Connect your AI assistant

StaticOwl runs a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so an AI assistant can work on your site directly: draft and edit pages, run builds, check SEO, manage media, set up redirects, and more. You talk to the assistant in plain language; it makes the changes through StaticOwl's tools and reports back.

This page covers adding the connector in Claude (web and desktop), Claude Code, Cursor, and ChatGPT, choosing how many tools your assistant sees, and what you can ask it to do.

The connector URL is the same for every client:

https://app.staticowl.com/api/mcp

You sign in through your browser (OAuth) when you add the connector. There is no key to copy or paste.

Add the connector

Claude (web and desktop)

Open Settings → Connectors.
Click Add custom connector.
Paste the connector URL: https://app.staticowl.com/api/mcp
Click Add, then Connect and sign in to StaticOwl when the browser window opens.

Claude lists the StaticOwl tools once sign-in finishes. Start a new chat and ask it to list your sites to confirm the connection.

More detail: /integrations/claude/

Claude Code

Add the server from your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http staticowl https://app.staticowl.com/api/mcp

Then open Claude Code and run /mcp. Pick staticowl and choose Authenticate to sign in through your browser. Run claude mcp list any time to confirm the server is connected.

Use --scope user to make the connector available in every project, or --scope project to keep it to the current repository.

More detail: /integrations/claude-code/

Cursor

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per project). Add StaticOwl as a remote server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "staticowl": {
      "url": "https://app.staticowl.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor, or open Settings → MCP and enable the server. Cursor opens a browser window to sign you in. The StaticOwl tools then appear in the MCP list.

More detail: /integrations/cursor/

ChatGPT

Open ChatGPT Settings → Connectors (custom connectors are available on plans that support them; some accounts enable them under Developer mode).
Add a custom connector and paste the URL: https://app.staticowl.com/api/mcp
Sign in to StaticOwl when prompted.
Turn the connector on in a chat, then ask ChatGPT to list your sites.

More detail: /integrations/chatgpt/

Note: Other MCP clients — Zed, Continue, and similar — use the same URL and the same browser sign-in. Add it the way that client adds a remote MCP server.

Choose your toolset

StaticOwl exposes 352 tools across 13 toolsets. The toolsets group the tools by the kind of work they do — for example: sites, content, content types, templates and themes, media, SEO, internal links, builds and releases, domains and redirects, forms and integrations, authoring, regional markets and translations, and access and workflow.

Handing an assistant all 352 tools at once can slow it down and make it harder for it to pick the right one. To avoid that, pick a preset when you add the connector:

Preset	Good for	What it includes
core	A first run, or a focused task	A small set covering sites, content, media, builds, and SEO basics.
recommended	Day-to-day work	The default. The common tools for creating, editing, publishing, and checking a site, without the specialized ones.
all	Power users and automation	The full set of 352 tools across all 13 toolsets.

recommended is the default and fits most people. Choose core when you want a tight set that is quick to reason about, and all when you need a tool the smaller presets leave out.

You set the preset in your client's connector settings. You can also keep a broad preset and tell the assistant which area to work in — for example, "stick to content and SEO tools for this task" — so it narrows its own focus.

What you can do

Once the connector is on, ask your assistant in plain language. For example:

Create a page — "Draft an About page from these three bullet points and save it as a draft."
Publish — "Publish the pricing page and run a build."
Run an SEO audit — "Check the blog for missing titles and meta descriptions, and list the pages that need fixes."
Add a redirect — "Redirect /old-pricing to /pricing."
Upload media — "Add this image to the media library and write alt text for it."

Assistants can also reorganize content types, update theme settings, review form submissions, schedule posts, suggest internal links, and roll back a build. The full list depends on the toolset preset you chose.

Safe by design

An AI assistant works through the same steps a person does in the editor — nothing special, nothing hidden.

Edits start as drafts. New and changed content stays in draft until you publish it. An assistant can prepare work for you to review before it goes live.
Publishing is a deliberate step. Content goes live when it is published and the site is built, not the moment the assistant edits it.
Changes are reviewable and reversible. Content keeps its history, and a build can be rolled back to a previous version. If an assistant makes a change you did not want, you can undo it the same way you would undo a human edit.

You stay in control: the assistant proposes and applies changes, and you decide what gets published and what stays as a draft.