--- title: Connect an agent over MCP description: Give your own AI agent access to a Quilium site, with your account, your permissions, and no token to copy around. updated: 2026-07-25 --- Quilium runs a hosted [MCP](/en/docs/ai-mcp-skills) server at `https://mcp.quilium.io/mcp`. You connect it once, authorise it with your Quilium account, and your agent can then read and write every site you have access to, through the [same typed operations](/en/docs/mcp-tools) the backoffice uses.
Live example: Cairn. The connection below is bound to Cairn, the demo site of a hiking-guide publisher, and verified against its real itineraires collection. Any site you can open in the backoffice works the same way.
## 1. Add the server to your client The server speaks streamable HTTP and authenticates over OAuth, so there is nothing to install and no token to paste. The URL is the same everywhere: ```text https://mcp.quilium.io/mcp ``` **Claude.** Settings → Connectors → *Add custom connector*, then paste the URL. The browser opens the Quilium consent screen; approve it and the connector turns active. This covers claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Claude for Work at once — see [Anthropic's guide to custom connectors](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-get-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp). **Claude Code.** The same connector works, and there is also a one-line install. Add it, then run `/mcp` to authorise: ```bash claude mcp add --transport http quilium https://mcp.quilium.io/mcp ``` **ChatGPT.** Turn developer mode on, under Settings → Apps and connectors, then create a connector with the URL — see [OpenAI's guide to MCP in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12584461-developer-mode-and-mcp-apps-in-chatgpt). **Other clients** (Cursor, VS Code, Codex, …). Add the server to the client's MCP configuration: ```json { "mcpServers": { "quilium": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.quilium.io/mcp" } } } ``` Your site's dashboard carries these same paths behind **Connect your AI assistant**, with the URL ready to copy. ![The Connect your AI assistant dialog in the Cairn backoffice: the connector URL ready to copy, the per-client paths for Claude and ChatGPT, the mcpServers JSON for every other client, and the sign-in step.](/thumbs/559f9000-aa3f-11f1-b743-5741af99ef2d.png) ## 2. Authorise with your Quilium account Authorisation is an OAuth flow against your Quilium account, not an API key. That has two consequences worth knowing: - **The agent inherits your access.** It sees the sites your account can open, nothing else. There is no separate service identity to provision or revoke. - **The session refreshes on its own.** You authorise once; you do not re-paste a credential every morning. To revoke it, open the connected applications of your Quilium account: the connection stops within 15 minutes, for every agent connected through this server. ## 3. Bind the connection to one site (recommended) By default, one connection serves **all** your sites: the tool list is the union of everything you might do somewhere, and each individual call is authorised against the site it targets. That is convenient when you juggle several projects, and confusing when you do not. Append `?website=` to bind the connection to a single site: ```text https://mcp.quilium.io/mcp?website= ``` Bound this way, the server resolves your profile on that one site and lists **only the tools you may actually call** there. It also uses that site as the fallback when a call omits its `website` argument, which is what makes `get-skills` return a skill list filtered for your profile.
One connector per site you work on. Name them after the site (quilium-cairn, quilium-lisiere). An agent that can only see one site cannot write into the wrong one.
The id is on the site's **Overview** page, in the same *AI assistant* card that opens the dialog above — a **Site ID** field, next to the connect button. Failing that, an agent already connected can call `get-me` with no argument and list every site your account reaches, ids included. ## 4. Know what your profile allows The server enforces permissions per call, per site, from the profile your account holds **on that site**. Advertising a tool is not the same as authorising it. | Profile | What it can do | |---|---| | `owner`, `admin`, `webdesigner` | Everything: content, media, collections, translations, plus site structure (YAML settings, routes, navigations). | | `webmaster`, `editor` | Everything content-side. Structure is off limits: `update-setting`, `update-settings-partial`, the four `*-route` tools and the three `*-navigation` tools are refused. | A restricted profile that asks for a structural change gets a clean refusal, not a broken write. If you hold a full profile but want to work with the guardrails of a restricted one, declare it on the connection: append `&mode=webmaster` to the URL. ## 5. Verify the connection Ask the agent for two calls before anything else. Together they prove the identity, the site binding and the permissions in one exchange: ```prompt Call get-me for this site, then get-site-settings with type: item-set-types. Tell me which account I'm connected as, my profile on this site, and the collections you can see. ``` On Cairn, a bound connection answers with your account, the profile you hold there, and the site's collections, `itineraires` among them. If the profile is not the one you expected, you are on the wrong connector or the wrong site. ## 6. Then load the skills A connected agent is not yet a competent one. Everything that makes it write correct YAML on the first try, the [skills library](/en/docs/skills), is loaded on demand and needs to be asked for. That is the subject of [Prompting well for Quilium](/en/docs/prompting), and the one habit worth taking from it: ```prompt Before any CMS operation, call get-skills, load every skill relevant to the task, then call get-site-settings for this site. ``` ## Troubleshooting | Symptom | Cause | Fix | |---|---|---| | The client lists no Quilium tools | The OAuth flow was never completed, or it was cancelled | Re-run the authorisation (`/mcp` in Claude Code, the connector panel elsewhere) | | Structural tools are missing from the list | Connection bound with `?website=` to a site where you hold a restricted profile | Expected. Use an account with a full profile on that site, or work content-side | | A tool call is refused although the tool is listed | Unbound connection: the list is the union of all your sites, authority is per call | Bind the connection with `?website=`, so the list matches what you can do | | Writes land on the wrong site | Several sites reachable, no binding, and the call omitted `website` | One connector per site | | `get-skills` returns an unfiltered list | No site bound and none passed to the call | Bind the connection, or pass `website` on the call | ## Related
RecommendedPrompting well for QuiliumWhat to say once the agent is connected. MCP toolsEvery operation the server exposes, and the write shapes. MCP skill libraryThe library the agent loads from before acting. Use the integrated AI agentThe assistant already connected inside the CMS.