HelpBack to EngageCycleSign in

Use EngageCycle from Claude or ChatGPT

How to connect an AI assistant to EngageCycle, what it can do for you, and what it can't.

Before you start: only owners see Integrations, and your plan needs to include the MCP server. Integrations, MCP says whether it does. See Billing and your plan.

What it is

EngageCycle has an MCP server. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is how AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT connect to other software. Once connected, you can ask your assistant things like "Which proposals did Jordan Lee sign this month?" or "Make Alex Rivera a proposal from our Standard preset and send it," and it does the work in EngageCycle for you.

The assistant works through an API key you make for it, so it can do only what you tick for that key, and you can disconnect it at any time.

Make a key for your assistant

  1. Click Integrations in the sidebar.
  2. Under API keys, enter a New key name, for example "Claude".
  3. Under What the key can do, tick only what the assistant should do:
    • To look things up: Read clients, Read proposals and signed PDFs, Read the catalog, templates, and presets, Read campaigns, and Read events.
    • To also add clients and make and send proposals: Add and change clients, Make and change draft proposals, and Send and withdraw proposals.
    • Don't tick Read clients' signing links. The assistant never sees signing links anyway.
  4. Click Create key, and copy the key now. It's shown only once.

Connect Claude

  1. In Integrations, under MCP, copy the Server address.
  2. In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, and click Add custom connector.
  3. Name it EngageCycle and paste the server address.
  4. Add a request header named Authorization with the value Bearer followed by your key (for example Bearer enc_...).
  5. Save, and turn the connector on in a chat.

If you don't see a place for request headers when you add a connector, your Claude account doesn't offer them yet. Use the setup for assistants that only run local servers instead.

Claude Code: MCP has a command you can copy. Put your key where it says <your API key>, then run it in a terminal.

Connect ChatGPT or another assistant

Any assistant that lets you add an MCP server with an address and a header can connect:

  1. In Integrations, under MCP, copy the setup under Other assistants.
  2. Put your key where it says <your API key>.
  3. Paste it where your assistant adds MCP servers, or enter the address and the Authorization header in its form.

If your assistant only offers to sign in to a connector, it can't connect with a key. Signing in is coming later.

Assistants that only run local servers

Some assistants (desktop apps, mostly) only start servers on your own computer. The free mcp-remote bridge connects them to EngageCycle. It needs Node.js installed on the computer.

  1. In Integrations, under MCP, copy the setup under Assistants that only run local servers.
  2. Put your key where it says <your API key>.
  3. Paste it into your assistant's MCP settings file and restart the assistant.

An example conversation

Northwind Services connects Claude with a key that can read and send:

You: Does Alex Rivera have a proposal yet this year?

Claude: I found Alex Rivera ([email protected]). They don't have an open proposal. Their last signed price was $1,200.00.

You: Make them one from our Standard preset and show me before you send it.

Claude: Here's the preview: one package, Standard, $1,250.00 a year. It goes to [email protected] and must be signed by November 3. Sending it uses 1 credit; you have 41 left. Shall I send it?

You: Yes, send it.

Claude: Sent. Alex Rivera has been emailed a link to review and sign. 40 credits left.

What the assistant can and can't do

Integrations, MCP, What it can do lists every tool the assistant gets, whether it reads or changes data, and the key permission it needs.

It can:

  • Find clients and read their details, add a client, and change a client's details.
  • List your templates and presets.
  • Make a draft proposal, preview it, send it, and send the client a new link.
  • Give a client more time on a sent proposal (it asks you first). The client's link keeps working.
  • Tell you a proposal's status and what happened to it (sent, viewed, signed, declined).
  • Read your recent events, how a campaign is going, and your credits.

It can't:

  • See signing links. Only your client gets theirs.
  • Send without a preview. It always previews first, and a preview counts for 15 minutes.
  • Withdraw or revise a proposal, add signers or copied people to a proposal, change your catalog, archive clients, or start campaigns. Do those in EngageCycle. A proposal it makes still goes to the signers and copied people already on the client's record.
  • Work with offers, leads, agreements and consents sent on their own, or walkthroughs. Send and follow those in EngageCycle.
  • See people who asked through an offer and haven't signed yet. They're leads, not clients, until they sign.
  • Reach another business's data, or do anything its key doesn't allow.

Good to know

  • Sending uses a credit, the same as sending from EngageCycle. A revision uses none, unless the version it replaces was withdrawn before the client opened it.
  • Everything it changes is in your activity log, with your key's name and "(MCP)", for example API key "Claude" (MCP).
  • Disconnect it at once by revoking its key under API keys. Make a new key to connect again.
  • It shares the key's limit of 120 requests a minute with anything else using that key.
  • Never ask it to store government ID numbers (such as Social Security numbers) or bank or card numbers. EngageCycle refuses them.