Using the Claude Plugin

The AbleTime plugin lets the agent in Claude Code record your time, run the board and get you reports, working as you with your own permissions. It can also watch for tasks, file and sort tasks, and fix a task and open a pull request.

Install the plugin

1. Have an admin or owner turn on Agent access (MCP) for your organization. MCP Authentication describes the switch.

2. Create your personal access key under My Profile → API Access with Create access key. You never paste it into Claude Code, but the connection only works while you have one.

3. In Claude Code, add the AbleTime marketplace with /plugin marketplace add AbleTime/claude-plugin.

4. Install the plugin with /plugin install abletime@abletime. The plugin adds one connection, plugins, for time, tasks and reports.

5. Run /mcp and choose plugins. A Connect to AbleTime page opens in your browser. Sign in to the organization you want it to work in, and click Approve.

Once it's connected, you can ask the agent to walk you through the plugin, and it takes you through this guide in the chat.

Choose what the agent can do without asking

The plugin's skills come with permission to use the AbleTime tools they need while they run. If a permission is denied, the agent asks you, and it asks every time a permission is denied until you say otherwise. To settle what the agent can use without asking, set your own rules.

Type /permissions to see and change your rules. It lists every rule and the settings file it comes from. Each rule is one of three kinds:

• Allow: the agent uses the tool without asking.

• Ask: the agent asks you every time.

• Deny: the agent never uses the tool.

A rule names either the whole connection or one tool. The connection is mcp__plugin_abletime_plugins.

To name one tool, add two underscores and the tool's name to the connection's name, for example mcp__plugin_abletime_plugins__delete_task. MCP Tools lists the tools.

Deny rules are checked first, then Ask, then Allow, and the first rule that matches decides. So you can allow the whole connection and still hold back single tools with an Ask or Deny rule. An Allow rule never overrides them.

You can also write rules straight into a settings file. ~/.claude/settings.json applies in every project, and .claude/settings.json in a project applies to that project. This example shows the shape: it allows the connection, puts one tool under Ask and one under Deny.

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__plugin_abletime_plugins"
    ],
    "ask": [
      "mcp__plugin_abletime_plugins__delete_entry"
    ],
    "deny": [
      "mcp__plugin_abletime_plugins__delete_task"
    ]
  }
}

To switch the connection off without removing the plugin, type /mcp, choose it, and choose Disable. You turn it back on from /mcp too.

Record time

Work as you normally do. The agent records your time as a draft entry against the task the work belongs to, and keeps it up to date as you go. If it can't tell which task, it asks. If no task fits, it creates one in todo.

It does this quietly. To see what it has recorded, ask:

You:    What have you recorded for me today?

Agent:  Two entries, both drafts:
        - AP-31 Invoice PDF layout — 95 minutes, closed at 11:05. "Fixed the
          line-item wrapping and checked the PDF against three invoices."
        - AP-58 CSV export date format — 40 minutes, still open. There was
          no task for that, so I created one in todo when you started on it.

Everything the agent records is a draft. Drafts are visible only to you and appear in no report until you accept them in Review Drafts in the Productivity Drawer. You can also let the agent accept its own drafts, with a switch on Privacy and Notifications. It then accepts only when you ask it to.

If you have calendar feeds set up, ask the agent to pull your calendar, and your meetings come in as drafts too. Calendar Feeds describes setting them up.

Run the board

Ask the agent to manage tasks in plain words:

You:    Assign AP-58 to Maya, make it high priority, schedule it for Monday
        to Wednesday, and move it to doing.

Agent:  Done: AP-58 is assigned to Maya, priority high, scheduled 28 to 30
        September. I have left it in todo. A task reaches doing through
        recorded time, so it moves once time against it is accepted, starting
        with your 40-minute draft from this morning.

You can also comment on a task, block it with a note, make it wait on another task, lock its dates so a dependency doesn't move them, and create epics and milestones. Scheduling and creating epics need a manager, admin or owner role. Working with your Agent walks through a full day of task work by chat.

Get a report

Ask for a period, and a project or person if you want one:

You:    Give me September for the Atlas project.

Agent:  Here is the report for 1 to 30 September, Atlas only. The link is
        below, with its code, K7M2QD. The page opens without signing in,
        and the link expires in fourteen days. One gap: a billable category
        on Atlas has no rate, so some of its billable hours show as unpriced.

You:    Just give me the total.

Agent:  212 hours, 148 of them Maya's.

Reports need an owner, admin or manager role. Intelligence Reports with Your Agent covers everything from asking for a report to reading it.

Watch for tasks

The agent can tell you when a task is assigned to you, or when a task lands in a stage on a project's board. Type /abletime:watch followed by what to watch, or ask in plain words:

You:    /abletime:watch tasks assigned to me, and anything that lands in Review on Atlas

The agent checks every ten minutes, or at a longer interval if you ask for one. When a task matches, you get an AbleTime notification, and an email too if your email notifications are on. It says nothing in the chat while it watches. To stop, type /abletime:watch stop.

Hand tasks to the agent

File a report. Paste an error report or alert, name the project and where the report came from, and the agent files it as a task on that project.

Sort tasks. Ask the agent to sort tasks, and it sets their priority, assignee and category from the people and categories the project already has.

Fix a task. Name a task, and the agent makes the fix in the repository you have open, adds a test when the change affects behaviour, and opens a pull request.

Each time, you get an AbleTime notification when it's done.

Tips has habits that keep agent-recorded time accurate.