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Connect an AI assistant to Carson
Carson has an MCP server, so you can ask about your customers from the AI assistant you already use. The assistant reads your Carson workspace, answers with numbers and quotes, and links each quote back to the conversation it came from.
- Ask in plain language: which themes are rising, what a given account has been raising, what is driving churn in a segment.
- Answers come from the same data as Carson itself, and quotes link back to the conversation in Carson.
- It is read-only. The assistant cannot change anything in Carson.
Get your server URL
Each workspace has its own address. In Carson, open Settings, choose the AI Agents tab, and under "Connect an AI agent" select Copy next to Server URL.
The address starts with https://api.getcarson.ai/customers/ and ends with /mcp. It is not a password: anyone who uses it still has to sign in to Carson as a member of your workspace.
Choose your assistant
- Claude on the webStep by step: add Carson as a custom connector at claude.ai, sign in, approve permissions and ask your first question.
- ChatGPTStep by step: add Carson to ChatGPT as an MCP app, sign in, approve permissions and ask your first question.
- Other MCP clientsConnect Carson to any AI assistant that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth sign-in.
What you are approving
When you connect, the consent screen lists these permissions in this order and offers Accept or Decline for all of them together. Each Carson permission lets the assistant read something in the workspace you connected, and none lets it change anything.
- carson:mcp:read
- Use Carson at all. Every other permission builds on this one.
- carson:mcp:feedback-text
- Read what people actually said: quotes, mentions and full conversation transcripts, including what your own team said in them.
- carson:mcp:search
- Search your customer conversations by keyword or by meaning.
- carson:mcp:analytics
- Count and compare feedback: themes, sentiment, trends and segments. Reading quotes and browsing conversations need it too, alongside verbatim text.
- carson:mcp:accounts
- Read your customer accounts: name, ARR, status, renewal date, owner, segment, industry and region, with each account's feedback totals (mentions, conversations, average sentiment, latest feedback) and the total ARR of the accounts listed.
- carson:mcp:signals
- Read the signals Carson has found: named customer concerns and how each is moving: new, heating, steady, quiet, or not yet judged.
- offline_access
- Shown as "Allow offline access". It lets the assistant renew its access, so the connection keeps working without you signing in again. It reads nothing on its own.
The verbatim-text permission is the one to think about. It lets the assistant read your customers' own words and pass them to you in its answers. The consent screen has no separate choice for it: accepting grants it with the rest, so if you do not want an assistant reading your customers' words, do not connect one. If a connection ever lacks it, for example after a sign-in setup problem on Carson's side, quotes are unavailable: the assistant can still count, compare and list accounts, but searching, reading conversations, signals and an account's full detail all stop working.
Carson does not store questions asked through a connected assistant. A search by meaning does send the question's text through Carson's model gateway to an embedding model, which turns it into numbers Carson can compare; the gateway's embedding cache is described on our security page, and the model provider is listed among the subprocessors in our privacy policy. What the assistant does with the answers it receives, including how long it keeps them, is governed by that assistant's own terms and your settings there.
What it can and cannot do
- Read-only. The assistant can read your workspace but cannot create, change or delete anything in Carson.
- One workspace per connection. The server URL names the workspace. To ask about another workspace you belong to, add a second connector with that workspace's URL.
- Only workspaces you belong to. Signing in does not give access to a workspace you are not a member of.
- Conversation and account citations open in Carson, for members of the workspace. Signal citations have no link: the assistant cites a signal by name.
- Each call returns a limited number of results, such as up to 25 search passages, so a broad question can take the assistant several calls.
What you can ask
Tools
The assistant picks these itself as it works out an answer. All of them read; none of them write.
- describe
- An overview of the whole workspace: the date range, sources, themes by mention count, and the account book's total ARR.
- date_context
- Today's date and the current week, month, quarter and year, in your workspace's timezone.
- search
- Finds feedback passages by keyword or by meaning, each linked to its conversation.
- aggregate
- Counts and compares feedback: top themes, segment comparisons, sentiment, trends, and the ARR behind them.
- evidence
- Customer quotes that back up a claim, with the conversation and account each one came from.
- list_accounts
- Lists accounts with their ARR, status and renewal date.
- get_account
- Everything on one account: its details, the themes it has been raising, and recent quotes.
- list_conversations
- Browses conversations, newest first, by account, source or date.
- get_conversation
- The full transcript of one conversation, every turn in order.
- list_signals
- Lists the signals Carson has found: named customer concerns and where each one stands.
- get_signal
- One signal in detail: its history, the accounts and ARR it touches, and sample quotes.
Ready-made prompts
Carson also ships ready-made prompts for common jobs. Each takes an optional focus (a product area, segment, account or question) and an optional date range. Clients that support MCP prompts list them where you pick prompts; in any other client, ask the example question directly.
- weekly_customer_feedback_brief
- A weekly brief of customer feedback, with citations.Try: "Give me this week's customer feedback brief, focused on onboarding."
- prepare_qbr_insights
- Themes, risks and opportunities for a quarterly business review, with account evidence.Try: "Prepare QBR insights for our accounts renewing next quarter."
- investigate_churn_driver
- Tests whether a suspected issue is driving churn, with numbers and quotes.Try: "Is slow support response time driving churn among mid-market accounts?"
- compare_segments_by_feedback
- Compares segments by what they raise, how they feel, and representative quotes.Try: "Compare enterprise and SMB feedback from the last 90 days."
- summarize_top_objections_for_sales
- The top objections for the sales team, with citations and account context.Try: "Summarize the top objections sales should prepare for this quarter."
Troubleshooting
Your assistant says "forbidden" after you sign in
The account you signed in with is most likely not a member of the workspace in the server URL. Check that you copied the URL from your own workspace's Settings and signed in with the account you use for Carson. If you should have access, ask your workspace admin to invite you. If you are already a member and it still says forbidden, the sign-in may not have granted Carson's permissions: remove the connector, add it again to sign in afresh, and email support@getcarson.ai if it keeps happening.
ChatGPT shows "Unknown client" when you continue to Carson
Carson was added with ChatGPT's default registration method, which cannot sign in to Carson, and ChatGPT cannot change it afterwards. Delete the Carson app from ChatGPT's Plugins settings, then add it again with Registration method set to Dynamic Client Registration (DCR) under Advanced OAuth settings.
ChatGPT walkthroughChatGPT has no Create MCP App option
On ChatGPT Pro, Create MCP App appeared under Plugins with no extra setting when we tested in October 2026. OpenAI's help centre still says custom MCP apps on Plus and Pro need Developer mode, which you turn on in ChatGPT's settings. If the option is missing, turn Developer mode on and look again. OpenAI describes these apps as read-only on Plus and Pro, which is all Carson needs.
ChatGPT walkthroughClaude says Carson has no tools
Carson's tools are probably set to Blocked in Claude, which Claude reports only as having no tools. Open Customize, then Connectors, then Carson, set Tool permissions to anything but Blocked, and start a new chat.
Claude walkthroughYou cannot find where to add a connector
Your plan, or your organization's admin, may not allow custom connectors. Each client's walkthrough starts with who can add one: check it for your client, and ask your admin if your organization has to turn it on.
Choose your client