Connect an AI assistant

An AI assistant such as Claude Code or Cursor can manage your meibo directories for you over MCP, the Model Context Protocol, once you give it a key. Only a directory's owner can make keys. A key works for every directory you have, including ones you make later. If you have more than one, the assistant names the one it is working on by its slug, the last part of its address.

Make a key

On your account page, under "Connect an AI assistant", name a new key after the assistant that will use it, and tick only what the assistant needs. Each box is explained below. Copy the key as soon as it appears: it is shown once, and never again.

Make a key

Claude Code

In the folder where you use Claude Code, run this, with your key in place of <your key>:

claude mcp add --transport http meibo https://api.meibo.io/api/v1/directory/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <your key>"

Claude Code saves it in your own settings, for that folder only. To use meibo in every folder, put --scope user straight after claude mcp add. Never use --scope project: it writes your key into the folder's shared .mcp.json file, where anyone who has the project can read it.

Type /mcp in Claude Code to check that meibo is connected.

Cursor

Put meibo in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, the settings file in your home folder, so that the key stays out of every project. Put your key in place of <your key>:

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meibo": {
      "url": "https://api.meibo.io/api/v1/directory/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <your key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

If the file already lists other servers, add meibo beside them inside mcpServers.

Other assistants

Any other assistant that connects to MCP servers over Streamable HTTP and lets you add a header can use meibo too. Give it the address https://api.meibo.io/api/v1/directory/mcp and the header Authorization: Bearer <your key>.

The connectors in the Claude and ChatGPT apps ask you to sign in with OAuth, which meibo doesn't offer yet, so they can't connect to it.

To call meibo from your own code, the API reference lists every route a key can reach.

What each box lets an assistant do

Any key: get_directory_settings, to read the directory's name, teachers and logo.
Settings: update_directory_settings, to change the name and teachers.
Read entries: list_entries and get_entry, to list the entries and read each one in full.
Add and edit entries: create_entry and update_entry, to add entries and change them.
Moderation: list_moderation_queue, to see what waits for you; update_entry, to publish an entry or dismiss its reports; and delete_entry.
Invites: send_invites, to email people a directory's address, within that directory's 200 a day. It lets nobody in, and it's off unless you tick it.

Keeping families' details safe

Read entries is off unless you tick it. The key form warns you beside it:

Reads every entry in full: parents' names, emails, phones and home addresses, and children's names and teachers. What it reads goes to the assistant's AI provider, under your control. Photos are never shared.

Whatever a key holds, an assistant is never sent a photo: an entry says only whether it has one.

You can revoke a key on your account page at any time.

Every call a key makes stays in your key log for 90 days, under the route it used, such as GET /api/v1/directory/entries.

If it doesn't connect

If your assistant can't connect, or asks you to sign in, the key is wrong, revoked or expired. Make a new one on your account page and put it in place of the old one.