Connect an AI Assistant (MCP)

StudioBase runs a hosted MCP server that lets you connect your own AI assistant — Claude or ChatGPT — directly to your studio's live data. Once it's connected, you can ask questions in plain English ("which classes earn the most per booking?", "who hasn't booked in 30 days?") and the assistant answers using your real numbers, pulling across your schedule, revenue, attendance, and marketing in a single reply.

The connection is read-only. The assistant can read your data to answer questions; it cannot change anything, message your students, or move money.

What you can ask it

Once connected, the assistant can answer questions backed by these read-only tools:

• Studio overview — revenue this month vs last, active members, weekly fill rate
• Revenue — totals, daily trend, and per-class revenue for a period
• Schedule — upcoming classes with times, instructor, capacity, and bookings
• Attendance — booked, checked-in, no-show counts and attendance rate per class
• Waitlists — how many people are waiting on each upcoming class
• Memberships — counts by status (active / canceled / past-due) and by tier
• Member lookup — search a member by name and see their booking and visit history
• Marketing — campaign clicks, bookings, and revenue, plus your active promotion

Before you start

• You need an AI client that supports custom MCP connectors. StudioBase has guided setup for Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, and ChatGPT.
• You must be signed in as the studio owner. If you own more than one studio, you'll choose which one to connect during authorization.

Connect your assistant

The fastest path is the guided panel in your dashboard, which shows step-by-step instructions tailored to your client:

1. Go to Settings → AI in your StudioBase dashboard.
2. Pick your AI client and follow the on-screen steps.
3. When prompted, copy these two values into your client:

1. Your browser opens a StudioBase authorization screen. Sign in if needed, pick the studio to connect (if you have more than one), and approve.

That's it — the assistant can now answer questions about that studio.

Client-specific notes

Claude.ai — Open Settings → Connectors, click Add custom connector, enter the name and server URL above, then click Connect and approve access in your browser. (On Team or Enterprise plans, an owner adds connectors under Organization Settings → Connectors.)

Claude Desktop — Open Settings → Connectors, click Add custom connector, enter the name and server URL, then click Connect and approve access when your browser opens.

ChatGPT — Open Settings → Connectors (enable developer mode first if your plan requires it), add a custom connector / MCP server, enter the name and server URL, then authorize when prompted.

What it can and can't see

• Read-only. Every tool reads data; none can write, book, refund, or message.
• Your studio only. The connection is scoped to the single studio you chose when authorizing. The assistant cannot see any other studio's data.
• Privacy-preserving. Tools return aggregate counts and totals. Member lookup returns a display name and visit/booking stats, with email, phone, and payment identifiers stripped before they ever leave StudioBase.

Disconnecting

You can revoke a connection at any time from your AI client's connector settings. Once revoked, the assistant's access stops immediately.

Technical details

The server implements the Model Context Protocol over streamable HTTP at https://www.studiobase.org/api/mcp. Authorization uses the OAuth 2.0 authorization-code grant with PKCE (S256), with endpoints advertised via standard discovery documents (/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource), so a compliant MCP client configures itself automatically — you only provide the server URL.

• Scope: access tokens carry mcp:read only. Tokens issued for other StudioBase surfaces (such as the Zapier/webhook partner API) are rejected.
• Rate limit: 120 requests per minute per connection.

For the partner OAuth flow used by webhook integrations, see OAuth 2.0.