# Set up Claude and ChatGPT

> Create an API token, then add Orcabase to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, claude.ai or ChatGPT as an MCP connector. Commands and settings included.

Source: https://tini.so/docs/connect-ai/setup

Setting up takes two steps: create a token in Orcabase, then add Orcabase to your assistant. The app has the same instructions, filled in for your organization, under **Settings → MCP**.

## 1. Create a token

1. **Open API tokens**

   Go to **Settings → API Tokens → New token**.

2. **Name it and create it**

   Give it a name that says where it’s used, like “Claude, Jane’s laptop”, and click **Create token**.

3. **Copy it now**

   Click **Copy token**. It starts with `tnd_`, and it’s shown only this once: Orcabase keeps a scrambled version it can check, not the token itself. Lost it? Revoke it and create another.

> **Important: Treat it like a password**
>
> Anyone with the token can query your organization’s data and create things in it. Keep it out of shared documents and code repositories. See [API tokens](https://tini.so/docs/workspace/api-tokens).

## 2a. Claude Code

Run this once in a terminal, with your token in place of YOUR_TOKEN:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http orcabase-your-org \
  https://api.tini.so/api/mcp \
  --header "X-Api-Token: YOUR_TOKEN"
```

Check it with `claude mcp list`, then just ask: “What data sources do we have?” or “Chart daily signups for the last 30 days.” Replace `orcabase-your-org` with your organization’s name, as below.

## 2b. Claude Desktop and claude.ai

1. **Add a custom connector**

   Go to **Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector** and paste `https://api.tini.so/api/mcp` as the URL.

2. **Choose “No sign-in”**

   Under **Authentication**, pick **No sign-in**, the option for servers that use an API key. Claude suggests signing in with OAuth first; Orcabase doesn’t use OAuth, so skip that.

3. **Add the token as a header**

   Still on that screen, add a **Request header** named `x-api-token` with your token as its value, mark it required, and click **Add**.

## 2c. ChatGPT

Whether ChatGPT can add a connector that uses a header token depends on your plan and ChatGPT’s current rollout. Where it can’t, the same endpoint and token work from a Custom GPT action, or from OpenAI’s Responses API with its built-in MCP support:

```text
URL:    https://api.tini.so/api/mcp
Header: X-Api-Token: YOUR_TOKEN
```

## More than one organization

A token only ever reaches one organization. If you work in several, create a token in each and add one connection per organization, named after it, so the second doesn’t replace the first:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http orcabase-acme https://api.tini.so/api/mcp \
  --header "X-Api-Token: ACME_TOKEN"
claude mcp add --transport http orcabase-globex https://api.tini.so/api/mcp \
  --header "X-Api-Token: GLOBEX_TOKEN"
```

Claude Code keeps every connection open, so you can say “using orcabase-acme…” and then “now the same for orcabase-globex” in one conversation.

### If it doesn’t connect

- **401 or “unauthorized”:** the token is wrong, revoked, or missing its header. Check the header name (`X-Api-Token`) and that the whole token was pasted.
- **Claude asks for an OAuth client ID:** go back and pick **No sign-in** under Authentication.
- **The assistant can’t find a table:** the data source has to exist in Orcabase first. Tokens can’t add data sources.

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