Connecting to CollabPortals via MCP

CollabPortals has an MCP connector, so you can configure your portals from an AI assistant by asking in plain language, instead of clicking through the admin screens.

MCP (the Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools. Because the connector is a standard MCP server, it works with any assistant that supports remote MCP connectors, such as Claude and ChatGPT. You add the same connector URL in whichever assistant you use.

Once connected, you can say things like:

• "In my Client Portal, hide the Internal Notes field from the Client role."
• "Add a record filter to the Projects table so each client only sees their own projects."
• "Show the Invoices table as a tab inside each Client record instead of its own page."
• "What roles and permissions are set on my Sales portal right now?"

The assistant makes the change through the connector, and it shows up in your portal exactly as if you had made it in the admin dashboard.

What you can do

The connector configures portals your account already manages:

• Table and field permissions (who can view, create, edit, delete)
• Roles: add a role, rename it, set the default
• Record filters and per-user record scoping
• Related-record tabs and which tables show as their own page
• View configuration (table, gallery, kanban, calendar) and default sort
• Reading your current setup: portals, roles, permissions, and the connected Airtable schema

Every change it makes is one you could make yourself in the dashboard, so you can always review it there.

What it can't do

The connector is deliberately limited. It cannot:

• Create or delete portals. Do that in the dashboard.
• Change the records inside your Airtable base. It configures the portal, not your data.
• Touch any portal outside your own account. It only ever acts as you.

A couple of higher-risk changes need you to confirm them before the assistant will make them: switching a table to show every record (rather than only each user's own), and removing a role. The assistant asks first in both cases.

How to connect

The connector is a standard MCP server at one URL:

https://www.collabportals.com/api/mcp

Add that as a custom connector in your assistant, then sign in to CollabPortals and approve the consent screen. The exact menus differ by app.

In Claude, which we have tested end to end:

1. Open Settings, then Connectors, and choose to add a custom connector.
2. Enter the connector URL above.
3. Claude opens a CollabPortals page. Log in with your CollabPortals account if you are not already signed in.
4. You will see a consent screen naming the app and the account it is connecting as. Read what it is asking for, then choose Allow.
5. The assistant is now connected. Ask it to make a change to one of your portals.

Other MCP clients (ChatGPT, Cursor, and others) follow the same flow: add the URL, sign in, approve the consent screen. If your CollabPortals login is not already open in the same browser, the consent step asks you to sign in first. That is expected.

Permissions and consent

When you approve the connector, you grant the assistant access to configure your existing portals as you, and only your account's portals. The access is:

• Per user. The connection is tied to your account. It sees what you can see and changes what you can change, nothing more.
• Scoped. It configures portals. It does not read or write your Airtable records, and it cannot create or delete portals.
• Revocable. You can disconnect it at any time from the connector settings in your assistant, and the access stops working immediately.

The connection uses a standard OAuth sign-in, the same pattern you use to connect any account to another app. The assistant never receives your CollabPortals password, and we never see your conversations with it.

If something looks wrong

Every change the connector makes is one you could make yourself in the dashboard, so you can always review and adjust it there. If a change is not what you meant, open the portal in CollabPortals and set it back.

Let us know if you have questions or run into anything odd with the connector.