MCP server

Connect a client

Connect Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or ChatGPT to Sprouts in three steps, against the endpoint this deployment publishes. By the end your client lists the Sprouts tools and has answered one free question.

Connect in three steps#

Authenticate

Two ways in, and your client decides which one, not you:

	Sign in (OAuth)	API key
For	Clients that take a URL and nothing else: Claude Desktop, claude.ai, a published ChatGPT connector	Clients whose config can carry a header: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI
Setup	Paste the URL, approve the consent screen	Create a key, paste it into the config file
Spend shows as	The person who consented	That key
Test keys	No: a signed-in session is always `live`	Yes: `sk_dsp_test_` costs zero credits

If your client can do either, use a key. It is attributable per service, it can be revoked without touching anyone's sign-in, and it is the only way to get a free test credential.

Nothing to create. Add the endpoint as a custom connector, and the client discovers where to authenticate, registers itself, and sends you to a Sprouts consent screen naming the scopes it is asking for. Approve it once; the client holds the token and refreshes it on its own.

The scopes are the same five an API key can hold and no wider. The server never forwards the token it was handed: it verifies that the token was issued for this server, then exchanges it for one bound to the API. See Authentication.

Configure your client
Pick your client. Each snippet is built against this deployment's endpoint and carries a client query parameter so usage is attributed correctly. Keep it as written.
claude mcp add --transport http sprouts "https://dashboard.sproutsdata.ai/mcp?client=claude-code-plugin" \ --header "X-API-Key: sk_dsp_test_..."
The key travels in the X-API-Key header. Clients that can only attach a bearer token can send Authorization: Bearer sk_dsp_... instead. The MCP server treats the two identically: it tells an sk_dsp_ key and an OAuth token apart by their shape rather than by the header they arrived in, and forwards a key to the API as X-API-Key.
That is a convenience of the MCP server only. If you call the HTTP API directly, send the key in X-API-Key. A key sent there as Authorization: Bearer is refused with 401 auth.unauthorized, because on the API that header is reserved for OAuth tokens.
Not in the list above? These connect differently:
ChatGPT connects through a developer-mode custom connector. Add this as the MCP server URL and supply your key as the access token. ChatGPT sends it as a bearer token, which the server accepts:
https://dashboard.sproutsdata.ai/mcp?tools=search,fetch
The tools=search,fetch part is not optional. ChatGPT's connector framework expects two unprefixed tools with fixed shapes, and that pair is opt-in only. See ChatGPT compatibility.
Restart, then check
Most clients only re-read MCP configuration on a cold start. If the tools do not appear, fully quit and reopen the client before anything else.
Then ask for something free, so a wiring problem does not cost credits to discover:

What does Sprouts actually have coverage of?

That calls sprouts_coverage, which never bills. A good answer means the endpoint, the credential and the scopes are all correct. If your host renders MCP Apps it comes back as a card; everywhere else it is the same information as text.

Next steps#

Tools

What each of the nine does, what it costs, and which scope it needs.

Limits and troubleshooting

Spend caps, confirmation, rate limits, and what each error means.