Claude NPI Registry connectorWhat Claude can look up in the US provider registry.
The Claude NPI Registry connector exposes 3 tools. All 3 read the registry, 0 write, 0 stay undocumented. Below: how Claude finds a US provider, what it checks in an NPI number, and the things this registry never guarantees.
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What changes when you need to pin down a US provider
The NPI registry is the US register of National Provider Identifiers, covering every HIPAA-covered healthcare provider in the country. With this connector, published by Anthropic itself, Claude queries the CMS NPPES registry while it answers you: it searches for providers, pulls a full record and sanity-checks a number.
Find someone without the number. npi_search looks up providers by name, city, specialty or organization. Handy when you know a specialty and a city but no number. State alone is not enough: pair it with a name, specialty or city, and expect at most 200 results per request.
Read the full record. npi_lookup returns the provider type (individual or organization), name, credentials, active or deactivated status, specialty, practice address and phone when one is listed.
Catch a typo early. npi_validate checks a number's format and check digit locally, without touching the registry.
What Claude can't do here: prove that a provider is licensed. The data is self-reported and NPPES doesn't verify it, and a valid number isn't necessarily assigned. Nothing gets edited either. And nothing runs on its own: no alert when a provider is deactivated. Scheduled checks are a job for an automation platform, covered in the Integrations hub.
The vocabulary, in one minute
Five words worth knowing before you add the NPI Registry to Claude.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and an outside source, so Claude can draw on it as it answers you.
- Tool
- One named capability a connector opens to Claude. Claude picks which ones to call; the directory sheet lists them by name.
- Authorization
- The service's screen where you grant the access Claude will use. It's given once per person and withdrawn the same way.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude asks for in the chat before any action that would change an account on your behalf.
- MCP
- The shared standard behind connectors: it is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to a service outside itself.
Add the Claude NPI Registry connector in three steps
- 01
Locate NPI Registry
Open Claude's settings, go to Customize, then Connectors, and find NPI Registry in the list. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner enables it for the organization first.
- 02
Start the connection
Click Connect on its row and follow the window that opens. If the connection goes wrong later, a round of Disconnect followed by a fresh connection puts it right.
- 03
Read before you accept
Go through the authorization screen before confirming. It comes from the service, not from Claude, and it sets how far the access reaches. You can withdraw it later from the same place.
The 3 tools in the Claude NPI Registry connector
NPI Registry gives Claude 3 tools: 3 that read your account, 0 that change something in it.
A single group: all three tools either read the registry or check a number. Their names stay as Claude displays them.
- 3 read
What Claude reads (3)
3 toolsThree lookup tools, none of which changes the registry.
npi_lookup
Give Claude an NPI and it pulls the provider's full NPPES record: type, name, credentials, active or deactivated status, specialty, practice address and phone if one exists.
npi_search
Searches individuals or organizations by name, location, specialty or organization. This is where you start when the NPI is still unknown.
npi_validate
Checks a number's format and its Luhn check digit, locally and without calling the registry. The answer is valid or invalid, nothing more.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before every action it takes on an account for you.
For this connector, no source describes a confirmation specific to any of the three tools, so the general rule applies. Claude works with the rights of the connected person and nothing beyond them. On Team and Enterprise, workspace owners decide whether a member may let some actions through without being asked again, and they can limit a connector for the whole organization, for example by keeping reads and closing writes.
Which plans include it
Out of 819 sheets in the official directory, none shows availability by plan. Even for a connector Anthropic publishes itself, that answer isn't published anywhere.
The general rule is known: remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner turns the connector on for the organization before members connect. For the current state, the NPI Registry sheet in the official directory is the reference.
Where the NPI Registry connector stops
A connector isn't an automation: Claude queries the registry while it is answering you, never in the background.
By default the sheet only exposes reading, an observed floor rather than a guarantee: an admin can open actions that appear on no public sheet. The registry covers HIPAA-covered providers in the United States and nobody else. No page of Claude's help center details this connector, so its limits come from how its tools describe themselves. More connectors the team has reviewed sit in the Claude connectors hub.
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