Tools Integrated with the Sales Plugin: Complete Category Matrix

The sales plugin integrates with CRM, calendar, email, chat, and intelligence tools through a category-based placeholder system that maps to specific services via MCP servers.

The sales plugin in the anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins repository provides a tool-agnostic architecture that abstracts specific SaaS integrations into logical categories. Rather than hardcoding vendor APIs, the plugin uses dynamic placeholders to route requests to whichever service your team has connected. This design enables seamless workflow automation across your existing sales stack without modifying prompt definitions when switching vendors.

How the Sales Plugin Connects to External Tools

The integration architecture relies on placeholder tokens defined in sales/CONNECTORS.md. At runtime, the plugin resolves these tokens to concrete MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that you have configured for your environment.

The Placeholder Architecture

Each tool category uses a double-tilde prefix to represent an abstract capability. For example, ~~CRM represents customer relationship management functions regardless of whether you use HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive. When you invoke a skill, the plugin queries the configuration in .mcp.json to determine which concrete service fulfills that category request. This abstraction layer allows the same workflow definitions in files like sales/skills/forecast/SKILL.md to function consistently across different vendor stacks.

Supported Tool Categories and Default Integrations

The plugin ships with default servers for each category while supporting alternative integrations. The authoritative matrix is defined in sales/CONNECTORS.md (lines 11-23) and includes the following mappings:

CRM

• Placeholder: ~~CRM
• Default (included): HubSpot, Close
• Other supported options: Salesforce, Pipedrive, Copper

Calendar

• Placeholder: ~~calendar
• Default (included): Google Calendar, Microsoft 365
• Other supported options: —

Email

• Placeholder: ~~email
• Default (included): Gmail, Microsoft 365
• Other supported options: —

Chat

• Placeholder: ~~chat
• Default (included): Slack
• Other supported options: Microsoft Teams

Competitive Intelligence

• Placeholder: ~~competitive intelligence
• Default (included): Similarweb
• Other supported options: Crayon, Klue

Data Enrichment

• Placeholder: ~~data enrichment
• Default (included): Clay, ZoomInfo, Apollo
• Other supported options: Clearbit, Lusha

Knowledge Base

• Placeholder: ~~knowledge base
• Default (included): Notion
• Other supported options: Confluence, Guru

Meeting Transcription

• Placeholder: ~~conversation intelligence
• Default (included): Fireflies
• Other supported options: Gong, Chorus, Otter.ai

Project Tracker

• Placeholder: ~~project tracker
• Default (included): Atlassian (Jira/Confluence)
• Other supported options: Linear, Asana

Sales Engagement

• Placeholder: ~~sales engagement
• Default (included): Outreach
• Other supported options: Salesloft, Apollo

Configuring Your Integration Matrix

To customize which concrete tools handle each category, modify your .mcp.json configuration file. The plugin registration in sales/.claude-plugin/plugin.json loads these mappings at initialization, allowing the sales plugin to resolve placeholders to specific MCP server endpoints. As noted in sales/CONNECTORS.md (lines 5-7), any MCP server that implements the appropriate API can be swapped in, preserving your high-level workflow definitions while changing the underlying service provider.

Practical Usage Examples

The following prompts demonstrate how the sales plugin automatically routes requests to your integrated tools using the placeholder system.

Daily Sales Briefing

/daily-briefing

This command pulls today's meetings from Google Calendar (~~calendar), scans unread Gmail messages (~~email), and fetches pipeline status from HubSpot (~~CRM).

Call Preparation

/call-prep Prepare me for a call with Acme Corp

The skill looks up the account in Close (~~CRM), scrapes recent email threads from Microsoft 365 (~~email), and pulls Slack channel history (~~chat).

Competitive Intelligence Research

/competitive-intelligence Research competitors of our new SaaS product

This queries Similarweb (~~competitive intelligence) for market share data and enriches company profiles via ZoomInfo (~~data enrichment).

Sales Engagement Asset Creation

/create-an-asset Generate a one-pager for the XYZ prospect

If Outreach (~~sales engagement) is connected, the plugin logs the generated asset in the prospect's activity feed automatically.

Summary

• The sales plugin uses category placeholders (e.g., ~~CRM) to abstract tool-specific implementations and maintain tool-agnostic workflows
• Default integrations include HubSpot, Google Calendar, Slack, and Notion, with explicit support for alternatives like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Crayon
• Configuration occurs through sales/CONNECTORS.md and .mcp.json files that map placeholders to specific MCP servers
• Skills automatically resolve the correct backend service at runtime without requiring prompt modifications when switching vendors
• The architecture allows any MCP-compliant server to serve as a backend for its respective category placeholder

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Salesforce instead of HubSpot with the sales plugin?

Yes. While HubSpot and Close serve as the default CRM integrations defined in sales/CONNECTORS.md, you can configure ~~CRM to resolve to Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Copper by updating your MCP server configuration. The workflow prompts remain identical regardless of which CRM you select, as the plugin handles the vendor-specific API calls internally.

What file defines the available tool integrations?

The authoritative source for supported categories and their default mappings is sales/CONNECTORS.md in the anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins repository. This file specifies the placeholder syntax at lines 5-7 and the complete integration matrix covering all ten categories at lines 11-23.

Do I need to modify my prompts when switching from Slack to Microsoft Teams?

No. Because prompts reference the abstract category ~~chat rather than a specific vendor API, switching from Slack to Microsoft Teams only requires updating your MCP server configuration in .mcp.json. The plugin's architecture handles the translation layer automatically, making your workflows portable across communication platforms.

How does the plugin handle authentication with external services?

The sales plugin delegates authentication to the MCP server layer. When you connect a service like Gong or Apollo, you configure the credentials within that server's settings. The plugin then routes ~~conversation intelligence or ~~data enrichment requests to the authenticated endpoint without handling tokens directly, maintaining security isolation between the workflow logic and vendor authentication schemes.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}