Reader-facing section | What to say | What the author must verify |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Connect [service] so [AI app] can use [specific method or function] for [reader task]. | The connection actually provides that function. |
| Information accessed | This connection can read [specific information or resources]. | The scope shown in authorization and the provider’s documentation. |
| Actions allowed | It can [named actions]. It cannot [relevant limitation, if verified]. | Whether permissions allow reading, writing, or other changes. |
| Information handling | [Identify the services that process the relevant information] and link their current policies. | Which claims you can substantiate about processing and retention. |
| Reader control | You can disconnect through [verified route]. | What disconnecting changes and what it does not remove. |
| Alternative | If you do not want this connection, you can [available alternative], with [limitation]. | That the alternative is actually included and usable. |
Keep the text beside the connection action. A long explanation hidden in a separate help page may be useful reference material, but essential facts should not depend on readers finding it.
A plain-language example for a fictional author, Malcolm, might begin: “This step connects the service that provides my presentation-review method to your chosen assistant. Before approving, check the named service and the access requested. A separate document connection is optional only if the supported workflow lets you provide the relevant excerpt yourself.”
That example is conditional by design. It does not claim Malcolm’s service exists or that a particular permission set has been tested. The final copy must replace the condition with the verified behavior of the offer.
Distinguish reading from changing information
“Access” can conceal an important difference. Reading a draft, editing it, sending it to someone, and publishing it are different actions. Name the ones the connection actually supports.
Anthropic’s connector guidance says connecting a service can allow Claude to access and potentially modify information within the user’s permissions. Do not convert that general capability into a claim that every connector can write, or that your own connection is read-only without checking. Claude’s connector guidance.
Also distinguish approval to connect from approval for a specific consequential action. Explain the controls your supported interface actually provides. If an author-facing tutorial says the reader will be asked before every change, that promise needs direct verification in the relevant configuration.
An assistant saying it will be careful is not a substitute for the platform’s permission settings. Your explainer should point to the controls the reader can inspect.
Explain what disconnecting means
Give the reader the provider’s documented route to remove a connection. Then distinguish ending future access from deleting information already processed, changing a purchase, or canceling a subscription. Do not promise that one button accomplishes all four unless the actual product does so.
Conversation-level tool settings are another distinction. Anthropic documents modes controlling how connectors load into a conversation. Those settings should not be casually described as deleting the service connection or erasing data. Claude’s tool-access documentation.
If the reader wants to stop using the skill, explain the separate steps that matter to their offer. Use a short sequence with links to current provider instructions rather than embedding a long procedure that may become stale.
Respect workplace decisions
Some readers will use an account managed by their employer. They may not have authority to approve a connection even when the task itself seems harmless.
In a public discussion of a workplace AI connector, u/chesser45 framed the decision as:
“Whatever the business and IT leadership agree on.”
That is one practitioner’s view, not a universal governance rule. It is a useful reminder that an author’s enthusiasm does not settle the reader’s organization-specific permission question. Original administrator discussion.
Give readers enough information to ask their administrator an informed question. Do not suggest moving workplace material into a personal account to avoid restrictions. If your method can be practiced on a fictional example, offer that route without implying it satisfies every organization’s requirements.
Check the explanation against the real journey
Before publishing, follow the supported connection flow with an appropriate test account and compare each sentence with what the reader sees. Record the app, account type, date, permission screen, and result. No such authorization test was performed for the template in this article.
Ask a reader to explain the connection back to you: what will it read, what might it change, and how would they stop it? Confusion here is a reason to improve the explanation, even if they could technically click through.
Then make sure the method uses the connection for the task you promised. How to write an agent skill can help you define that task and its boundaries. To discuss publishing your established method, visit Skillfully and choose Book onboarding. Bring the reader task and the access it actually needs.