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Connecting Claude to your Rewind account (Rewind MCP)

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Rewind MCP lets you ask Claude plain-language questions about your Rewind backups and get answers drawn from your Rewind account. This article explains what it can do, what you need to connect it, and what to know before you rely on it. The setup steps live in the Rewind developer docs.

Required permissions Organization Owner, Organization Admin
Plan requirement All paid plans

Covered in this article:

Overview

Rewind MCP lets you ask Claude about your Rewind backups in plain language. Instead of opening the Rewind app to check on things, you can ask "Is everything backed up?" or "What has Rewind captured for us this month?" and Claude reads the answer from Rewind for you.

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets an assistant like Claude connect to an outside service. Rewind MCP is the connector that links Claude to your Rewind account.

It reads information about your backups — status, health, volume, and history — and, for Jira issues and Confluence pages, it can also read the backed-up content itself, including past versions. It can't restore data. To restore, use the Rewind app, or the account-level restore endpoint in the Rewind API.

It's most useful if you keep an eye on backup coverage day to day, need backup or audit evidence on demand, or want a backup check built into an agentic workflow before making bulk changes.

Setting it up

Before you begin

Before starting, confirm the following:

  • Your Rewind organization is on a paid plan that isn't a legacy plan, with at least one backed-up service
  • You're an Organization Owner or Organization Admin, so you can create an API key
  • You have Claude Desktop, or another MCP-capable client

Connect Claude to Rewind

The setup steps are in the Rewind developer docs. Follow them there so you're always working from the current configuration. It takes a few minutes.

In short: generate a Rewind API key, add a Rewind entry to your Claude Desktop configuration file, and restart Claude. Then ask "What is Rewind backing up for us?" to confirm it works.

Generating your API key

Sign in at app.rewind.com and go to Settings › Security › API Keys. Copy the key as soon as it's shown and treat it like a password.

Step-by-step with screenshots

Create an API key

Keys are organization-level, so one key works across all of your organization's accounts. You don't need a separate key for each integration, though separate keys with clear names make revocation easier if one is ever exposed.

  1. Go to Account settings › Security, then select Manage API keys.
    The Security page in Rewind account settings with the API keys section and the Manage API keys button
  2. Select + Create API Key.
    The API Keys page with no keys created yet and the Create API Key button above the list
  3. Enter a Name. Audit log entries show a hashed ID rather than a person's name, so the key name is how you'll identify it later.
  4. Choose an Expiration, then select Create. Keys expire after 90 days by default, and you can choose a longer period up to one year.
    The Create API key dialog with a Name field and an Expiration dropdown set to 90 days
  5. Select Copy, store the key somewhere secure, then select Done. Treat the key like a password. Rewind won't show it again once you leave the page, so if you lose it you'll need to create a new key.
    The Copy API Key dialog with the key hidden, a Copy button, and confirmation that the key was copied to the clipboard

This is a key Rewind issues to you. It isn't the same as a platform API token you give to Rewind, such as the Jira API token used to back up Jira Automation.

Note your key's expiry date when you create it. Keys expire after 90 days by default, and longer options are available. Rewind doesn't send a reminder before a key expires, so write the date down. When a key expires, Claude can't reach your Rewind account until you create a new key and update your configuration. You can check at any time by asking Claude, "When does my Rewind API key expire?"

If Claude can't reach Rewind

The usual causes are:

  • The PATH setting in your configuration. This is by far the most common, and the developer docs cover what to set.
  • A key that wasn't pasted in full, or that has expired.
  • Claude Desktop not being fully quit and reopened after saving.
  • A free or legacy plan.

If it still won't connect, contact Rewind support with the error Claude reports.

What you can ask

Backup status and health

  • "Is everything backed up right now?"
  • "Which of my services hasn't had a successful backup in the last 48 hours?"
  • "Do I have any services connected to Rewind that aren't actually being backed up?"

Volume and throughput

  • "How many items has Rewind backed up in the last 30 days, and how does that compare with the month before?"
  • "On my most recent Jira backup, how many items succeeded, how many failed, and how many were skipped?"

That second question is also the quickest way to make sense of a status that looks confusing. This per-job breakdown is available for Jira, Confluence, GitHub, and similar platforms. It isn't available for Shopify, BigCommerce, QuickBooks Online, or Trello — for those, Rewind reports the job's overall result and the total number of items captured instead. Where it isn't reported, treat a missing count as "not reported" rather than as zero.

Reading past versions

These need the Advanced plan for that integration. See Reading past versions of Jira issues and Confluence pages.

  • "Find the Confluence page titled 'Incident Response Runbook' and show me its backup versions."
  • "What did PROJ-142 say in the version backed up last Tuesday?"
  • "Our 'Q3 Launch Plan' page was deleted. Can you read what it said in the most recent backup before it was removed?"

Audit, backups, and reports

  • "Show me the login events for our organization this month."
  • "Back up my Shopify store now." Claude asks you to confirm before starting an on-demand backup.
  • "Before I make bulk changes in Jira, confirm a recent backup exists." A useful standing check in an agentic workflow.
  • "Give me a summary of what Rewind has protected over the last 30 days, with any coverage risks."

You can also ask Claude to explain a backup status in plain language, search the Rewind help centre, or help you open a support ticket. None of these need an API key.

Running checks on a schedule

Any of the questions above can run on a schedule, so Claude only alerts you when something needs attention — a morning summary, or a nightly flag if a backup suddenly shrinks.

Because Rewind MCP answers questions on request rather than watching on its own, this needs a host that runs on a timer, such as Claude Code on a schedule, a saved Claude Project routine, or an automation tool like n8n. It's optional, and everyday questions need none of it.

Reading past versions of Jira issues and Confluence pages

For Jira issues and Confluence pages, Rewind MCP can look back through your backups and read what an item used to say. Because Rewind keeps its own copy of every backup, you can read a past state of your content even after it's been changed or deleted in the live system.

Through Claude, you can find a backed-up item by its title or Jira key, list its backup versions, read the content of any past version, and see how an item changed between two captured versions.

Important: Reading backed-up content requires the Advanced plan for that integration: Rewind Backups for Jira Advanced for Jira issues, and Rewind Backups for Confluence Advanced for Confluence pages. This is your Rewind plan for the integration, not your Atlassian subscription. The requirement is per integration, so you can have one without the other. Everything else in this article works on any paid, non-legacy plan.

What you can search and read

  • Reading backed-up content covers Jira issues and Confluence pages. Comments and attachments aren't included, and other integrations aren't supported.
  • Search matches an item's title or Jira key. To find a phrase that appears inside a page, search in Jira or Confluence first, then ask Claude to read that item.

How version history works

  • Rewind captures one version each time a backup runs, so the version list follows your backup schedule rather than every edit.
  • A change made and undone between two backups has no version of its own.
  • Versions stay readable after an item is deleted in the live system, though Rewind won't tell you on its own what was deleted.

Reading a past version

  • Claude reads a version and shows it to you. Nothing is written back to Jira or Confluence, so reading a version isn't a restore. To put a past version back, use the Rewind app.
  • A single version over roughly 5 MB won't be returned. Claude reports that the version is too large rather than showing a partial one. The version is still stored in your backup, so you can restore it from the Rewind app instead.

Your privacy

Rewind records that a query was made — the fact that a request came in, tied to the API key that made it — for security and reliability monitoring.

Rewind doesn't record the wording or content of your questions to Claude, and there's no feature to review or audit the questions you've asked through Rewind MCP.

Limitations

  • Per-job succeeded, failed, and skipped counts aren't reported on every platform
    Jira, Confluence, GitHub, and similar platforms report them. Shopify, BigCommerce, QuickBooks Online, and Trello don't. A count that isn't reported is not the same as a count of zero.
  • You can't restore through Claude
    Rewind MCP reads your backups. To restore, use the Rewind app, or the account-level restore endpoint in the Rewind API.
  • API keys expire and there's no reminder
    Keys expire after 90 days by default, with longer options available. Note the date when you create the key.
  • Free and legacy plans aren't eligible
    Setup is also technical, and there's no in-app one-click connect.
  • There's a limit on requests made in quick succession
    Everyday use sits well within it. Triggering backups on demand is limited more tightly than reading.

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Need help?

If you have questions or need assistance, contact help@rewind.com or submit a request.

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