OttoKit MCP Server: Let Your AI Take Action for You

Large language models (LLMs) have been able to extract, classify, summarize, and write content for quite some time. However, they couldn’t independently perform these tasks – at least not without complex technical setups.

That changed in November 2024 when Anthropic introduced a feature called the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP acts as a bridge between AI tools and external apps, enabling your AI to perform tasks on your behalf more easily.

What is MCP?

MCP is a standard protocol. It equips your AI with a list of apps and actions that you choose—such as sending a direct message in Slack or drafting an email in Gmail—and allows it to call those tools whenever needed.

Typically, you’d have to build separate integrations for every app you want your AI assistant to use. But in OttoKit, we’ve already built a vast library of thousands of app connections that you can readily use in your MCP setup.

Key features of OttoKit MCP include:

• Nearly 1,000 app connections:
  Connect your AI to thousands of apps in our library without needing to build or maintain the integrations yourself.

• Code-free setup:
  No technical knowledge required. Easily connect OttoKit MCP to Claude, Cursor, and OpenAI Desktop within minutes—no coding needed. You can then perform actions using simple, natural language.

• AI suggestions:
  Skip manually entering all field details. OttoKit’s AI can suggest values for fields to help speed up the action setup process.

• On/off toggles:
  Temporarily disable an action in your MCP page without deleting it. This allows you to keep all the pre-configured settings and enable it again later.

• Built-in security:
  OttoKit MCP endpoints include secure authentication, encryption, and rate limiting to ensure protection against abuse.

What you can do with OttoKit MCP

Here are a few examples of what your AI can do with OttoKit MCP:

• Find, add, or update specific rows inside your Google Sheets.

• Manage a BuddyBoss community by instructing AI to write and send messages reminding members about upcoming events.

• Create a calendar event and have your AI send an email invitation with the meeting details.

Once you’ve activated the relevant actions in your MCP, you simply instruct your AI—and it takes care of the task.

What’s more impressive is that if you’re using AI tools with voice capabilities, you can speak your instructions, and your AI will handle everything. Creating your own custom voice assistant has never been this accessible.

How to get started with OttoKit MCP

In OttoKit MCP Server, we currently support three AI tools: Claude, Cursor, and OpenAI Playground. Let’s now walk through how you can create and configure an MCP server with each of these tools.

First, let’s create the MCP Server and MCP Tools:

• Login to the OttoKit platform
• .Click on the MCP option in the sidebar.

• Click on the Create MCP Server + button.

• In the popup that appears, provide a name for your MCP Server. You may also add an optional description.

• Make sure to check the Active checkbox, and then click on the Create Server button.

• Your MCP server is now created.

After creating the server, you will see the following on your screen:

• Server URL – This is crucial and will be required later when configuring the connection.
• Manage Tools – This button allows you to manage tools (which refer to app action endpoints) for the MCP Server.
• History – Here, you can check the execution history of your MCP tools.
• Three-dots menu – Clicking this menu shows options such as Edit, Regenerate URL, Configure, and Delete.
• Use Edit to update the server’s name and description.
• Use Regenerate URL to generate a new Server URL.
• Use Configure to set up the MCP Server with any of the three AI tools.
• Use Delete to remove the server entirely.

Next, let’s add Tools (i.e., connections) to your MCP Server:

• Click on the Manage Tools option.

• On the new page, click on the Add MCP Tool + button.

• In the flyout, select the integration (tool) you want to use.
  For this example, let’s select SureCart, as we plan to create a coupon using MCP, which will later be shared via email or SMS (using Twilio).
• After selecting SureCart as the tool, choose the relevant connection for your SureCart app.
• Under the Event dropdown, you’ll see a list of available action events. You can either add all actions at once or select just the one you need.
  In this example, we’ll select only the Create Coupon event.

• Click on the Add Tool button.
  Your MCP Tool has now been successfully added to the server.

To edit or delete a tool, click on the three-dots menu next to it and select the desired option.

Now return to the main page of your MCP Server.

The next step is installing Node.js (Required for MCP Server)

To run the MCP Server successfully on your machine, you need to have Node.js installed. Node.js is required for executing the npx command that runs the MCP Remote Client.

Below are the steps to install Node.js on Mac and Windows systems.

For Mac:

• Visit the official Node.js website: https://nodejs.org
• Click on the macOS Installer under the LTS (Long-Term Support) version.
• Download the .pkg file and run the installer.
• Follow the installation steps provided by the installer.
• After installation, open Terminal and type the following command to confirm Node.js is installed:
  node -v
  This should display the installed Node.js version.
• Also, verify npx by running:
  npx -v

For Windows:

• Go to the Node.js website: https://nodejs.org
• Click on the Windows Installer (.msi) under the LTS version.
• Download and run the .msi installer file.
• Follow the setup instructions in the installation wizard.
• Once installed, open Command Prompt and check the version:
  node -v
• Confirm that npx is available:
  npx -v

Make sure Node.js is installed before you configure MCP Server in Claude or Cursor. If Node.js is missing, the MCP Remote Client command (npx mcp-remote) will not run correctly.

Now let’s see how to configure the MCP Server in Claude Desktop:

For Mac:

• Download the Claude Desktop application on your machine.
• Open the Claude Desktop application.
• From the top menu bar, go to Claude > Settings > Developer, then click on the Edit Config button.

• Open the claude_desktop_config.json file in any text editor.
• Paste the following code into the file:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "command": "npx",
     "args": [
       "-y",
       "mcp-remote",
       "<Paste MCP Server URL here>"
     ]
   }
 }
}

• Example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "OttoKit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://api.ottokit.com/mcp/MCPjwq******************************************************************************"
      ]
    }
  }
}

• Save the JSON file.
• Close and reopen the Claude Desktop application to apply the new configuration.
• Confirm that the MCP Server appears in Claude’s available tools and is functioning properly.

Now you can simply type in the chat:
“Hey, could you please create a 30% off coupon in SureCart?“
The coupon will be created automatically in SureCart.
This is just one example. You can add multiple MCP tools similarly, and then instruct Claude to take necessary actions.

For Windows:

• Download and open the Claude Desktop application.
• Click on the breadcrumb menu at the top bar, then navigate to File > Settings > Developer, and click on Edit Config.

• Open the claude_desktop_config.json file in any text editor.
• Paste the following configuration:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "command": "npx",
     "args": [
       "-y",
       "mcp-remote",
       "<Paste MCP Server URL here>"
     ]
   }
 }
}

• Example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "OttoKit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://api.ottokit.com/mcp/MCPjwq******************************************************************************"
      ]
    }
  }
}

• Save the JSON file.
• Close and reopen the Claude Desktop to apply the configuration.
• Ensure that the MCP Server appears and functions as expected.

You can now ask Claude to perform various tasks, just like in the Mac setup.

Next, let’s see how to configure MCP Server in Cursor IDE:

For Mac:

• Download and open the Cursor IDE application.
• From the top menu bar, go to Cursor > Settings > Cursor Settings > MCP Tools, then click on New MCP Server.

• In the mcp.json file that opens, paste the following code:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "url": "<Paste MCP Server URL here>"
   }
 }
}

• Example:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "url": "https://api.ottokit.com/mcp/MCPjwqta******************************************************************************"
   }
 }
}

• Save the file.
• Close and reopen the Cursor IDE to load the updated configuration.
• Confirm that the MCP Server appears in Cursor’s available tools and is working correctly.

You can now instruct Cursor to perform actions like creating a 30% off coupon in SureCart, just like you did in Claude Desktop.

For Windows:

• Download and open the Cursor IDE application.
• Open the Cursor Settings menu by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J, or click the gear icon in the top menu bar.
• Go to Tools & Integrations, then click on Add Custom MCP.

• In the opened mcp.json file, paste the following code:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "url": "<Paste MCP Server URL here>"
   }
 }
}

• Example:

{
 "mcpServers": {
   "OttoKit": {
     "url": "https://api.ottokit.com/mcp/MCPjwqta******************************************************************************"
   }
 }
}

• Save the file.
• Close and reopen the Cursor IDE to load the new configuration.
• Ensure that the MCP Server is available and functioning correctly.

You can now instruct Cursor to perform actions like creating a 30% off coupon in SureCart, just like you did in Claude Desktop.

Next, let’s see how to configure the MCP Server in the Open AI Playground:

For Mac & Windows:

• Go to Open AI Playground.

• Now, in the Prompt section under Tools, click on “Create” and select the “MCP Server” option.

• Now, inside the “Add Tools from Remote MCP Servers” pop-up, click on the “Add New” button.

• Now, inside the “Connect to MCP Server” pop-up, paste your server URL into the URL field, assign a label to your server, select “Authentication” as “None“, and then click the “Connect” button.

• In the next pop-up, you will see that your MCP Server is successfully connected to OpenAI, and all MCP tools from your server will be listed. Now, click on the “Add” button.

You can now instruct OpenAI to perform actions like creating a 30% off coupon in SureCart, just like you did in Claude Desktop & in Cursor.