Connect MCP to Claude

Decide your auth path

Pick how Claude will authenticate before you wire anything up:

• OAuth — for an interactive person using Claude Desktop or Claude.ai. Claude runs a browser sign-in on first use and stores a JWT. This path unlocks all eleven buzzabout__* tools, including buzzabout__ask.
• x-api-key — for a headless agent or server process. You mint a key in the web app and send it as a header on every request. This path covers the ten REST-mirror tools but not buzzabout__ask.

The MCP transport endpoint is the same for both: https://api.buzzabout.ai/mcp/.

API Keys

For the headless path, you mint the key in the web app. Open Settings and switch to the API Keys tab (this surface lives at /settings?tab=api-keys). The tab is described as Manage API keys for programmatic access to Buzzabout. If you have no keys yet, you'll see No API keys yet and Create your first API key to start using the Buzzabout API.

Create API Key

Click Create API Key, give it a descriptive name in the Key Name field (the placeholder reads e.g., Production API Key), then click Create Key. The button shows Creating... while it works.

When it finishes, the API Key Created dialog appears with the warning Make sure to copy your API key now. You won't be able to see it again!. Click Copy to Clipboard (it confirms with Copied!) and store the key somewhere safe. The value looks like bz_live_.... Click Done to close. Afterwards the list only shows Key ends with: ••• — there is no way to reveal the full value again.

Open the integration settings (OAuth)

For the interactive path, point Claude at the MCP transport URL:

• Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Claude opens claude_desktop_config.json in your editor.
• Claude.ai: Settings → Integrations → Add custom.

Add the Buzzabout server

Use the streamable HTTP transport and the trailing-slash URL https://api.buzzabout.ai/mcp/.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "buzzabout": {
      "transport": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://api.buzzabout.ai/mcp/"
    }
  }
}

Authorise

The first time Claude calls a tool, it opens a browser window to api.buzzabout.ai/mcp/oauth/authorize. Sign in with your Buzzabout account and Claude exchanges the redirect code for a JWT, which it stores locally. You won't see this prompt again until the token expires.

Wire a headless agent (API key)

If you took the x-api-key path instead, send a POST to https://api.buzzabout.ai/mcp/ with the x-api-key header on every request, or configure your MCP SDK's HTTP client to attach it. In Python that's the streamablehttp_client; in TypeScript it's the StreamableHTTPClientTransport, each with a custom header carrying your bz_live_... key.

The dual-auth middleware checks x-api-key first and falls back to Authorization: Bearer <jwt>. If neither resolves, the server returns 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header pointing at the OAuth metadata.

Verify

Open a new conversation and ask:

"Which Buzzabout tools do you have available?"

Claude should list the eleven buzzabout__* tools. Async tools like buzzabout__create_dataset_run and buzzabout__create_audience_dataset_run return a pending status, so the host LLM polls get_*_run until the status is completed or failed. Collection and analysis runs charge credits.