> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.finput.com.au/overview/connect-an-ai-assistant/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.finput.com.au/_mcp/server.

# Connect an AI assistant

Finput runs an **account MCP server**. Point an AI assistant at it and
the assistant can price deals, check where they will be approved, look
up ABNs and read or save your scenarios — against your real rate cards,
your real permissions and your real plan.

> **Note**
>
> This is not the docs server. The account server answers questions about
> *your account*; the docs server searches this reference site. See
> [Two different MCP servers](#two-different-mcp-servers) below.

## What you need

* A **Pro or Max** plan. Connecting is not available on Free.
* An AI client that speaks MCP over HTTP — Claude (desktop, web or
  Claude Code), ChatGPT or Cursor.

If your Finput account has no **Settings → Connections** tab, the
feature is not switched on for your organisation yet.

## Connecting

You paste **one address** and nothing else:

```
https://api.finput.com.au/mcp
```

There is no token to generate, copy or paste. There is no client id, no
secret, no config file to edit.

#### Claude desktop or web

The Claude desktop app and claude.ai share one list of connectors,
so adding Finput in either adds it to both.

#### Open Connectors

Open **Settings → Connectors** and click **Add custom
connector**.

#### Name it and paste the address

Name: `Finput`. Remote MCP server URL:
`https://api.finput.com.au/mcp`. Leave the advanced settings
empty — there is no client id or secret to enter. Click
**Add**.

#### Connect

Click **Connect** next to Finput. A browser tab opens at
Finput; sign in if you are not already signed in, and you land
on the **consent screen**.

#### Approve the access

Choose the access level and click **Connect**. The tab hands
you back to Claude, and Finput shows as connected.

#### Use it in a chat

In a chat, open the **+** menu, go to **Connectors** and make
sure Finput is switched on. Then ask, for example, *"Price an
\$80k excavator over five years"*.

On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an owner may need to add the
connector under **Organization settings → Connectors** before
members can connect it.

#### Claude Code

#### Add the server

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http finput https://api.finput.com.au/mcp
```

#### Authenticate

Start `claude`, run `/mcp`, pick **finput** and choose
**Authenticate**. A browser tab opens at Finput; sign in if you
are not already signed in, and you land on the **consent
screen**.

#### Approve the access

Choose the access level and click **Connect**. The tab closes
itself and `/mcp` shows finput as connected.

#### ChatGPT or Cursor

Add a custom connector (ChatGPT) or an MCP server (Cursor) with the
address above, then approve the consent screen the client opens.

Connections start in your assistant, not in Finput — that is why the
Connections tab has no "Add connection" button.

## What the consent screen asks

The consent screen is the only page a human reads in this flow. It
shows:

* **Who is asking.** The name the application reported for itself,
  quoted. Any application can call itself anything, so only continue if
  you started the connection yourself.
* **Who you are.** The email you are signed in as, your organisation
  and your plan. The connection is bound to that organisation.
* **What the assistant will be able to do**, as a list derived from
  your actual permissions and plan — not a generic blurb. If you cannot
  run the approval Matrix, the Matrix line is not on your screen and
  the tool is not offered to the assistant.
* **What it will never be able to do.** Sign in as you or change your
  password, add or remove users, see or change your billing, card or
  plan, create API tokens, connect or disconnect assistants, read your
  analytics, or see any other organisation's data.
* **Access level** — read only, or read and write.

### Read only vs read and write

#### Read only (recommended)

The assistant can price deals and look things up. Any attempt to
change something in your account is refused.

#### Read and write

Adds one tool — saving a scenario to your own list. The credential
itself can make any change you could make through the Finput API,
not only the change that tool makes. The list of things no
connection can ever do still applies.

Read only is the default and the right choice unless you want the
assistant to save scenarios for you. Everything else it can do — every
tool in the table below bar `save_scenario` — works on a read-only
connection.

> **Warning**
>
> The access level is enforced on the credential, not on the tool list. A
> read-only connection is refused every write the API offers. A
> read-and-write connection is permitted every write **you** are permitted,
> whether or not a tool exists for it — bounded only by your own
> permissions and by the never-list above.

### Rate card editing (financiers)

If you are on a financier account, you already have permission to edit
rate cards by hand, **and** you choose read and write, the consent
screen adds a separate **rate card editing** checkbox, off by default.
Under read only it does not appear at all — that is not a fault.

> **Warning**
>
> Leaving that checkbox off keeps rate-card tools out of the assistant's
> list. It is accident prevention, not a security limit: the credential is
> an ordinary API token, and anything holding it can still call the
> rate-card endpoints directly. Treat a read-and-write connection as
> something that can change your rates, whatever the checkbox says.

## What the assistant can do

Seven tools are available today. Which of them you see depends on your
permissions, plan, organisation type and access level.

| Tool               | What it does                                                                                                      |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `price_deal`       | Prices a commercial or consumer deal across your financiers, exactly as the calculator does                       |
| `reprice_deal`     | Re-runs a deal you already priced with one thing changed — a different term, a different deposit                  |
| `find_approvals`   | Answers "where will this deal actually be approved?", returning confirmed / possible / dropped destinations       |
| `search_equipment` | Resolves plain English ("20 tonne excavator") to the asset categories the rate engine understands                 |
| `lookup_abn`       | Looks up an ABN and its trading history                                                                           |
| `list_scenarios`   | Lists your saved and recent scenarios, and fetches one by id                                                      |
| `save_scenario`    | Saves a priced deal to your own scenario list, or names one of your recents so it sticks. **Read and write only** |

The first six are read-only. `save_scenario` is the only one that
changes anything, and it is offered only on a read-and-write
connection — on a read-only connection it is not merely refused, it is
not in the assistant's list at all.

Results respect your plan. On a plan with masked calculator results,
the assistant sees the same masked results you do; `find_approvals`
needs the Matrix entitlement, the same as the Matrix screen. A scenario
the assistant saves is an ordinary saved scenario: it shows up in your
scenarios list and you can delete it there.

> **Warning**
>
> `find_approvals` returns **possible** for a deal a financier has not
> ruled out — a blank criterion means *not checked*, and a blank input
> means *possible*, never a violation. "Possible" is not "approved". Do
> not repeat an assistant's summary to a customer as an approval.

## Connections expire after 30 days

Every connection lasts **30 days from the moment you approve it**, and
then stops working. Your assistant will notice, and ask you to approve
it again — the same one-click consent screen, no address to re-paste.

This is deliberate. Finput issues no refresh tokens, so there is no
credential that quietly keeps working forever in a client you have
forgotten about. A connection you actually use costs you one click a
month; one you have abandoned dies on its own.

**Settings → Connections** lists every connected assistant with the
access level it was granted, when it was connected, when it was last
used and when it expires. Connections in their last few days are
flagged there.

## Disconnecting

1. Go to **Settings → Connections**.
2. Find the assistant and click **Disconnect**.

Access stops immediately. The assistant cannot undo this — disconnecting
is one of the things no connection is ever allowed to do.

A connection is an API token underneath, so the same row also appears
under **Settings → API Tokens**, badged `MCP`. Revoking it there has the
same effect.

## Two different MCP servers

Finput runs two, and they do different jobs.

|                         | Account server                            | Docs server                              |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Address                 | `https://api.finput.com.au/mcp`           | `https://docs.finput.com.au/_mcp/server` |
| Answers questions about | Your account, your rate cards, your deals | This documentation site                  |
| Tools                   | The seven above                           | `searchDocs`                             |
| Sign-in                 | OAuth, one click, 30 days                 | None — public                            |
| Plan                    | Pro or Max                                | Any                                      |

Pointing an assistant at the **docs** server and asking it to price a
deal will not work: that server can only search these pages. Pointing
an assistant at the **account** server and asking how an endpoint is
shaped will not work either. Connecting both is perfectly reasonable —
give them different names in your client so you can tell them apart.

## Troubleshooting

**"Settings → Connections isn't there."** The feature needs a Pro or
Max plan, and it is being rolled out gradually. If you are on Pro or
Max and still cannot see the tab, contact support.

**The consent screen says an application you don't recognise is
asking.** Cancel. The name is self-reported by whatever called us; only
approve a connection you started yourself.

**The assistant stopped working after a month.** That is the 30-day
expiry. Ask it to use a Finput tool again and it will walk you through
reconnecting.

**A tool you expected isn't offered.** The tool list is filtered by your
permissions, plan and access level. A tool you are not entitled to is
not hidden behind an error message — it is simply not there.

> Give Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor access to your own Finput account