MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard that lets AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT use real tools in outside applications. Once you connect the 360Onboard MCP server, your assistant can work with your authorized workspace instead of merely explaining what you should click. It can build and edit flows, inspect responses, manage supported Client Portal work, configure custom domains, and handle other workspace operations available to your account.
This guide explains what the connection can do, how its safeguards work, and how to connect it in Claude Desktop. The same 360Onboard MCP server works with ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible applications.
Why MCP Matters
Before MCP, giving an AI assistant access to a business application usually meant building a custom integration for every model and platform. MCP provides one standard connection that compatible AI applications can use. You connect and authorize each AI application once, and 360Onboard exposes structured tools plus the instructions the assistant needs to use them correctly.
Concretely, with the 360Onboard MCP connected, you can say things like:
- "Build a 4-step client onboarding flow for a marketing agency, including a questionnaire and an e-signature."
- "Show me all the responses to my AI SEO Client Onboarding flow this month."
- "Create the launch tasks and milestones for the Acme account in Client Portal."
- "Set up portal.acme.com as my Client Portal domain and tell me every DNS record I need to add."
The assistant calls the same structured 360Onboard tools regardless of which compatible AI application you use.
What the 360Onboard MCP Can Do
The MCP currently covers the major areas of the platform:
- Workspaces and analytics — find workspaces, view workspace summaries, and inspect activity.
- Flows and clients — list, create, edit, duplicate, and archive flows; list clients and create client invitations.
- Responses and results — retrieve submissions and typed step results, including files, signatures, payments, and other completed work.
- Client Portal — manage accounts, tasks, milestones, messages, files, invoices, members, notes, templates, configuration, and activity when Client Portal is included for the account.
- Custom domains — create onboarding or Client Portal domains, return every required DNS record, check propagation and HTTPS readiness, and activate the domain after verification.
- Workspace operations — manage supported agency profile, email template, SMTP, Twilio, team invitation, webhook, payment, and billing operations.
Feature and permission rules still apply. Connecting MCP does not add features to a plan or let a team member exceed their normal 360Onboard permissions.
MCP, the API, and Webhooks
Use MCP when a person wants to operate 360Onboard by talking to an AI assistant. Use the V2 API when software needs a predictable request-and-response integration. Use webhooks when an outside system should react automatically to a 360Onboard event. Many teams use all three together.
See API & Webhooks V2 Documentation for the public API, Client Portal endpoints, webhook events, payloads, signatures, retries, and the technical Client Portal MCP tool list.
Step 1: Find Your MCP URL
Open 360Onboard and click Settings in the left sidebar. The Settings page has a row of tabs across the top:Agency Profile / Billing / Team Management / APIs, Webhooks & MCP / Email Settings / Custom Domains / Integrations / Login Settings.
Click APIs, Webhooks & MCP, then choose the MCP sub-tab (next to API Keys and Webhooks). You'll see a Model Context Protocol card with setup instructions for each supported client — there are tabs for Claude, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, and Custom.
Below the tabs is a Server URL box showing your endpoint (it looks like https://app.360onboard.com/api/mcp) with a Copy button on the right. Copy that URL — you'll paste it into your AI tool in a second. Sign-in is handled automatically via OAuth, so there's no API key to manage.
Step 2: Add 360Onboard as a Custom Connector in Claude Desktop
Open Claude Desktop and click into Customize (the row in the top-left). In the left rail you'll see Skills, Connectors, and a Personal plugins section — click Connectors.
The Connectors view shows your existing connectors grouped by Web, Desktop, and Not connected. To add 360Onboard, click the small + icon in the top-right of the Connectors column (right next to the search icon). From the menu, pick Add custom connector.
A dialog opens titled Add custom connector (with a small BETA badge). Fill in:
- Name — type
360Onboard - URL — paste the server URL you copied from Settings (
https://app.360onboard.com/api/mcp)
Leave Advanced settings collapsed unless you need to override headers. Click Add.
Step 3: Connect & Authorize the Workspace
You'll land back in the Connectors view with 360Onboard now listed under Not connected. Click it, then press Connect. A 360Onboard authorization page pops open in your browser titled Authorize 360onboard, telling you "Claude is requesting access to your 360onboard workspace" and showing the permissions being requested ("Use MCP tools to read and update your 360onboard data" and "Read MCP resources like workspace summaries and flow snapshots"). The signed-in email is shown above the permissions list.
Click the blue Allow access button. You can close that browser tab — Claude now has access. Back in Claude Desktop you'll see 360Onboard move up into the connected list with its full set of MCP tools available.
Step 4: Ask Claude to Build a Flow
Open a new Claude conversation and ask it something concrete. For a quick test: "Create a random flow in my 360Onboard workspace — include at least one questionnaire step."
Claude will start working. The first time it calls a 360Onboard tool, you'll get a one-time permission prompt — pick Always allow so it can create and edit flows without re-asking. Then it'll list your workspaces, pick one, and create the flow.
Step 5: See It Appear in 360Onboard
Switch over to 360Onboard, open the Flows page in the left sidebar, and the brand-new flow will be at the top of the list with whatever name Claude gave it (in the demo, "360onboard X Claude" with a Draft badge). Click Edit and you'll see the exact steps and questions the AI generated. Because new flows always come in as drafts, nothing is live until you open the builder and click Publish yourself.
Set Up a Custom Domain Through MCP
You can ask the connected assistant to add either an Onboarding domain or a Client Portal domain. It should establish which one you want before creating anything:
- An Onboarding domain hosts public client and employee flow links. You can choose the audience and the personalized link pattern.
- A Client Portal domain opens the private client login at the domain root. Clients do not need to add
/portal, and onboarding audience or link-pattern settings do not apply.
After creating the domain, the assistant receives the complete DNS instructions from 360Onboard and should show every returned record exactly as provided, including its type, host, and value. Depending on the hostname and its history, that may include a 360Onboard ownership TXT record, a Vercel ownership record, and an A or CNAME routing record.
If the workspace has already verified another hostname under the same root domain, 360Onboard may intentionally reuse that ownership verification and omit its own TXT record. Vercel ownership and routing requirements remain specific to the hostname and are still shown whenever required.
DNS often updates within 5–10 minutes but can take up to 24 hours. The assistant can recheck DNS, Vercel ownership, routing, and HTTPS readiness, but it should not claim the domain is ready or activate it until verification succeeds.
Manage Client Portal Through MCP
When Client Portal is included for the account, the assistant can discover the current Client Portal capabilities and work with accounts, tasks, milestones, conversations, files, invoices, members, internal notes, templates, activity, and portal customization. The MCP uses the same underlying contracts as the public V2 Client Portal API, so the AI can see the fields and actions each resource supports instead of guessing.
If Client Portal is not included for the account, its API and MCP operations return Client portal not available. MCP does not bypass plan availability.
Safety and Control
The MCP is designed to be transparent about actions that change your workspace:
- OAuth ties the connection to the signed-in 360Onboard account and its workspace permissions. No API key is copied into the AI application.
- New flows are always created as drafts. Changes to a published flow are staged as pending changes, and the assistant must give you the builder link so you can review and publish them yourself.
- High-impact Client Portal actions default to a dry run. Deletes, milestone publishing and reminders, portal-password changes, profile-photo removal, and meeting creation require a second confirmed execution.
- Deleting a custom domain also defaults to a dry run and reports what will be affected before execution.
- The assistant should return real configuration, DNS, verification, and next-step information from 360Onboard rather than inventing setup instructions.
Works with ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor — Any MCP-Compatible App
The same connector works everywhere MCP is supported. The 360Onboard Settings page has dedicated setup tabs for Claude, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, and Custom — each shows the exact paste-in steps for that tool. You only have to set up the connector once per AI app; from then on, asking your AI to manage 360Onboard is no different from asking it to write code or summarize an email.
What's Next?
- Build a flow end-to-end without AI — Build an Onboarding Flow with AI
- See every step type the AI can use — Every Step Type in 360Onboard
- Trigger automations between steps — Workflows in 360Onboard
- Build a direct integration or receive events — API & Webhooks V2 Documentation