"Connection expired" in Claude

If Claude shows Connection expired (or asks you to reconnect the OpenOrg connector), that's frustrating — but it usually doesn't mean OpenOrg logged you out or that you need to set up the connector again from scratch.

## What should happen

The connector uses standard OAuth:

1. You approve access once in your browser
2. Claude stores an access token and a refresh token
3. Access tokens expire on a normal schedule (about 1 hour — standard for security)
4. Claude silently refreshes using the refresh token, so you keep working without thinking about it

That's the intended experience. OpenOrg does not require you to reconnect every session.

## What actually happens sometimes

Claude's handling of OAuth refresh for custom connectors can be inconsistent. Users sometimes see Connection expired even though:

• Their OpenOrg session is still valid on our side
• Clicking Connect fixes it quickly — often without a full OpenOrg login
• The connector has been "live" in Claude's UI for many hours or days

In practice:

• "Connected" in Claude doesn't always mean the token was refreshed recently — if you haven't used the connector in a while, the UI can look fine until you try a search
• Refresh tends to happen when Claude actually uses the connector, not necessarily on a fixed schedule in the background
• This is a known quirk of Claude's MCP OAuth client, not something OpenOrg misconfigured on the server

We use Supabase OAuth 2.1 as the identity provider. Refresh tokens are long-lived; your OpenOrg authorization stays active until you revoke it under Account Settings → Connections.

## What to do

1. Click Connect in Claude when you see the expired message — this usually restores access in one step
2. If tools still don't work, toggle the connector off and on in Customize → Connectors, or start a new chat
3. If you're repeatedly asked for a full OpenOrg login, check you haven't revoked the connection on our side, and that your Pro subscription is still active

## What this is not

• Not an OpenOrg per-session login requirement
• Not proof your subscription lapsed (that shows a different message: *active OpenOrg subscription required*)
• Not something we can fix by changing token settings on the OpenOrg server — Claude is responsible for calling the refresh endpoint

## For the curious

Anthropic's own connector authentication docs describe proactive refresh before expiry and reactive refresh on 401 errors. In practice, custom connectors on Claude.ai don't always follow that path reliably yet.

If this keeps blocking your workflow, it's worth reporting to Anthropic — include that you're using a custom remote MCP connector with OAuth via Supabase, and that refresh works when you click Connect but doesn't happen automatically before the UI shows expired.