---
title: "04 Connecting Claude, ChatGPT and Other Clients"
canonical_url: https://mdflow.cz/share/c/h0L7MvX5Cy5sST3qPnApqHOmrQ36JTVy169qJMtDMya9Kc30zm04cg9OuPSSPwvj/72aa97f1-fef9-4465-82fc-0a21ee327252
md_url: https://mdflow.cz/share/c/h0L7MvX5Cy5sST3qPnApqHOmrQ36JTVy169qJMtDMya9Kc30zm04cg9OuPSSPwvj/72aa97f1-fef9-4465-82fc-0a21ee327252.md
visibility: public
---

# Connecting Claude, ChatGPT and Other Clients

MDflow's remote MCP server connects to any MCP-capable tool. **All of it requires Pro.**

MDflow publishes per-client setup guides, which are the authoritative steps:

- [mdflow.cz/docs/claude](https://mdflow.cz/docs/claude)
- [mdflow.cz/docs/chatgpt](https://mdflow.cz/docs/chatgpt)
- [mdflow.cz/docs/cursor](https://mdflow.cz/docs/cursor)
- [mdflow.cz/docs/vscode](https://mdflow.cz/docs/vscode)
- [mdflow.cz/docs/mcp](https://mdflow.cz/docs/mcp) — the general reference

## Two ways to authenticate

**OAuth** — for **Claude.ai** and **ChatGPT**. Paste the server URL, click connect, and authorize in your browser. **There is no token to copy, store, or leak.** This is the better path wherever it is offered.

**A Personal Access Token** — for clients that take a bearer credential in their configuration. Create one at [mdflow.cz/settings](https://mdflow.cz/settings).

## The remote server

```
https://mdflow.cz/api/mcp
```

That URL is all most clients need. MDflow is also listed in the official MCP registry as **`cz.mdflow/mcp`**, so registry-aware clients can find it by name.

## Supported clients

- **Claude.ai** — browser OAuth, no token.
- **ChatGPT** — browser OAuth, no token.
- **Claude Desktop**
- **Claude Code**
- **Cursor**
- **Codex**
- **The OpenAI Responses API**
- Any other MCP-capable client.

## The local server

Prefer to run it yourself? Download the local server and run it over `stdio`, supplying the token through your MCP client's configuration. Same tools, on your machine.

Use it for air-gapped setups, custom wiring, or development against a local MDflow. Otherwise the remote server is less work.

## If it will not connect

MDflow returns **authentication setup help before a token is configured**, so a client that connects without credentials gets told what to do rather than a bare error.

The two errors to distinguish:

- **`401`** — the credential is invalid, expired or revoked. Re-authorize, or create a new token.
- **`403`** — **the account is not on Pro.** The credential is fine. This is the one people misdiagnose.

## Getting good results

Once connected, the quality of what an agent can do for you is mostly determined by one thing:

> **Write real folder descriptions.**

`mdflow_get_context` ranks **folder descriptions above** folder names and document titles. An agent searching a workspace of undescribed folders is guessing from titles alone. Describe each folder that actually holds documents, in the words someone would search for, and retrieval starts working. See [02 Folders and Subfolders](/doc/ee296c64-ecda-49e9-a03f-1834eb1746d1).

Workspace descriptions help too — an agent picks the right workspace by matching your topic against them.

## Before you connect

A connected agent can read and write **everything in your account** — every workspace, including private ones — and change what is publicly shared. There is no narrower grant.

Two things it **cannot** do:

- **Read version history**, which is yours alone — and is how you undo an agent's mistake.
- **Read encrypted documents**, which is how you keep something away from it entirely.

Connect deliberately, and use those two facts.