# Connecting an AI client to Clipnote The shortest path through Clipnote is **saving straight out of a conversation with your AI**. Connect Clipnote to your AI client over MCP (the Model Context Protocol) and all it takes is asking, mid-conversation: "save this to Clipnote." The round trip — open the dashboard, copy, paste — disappears entirely. What you can do once you're connected is covered in [What you can do over MCP](https://clipnote.paritto.dev/p/3ee1a60f-aaf0-45a0-99af-c18a3af54644). ## The instructions are on screen Open **MCP connections** from the account menu and you'll find a tab of instructions for each client. **ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, and Claude Code all connect by signing in to Clipnote and approving access. There's no API key to issue.** What follows is the gist of each one. The screen itself has the URLs and commands ready to copy. ### ChatGPT Adding a custom MCP server requires **developer mode** (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu, on the web). 1. Go to Settings → Security and login and turn developer mode on. If you can't find it, it's in the advanced settings under Apps & Connectors 2. Open `chatgpt.com/plugins`, press **+**, and enter a name (Clipnote, say) and a description 3. Enter the MCP server URL, choose **OAuth** as the authentication method, and create it 4. Clipnote's login and authorization screens appear — read them and grant access 5. To use it in a conversation, enable Clipnote from **Developer mode** in the **+** menu In ChatGPT, **write operations such as saving or updating a clip ask for confirmation every single time.** ### Claude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop) Both add connectors from the same screen. 1. Open Claude's settings and choose **Connectors** in the sidebar 2. Choose **Add custom connector**, enter the URL, and press **Add** 3. If it asks how to authenticate, choose **Sign in now**. You can leave the OAuth client field on **Register automatically** 4. Clipnote's login and authorization screens appear — read them and grant access 5. In a chat, turn Clipnote on from **+** → **Connectors** On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner has to add the connector first under Organization settings → Connectors. ### Codex 1. Run the add command in your terminal 2. Run the login command next, and the authorization screen opens in your browser 3. You're done once `clipnote` shows up in `codex mcp list` The setting is stored in `~/.codex/config.toml` and shared across the Codex CLI, the ChatGPT desktop app, and the IDE extension. ### Claude Code 1. Run the add command in your terminal. Add `--scope user` at the end to make it available in every project 2. Run `/mcp` in Claude Code, pick `clipnote` from the list, and authenticate 3. You're done once `/mcp` reads "Connected" To authenticate without opening a session, run `claude mcp login clipnote`; to disconnect, run `claude mcp logout clipnote`. ### API keys (when none of the above applies) **This is the fallback for MCP clients that don't support OAuth.** Choose it when your client lets you set the Authorization header yourself, or when you're calling Clipnote from a script of your own. 1. Issue a new key from the **API keys** section of the MCP connections screen 2. In your client, set the MCP server URL and the header `Authorization: Bearer <your API key>` 3. Restart the client and it connects **A key is shown once and never again.** Copy it there and then and keep it somewhere safe, like a password manager. Lose it and your only option is to revoke it and issue another. The list only ever shows the first few characters. Issuing a separate key per client is worth doing, because it lets you cut off one of them later without touching the rest. If a key's **Last used** has said "Never used" for a long time and you can't remember what it was for, revoking it is the safe move. ## Seeing and cutting your connections The MCP connections screen has two lists. | List | What's in it | How to disconnect | | --- | --- | --- | | Connected apps | Claude, ChatGPT and anything else you authorized over OAuth | **Revoke** cuts it immediately. Getting access back means going through the authorization screen again | | API keys | Clients connected with a key | **Revoke** stops every connection using that key | Neither kind of revocation **can be undone**. What neither of them does is **delete any clips or collections** — only the connection is severed. If you think a key has leaked, revoke that key. That alone stops the access; you don't need to change your login password, because a key and a password are separate things. The reverse is also true: **changing your password leaves existing API keys and connected apps working**, so when you want a connection stopped, stop it here. ## When it won't connect - **You never reach the authorization screen**: check that the MCP server URL went in correctly. Pasting it from the copy button on screen is the reliable way - **It connected, but you can't use it in a conversation**: both clients need it enabled per conversation — developer mode in ChatGPT's **+** menu, or **+** → **Connectors** in Claude - **It says it can't find a clip**: archived clips and clips in the Trash are invisible to AI clients (see [What you can do over MCP](https://clipnote.paritto.dev/p/3ee1a60f-aaf0-45a0-99af-c18a3af54644)) ## Read next - [What you can do over MCP](https://clipnote.paritto.dev/p/3ee1a60f-aaf0-45a0-99af-c18a3af54644) - [Display and account settings](https://clipnote.paritto.dev/p/8f3b2990-ea0d-4150-9969-bb243521ca51) - [Limits and frequently asked questions](https://clipnote.paritto.dev/p/c45e8ace-4ccc-4299-aee3-0cfd98783902)