Claude and ChatGPT

If you already use Claude or ChatGPT, you can connect them to the management software and ask, in your own words, how the workshop is doing: how much you billed in September compared with August, which jobs pay best, which customers have not come back in six months, which parts are below their reorder point. The assistant reads the data when you ask, with your permissions, and cannot change anything.

The feature is in preview. You find it in Settings›Integrations›Claude and ChatGPT, it is included from Premium upwards and only the workshop administrators can use it.

Before you start#

• Your own Claude or ChatGPT account, on a plan that lets you add custom connectors. This depends on the provider, not on CrankPal: check on their website.
• The administrator role in the management software. See users, roles and permissions.
• A second sign-in factor on your CrankPal account: authenticator app, email code or passkey. You confirm the connection with it. Turn it on from Settings›Account›Security.

Connect Claude#

1. Copy your workshop's address

   The Claude and ChatGPT card shows the address to paste into the assistant. It is your workshop's address and ends with /mcp. Press Copy.

2. Add the connector in Claude

   On claude.ai, or in the desktop app, open the settings, then Connectors and Add custom connector. Give it a name, for example CrankPal, and paste the address. In Claude Code you add it as a remote MCP server, with the same address.

3. Sign in and confirm

   Claude opens a CrankPal page. If you are not signed in yet, sign in. The page says who is asking for the connection, what it will be able to read and what it will not. Choose whether to include customers' email and phone, press Connect and confirm with your second factor. You go back to Claude, connected.

Connect ChatGPT#

1. Turn on developer mode

   In ChatGPT, custom connectors go through developer mode, which you turn on from the settings. Availability depends on your ChatGPT plan.

2. Create the app with the CrankPal address

   Create a new MCP app, paste the address copied from the Claude and ChatGPT card and choose OAuth authentication.

3. Sign in and confirm

   As with Claude: sign in to CrankPal, choose whether to include customers' contact details, press Connect and confirm with your second factor.

What it can read, and what it cannot#

When you ask, the assistant can read:

• appointments and the agenda load;
• work orders, quotes and the payments still to collect;
• the report for a period, with the same numbers as the Report page, and the margins;
• the inventory and the parts below their reorder point;
• customers, with their visits and what they spent at the workshop;
• the CrankPal documentation, for questions on how to do something.

Customers' email and phone only leave if you included them when connecting. The assistant cannot create, change or delete anything, nor message customers. It respects your user's permissions and your plan's modules: if inventory is not in your plan, it tells you instead of making up stock levels.

The assistant answers when you ask a question, including inside a scheduled task of the assistant itself (for example a summary every Monday morning), if your Claude or ChatGPT plan offers them. It does not react on its own to what happens at the workshop.

See the access log and disconnect#

The Claude and ChatGPT card lists the active connections: who created them, when, the last access and how many reads in the last 24 hours. Recent access shows every read: which tool, when and how many rows. Disconnect closes the connection straight away.

When a connection is created, all the workshop administrators receive an email: if you do not recognise it, disconnect it.

A connection also closes on its own when you change your password, when your user is deactivated or is no longer an administrator, and when nobody uses it for 90 days. If the workshop moves to a plan without the connector, the connection stays but the assistant reads nothing until you are back on Premium or higher. See features by plan.

Common problems#