Using the Harbr MCP

Connecting your AI assistant to the Harbr platform lets you ask for data in plain language instead of navigating the platform yourself. Once connected, an assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude can carry out the workflows enabled for your environment, all from a normal chat conversation, with no coding required.

Your assistant always acts as you. It signs in with your normal platform account and can only ever see or do what your account allows: Products, Plans, or Assets you cannot access in the platform never appear and cannot be discussed.

Connect Your AI Assistant

You only need to do this once. After connecting, the platform is available in every conversation with your assistant. The steps below cover ChatGPT and Claude as examples, but any AI assistant that supports connecting to custom MCP servers can be paired with Harbr in the same way, using the same connection URL.

ChatGPT

Available on ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu, on the web. Adding a custom connector requires Developer mode.

1. Go to Settings > Apps & Connectors > Advanced settings and enable Developer mode.

2. Go to Settings > Apps & Connectors and click Create.

3. Complete the setup:\n

   • Name: the name your administrator recommends for the connector

   • URL: your connection URL (ending in /mcp)

   • Authentication: OAuth

4. Confirm that you trust the application, then click Create.

5. Sign in with your platform account in the browser window that opens.

6. In a chat, click + near the message box to bring the platform into the conversation.

Note: On Business, Enterprise, and Edu workspaces, your ChatGPT administrator may need to allow custom connectors before this option appears.

Claude

Available on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, on claude.ai and the Claude desktop and mobile apps.

On individual plans:

1. Go to Customize > Connectors.

2. Click +, then Add custom connector.

3. Enter your connection URL (ending in /mcp) and click Add.

4. Sign in with your platform account in the browser window that opens.

On Team and Enterprise plans, an Owner must first add the connector for the organization under Organization settings > Connectors. Each member then goes to Customize > Connectors, finds the connector, clicks Connect, and signs in.

Note: On the Free plan, you are limited to one custom connector.

Other AI assistants

Harbr's MCP connection follows the standard Model Context Protocol, so any assistant that supports adding a custom MCP server, such as Claude Code or other MCP-compatible tools, can connect using the same connection URL and the same OAuth sign-in with your platform account. Check that assistant's own documentation for where to add a custom connector or MCP server.

Discovery

Ask your assistant for data in your own words, by topic, by what a Product contains, or by what you want to do with it. It searches the catalogue and returns matching Products with links to their Product pages.

Example: "Find Products with retail footfall data", "Which Products can I export?", "Show me Products containing visualisations".

If there is a relevant product on the exchange then it will be surfaced to the user.

Before requesting access, you can look inside a Product:

• Ask what a Product contains to see its Assets.

• Ask about a specific Asset to see its detail, you will be shown details including its schema and column names (capped at 100 columns per Asset).

• Ask what you can do with a Product, your assistant can tell you which actions your account permits, based on your existing permissions in the platform.

Every Product your assistant shows you, whether from a search or a direct lookup, comes with a link to its Product page as standard, so you can always continue in the platform directly.

Troubleshooting

• Your assistant cannot see the platform: check the connector is enabled in the conversation and that you completed the sign-in step. If it still fails, confirm the connection URL with your administrator, it must end exactly in /mcp.

• Sign-in shows an account or tenant error (for example, a message saying your account does not exist in a tenant and needs to be added as an external user): this is not the same as a normal login problem. It means your account has not yet been provisioned for this connection by your identity provider, a step separate from your everyday platform login. Contact your platform administrator to have you added, then try connecting again.

• "Not authorized": you are connected, but your account does not have access to that specific Product, Plan, or Asset, the same permissions apply as when you use the platform directly. Contact your administrator if you believe you should have access.

• No sign-in window appears, or the connector will not connect: double-check the connection URL is exact and ends in /mcp, and that your plan supports custom connectors.

• You cannot find where to add a connector: in ChatGPT, make sure Developer mode is on (and on Business, Enterprise, and Edu workspaces, check that your admin has allowed custom connectors); on Claude Team or Enterprise plans, an Owner must add the connector before members can connect. For other assistants, check that assistant's own documentation for adding a custom MCP server.