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Connect an AI app

Structured AI works as a connector (an MCP server) for AI apps such as Claude (claude.ai, the Claude desktop app and Claude Code) and ChatGPT. Once you connect, your AI app looks things up in Structured AI as you. You can:

  • ask about your projects, drawings, findings and building codes, and get answers that cite the sheets
  • hand a deeper question to the Structured AI agent and get its answer back in your AI app
  • with your approval, run checks or checklists, resolve findings, and add files to a project

It only ever sees what you can see in Structured AI.

Use case: in Claude, ask "what are the open life-safety findings on the clinic project, and which sheets do they cite?" and get the answer with the cited pages, without leaving Claude.

note

This page is about using Structured AI from your AI app. To let the Structured AI chat work with your Outlook, SharePoint or Teams, see Connect Microsoft 365.

Off until your owner turns it on

Nobody in your organization can connect an AI app until your organization owner turns on Allow AI apps in Settings > Connectors. If Settings says AI apps aren't available for your organization, ask us. Owners: see AI apps for owners and IT.

Connection details​

SettingValue
Server addresshttps://mcp.getstructured.ai/mcp
TransportStreamable HTTP
Sign-inOAuth, with your usual Structured AI login
API keyNot used. There is nothing to copy or keep secret.

Set up your AI app​

Claude​

For claude.ai and the Claude desktop app:

  1. In Claude, open Settings > Connectors.
  2. Choose Add custom connector. Name it Structured AI and paste the server address.
  3. Choose Connect and sign in to Structured AI.

On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, your Claude admin may need to add the connector for your organization first. Each person then connects it from Settings > Connectors.

Claude Code​

  1. Add the server for all your projects:

    claude mcp add --transport http --scope user structured https://mcp.getstructured.ai/mcp

  2. In Claude Code, run /mcp, choose structured, then choose to authenticate. Your browser opens to sign in.

To share it with everyone working in a repository, use --scope project instead. That writes the address to the repository's .mcp.json. The file holds no secret, so it's safe to commit; each person still signs in as themselves.

ChatGPT​

  1. Go to Plugins, choose Add, then Add custom MCP server.
  2. Give it a name and paste the server address.
  3. Choose OAuth, accept the notice, and choose Create as a plugin.
  4. Choose Connect and sign in to Structured AI.

Other AI apps​

Any AI app that can add a remote MCP server over HTTP and sign in with OAuth follows the same pattern:

  1. Add a remote (HTTP) MCP server with the server address. If it asks how to sign in, choose OAuth.
  2. Leave any API key or header fields empty.
  3. Connect, and sign in when your browser opens.

An AI app that only accepts an API key, or only runs local (stdio) servers, can't connect.

Approve the connection​

  1. Your AI app opens a browser window. Sign in with your usual Structured AI login.
  2. The Connect an AI app page shows which organization the app will act in and what it can do. Only approve if you started this from your AI app just now. If someone sent you the link, choose Deny.
  3. Choose Approve. You're sent back to your AI app, which can now use Structured AI.

If your organization owner has turned on Let AI apps make changes and your role can make changes, the page also offers Also let it make changes. Leave it off for read-only access.

Check the connection​

Ask your AI app: "List my Structured AI projects." It should show the projects you can open in Structured AI. If your AI app asks permission to use the tool, allow it.

Try asking​

  • "What are the open life-safety findings on the clinic project, and which sheets do they cite?"
  • "Find every sheet in the CD set that mentions a 2-hour rated corridor and show me the wall types on those sheets."
  • "Look at sheet A-201 in the clinic set. Is any door missing a tag?"
  • "What do our building codes say about handrail height on stairs?"
  • "Ask Structured AI whether the egress widths on level 2 meet the code, and give me the cited pages."

If changes are allowed:

  • "Run our firm's standard CD checklist on the clinic project and tell me when it's done."
  • "Waive the two duplicate findings on M-301."
  • From Claude Code: "Add ./addendum-03.pdf to the clinic project."

What your AI app can do​

Read (always available once connected):

  • list your projects, and the documents in a project
  • search the text of every PDF in a project, read a page, or look at a page visually
  • list findings on a project or document, and open a finding with its cited locations and code references
  • search the building codes available to your organization
  • ask the Structured AI agent a question about a project or a document (a deep question can take 10 to 20 minutes, and your AI app checks back for the answer)
  • list the checks and checklists you can run, and follow a run's progress

Make changes (only if your organization owner turned on Let AI apps make changes and you chose Also let it make changes):

  • run checks or one of your organization's checklists on a project
  • resolve, waive or reopen findings, the same as the status buttons on the Issues tab
  • add a file to a project, the same as the Upload button

Your AI app can't delete anything. Running checks and processing a new document may cost your organization money, the same as when you do it in the app. On each project, changes also need a role that can edit it; a view-only member can connect, but only to read.

Every tool, and which ones make changes, is listed in AI app tools.

Approving changes​

By default, nothing changes until you say so. When your AI app asks to make a change, it waits under Changes waiting for your approval in Settings > Connected AI apps, and you get a notification. Choose Approve or Decline. Your AI app is told whether it went ahead. A request you don't answer expires after 7 days.

When an AI app adds a file, you approve that exact file. If the file is replaced after you were asked, nothing is added.

If you'd rather not approve each change, turn on Let my connected AI apps make changes without asking me in Settings > Connected AI apps. Your organization's settings and each app's access still decide what an app may change.

See and revoke connected apps​

Settings > Connected AI apps lists every AI app connected to your account: when it was connected, when it was last used, and whether it is Read only or Can make changes. Revoke cuts off its access immediately.

Access also stops on its own after 14 days without use, and after 90 days in any case. Reconnect from your AI app to continue. If you leave your organization, every AI app connection you hold is revoked.

Troubleshooting​

"Connecting AI apps is not turned on for your organization"​

AI apps aren't available for your organization on our side. Ask us and we'll turn them on.

"Your organization owner hasn't turned on connecting AI apps"​

Ask your organization owner to turn on Allow AI apps in Settings > Connectors, then start again from your AI app.

The connect page doesn't offer "Also let it make changes"​

Your organization owner hasn't turned on Let AI apps make changes. Connect read-only, or ask your owner. If you connected read-only and changes are turned on later, reconnect from your AI app to get them.

"This connection request has expired or was already answered"​

Start again from your AI app. Each sign-in link works once.

My AI app stopped working, or asks me to sign in again​

Its access ended: it went unused for 14 days, it reached 90 days, or it was revoked. Reconnect from your AI app. If Settings > Connected AI apps says AI apps are turned off for your organization, your owner has turned off Allow AI apps.

A change I asked for didn't happen​

It's probably waiting for you under Changes waiting for your approval in Settings > Connected AI apps. A request that was declined, or that waited more than 7 days, doesn't go ahead.

My AI app can't find a project or document​

It only sees what you can open in Structured AI, in the organization you approved on the connect page. Check that you can open the project in Structured AI. A document that is still processing can't be searched or read yet.

A question to Structured AI is taking a long time​

A deep question can take 10 to 20 minutes. Your AI app checks back for the answer; if it stops waiting, ask it to check for the answer again.

My AI app says a usage limit was reached​

AI apps work within the same usage limits as you do in the app. When your limit or your organization's is reached, anything that starts new work (a question, a check run, an upload) is refused with the same message you'd see in Structured AI. Work already running still finishes. See Usage and billing.

My AI app says it hit a rate limit​

Too many calls were made in a short time. Your AI app is told how long to wait before trying again. The limits are listed in AI apps for owners and IT.