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How does the AI Assistant (MCP) integration work?

Learn more about setting up and using the BlueTally MCP integration to connect AI assistants like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT

BlueTally seamlessly integrates with AI assistants through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing you to ask questions about your inventory in plain English - directly from Claude, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible clients. Once connected, your assistant can look up assets, employees, licenses, accessories, consumables, components, audits, maintenance records, and your full activity history, and answer questions like "Which laptops are unassigned?" or "Who's pending offboarding, and what are they still holding?".

The integration is completely read-only - your assistant can read your BlueTally data, but it can never create, update, delete, or check anything in or out.

Setup

To connect an AI assistant, you'll first need a BlueTally API key.

To get your API Key, please sign in to your BlueTally account, click on the Profile icon in the top right corner, and click on the Integrations link. Then, click on the API section found under the AI & Automation section, and click on the Create API Key button. Give your key a name (for example, "Claude MCP"), and we recommend turning on the Read-only toggle before creating it. That will generate an API key that you can copy and use in the steps below.

The details you'll need to connect any client are:

  • URL: https://app.bluetallyapp.com/api/mcp

  • Authorization header: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

If you're on our Corporate plan, you have multi-tenancy enabled on your account by default, so you'll need to tell the integration which tenant to connect to by adding your Tenant ID to the URL.

You can find the Tenant ID by signing into BlueTally, clicking on the Profile icon in the top right corner, and then clicking on Switch Tenants. There you'll see a list of all your tenants and their respective IDs.

Once you have it, add ?tenant_id=YOUR_TENANT_ID to the end of the URL in your configuration. For example:

https://app.bluetallyapp.com/api/mcp?tenant_id=96497973

Each connection is tied to a single tenant. To query more than one tenant, add a separate MCP server entry for each, using that tenant's ID in the URL.

Configuration

Once you have your API key, follow the steps for your preferred assistant.

Microsoft Copilot (Copilot Studio)

Microsoft Copilot connects to MCP servers through Copilot Studio, where you add BlueTally as a tool on an agent.

1) Sign in to Copilot Studio and open (or create) the agent you'd like to connect BlueTally to.

2) Go to the Tools page for that agent and select Add a tool, then Model Context Protocol.

3) Fill in the details:

  • Server name: BlueTally

  • Server description: something clear, like "Query BlueTally IT asset inventory." Copilot uses this to decide when to call BlueTally, so it's worth being descriptive.

  • Server URL: https://app.bluetallyapp.com/api/mcp

  • Authentication: select API key.

4) Click Create. When prompted to create a connection, enter your BlueTally API key as Bearer YOUR_API_KEY so it's sent in the Authorization header.

5) Add the tool to your agent, then open the agent's test pane and ask a question about your inventory (for example, "List my BlueTally assets") to confirm it's connected.

Claude Desktop

1) Open Claude Desktop and go to Claude → Settings → Developer, then click Edit Config. This opens the folder containing the claude_desktop_config.json file.

2) Open claude_desktop_config.json in a text editor and add the BlueTally entry inside mcpServers*, replacing YOUR_API_KEY with the key you created:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bluetally": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://app.bluetallyapp.com/api/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

*Important Note: if this is your first time adding an MCP server to your Claude JSON file, the mcpServers will not appear by default. You will need to add the whole section of code shown above in order to make it work.

3) Save the file, then fully quit Claude Desktop (please use Claude → Quit Claude - closing the window isn't enough) and reopen it.

4) Start a new chat and ask "List my BlueTally assets" to confirm it's working.

ChatGPT / OpenAI Codex

1) In Codex*, go to Settings → Plugins, select the MCPs tab, then click + Add server.

2) Enter BlueTally as the name, and select Streamable HTTP as the transport.

3) For the URL, enter https://app.bluetallyapp.com/api/mcp.

4) Under Headers, add a header with the key Authorization and the value Bearer YOUR_API_KEY.

5) Click Save, then fully quit and reopen Codex.

*Please note that adding an MCP server is only available in the Codex app, not the web-based version of ChatGPT. Click here to download Codex.

Using the Integration

Once you've connected your assistant, you can simply ask questions about your inventory in natural language, and it will pull live answers straight from your BlueTally account. For example:

  • "Which Dell laptops are unassigned?"

  • "What's checked out to [email protected]?"

  • "Which software licenses are expiring in the next 60 days?"

  • "Who's pending offboarding, and what are they still holding?"

  • "Show me the full history of asset tag BT-1042."

  • "Which audits failed in the last 90 days, and for which assets?"

  • "What did we spend on maintenance this year, by supplier?"

Your assistant can read assets, employees, licenses, accessories, consumables, components, audits, maintenance records, and your activity history, along with your supporting records like products, categories, locations, statuses, manufacturers, suppliers, departments, and depreciations - all scoped to your account and returned with the same detail you'd see in BlueTally.

Most assistants will ask you to approve each tool the first time it's used. Approve it to let the assistant read your BlueTally data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the integration make changes to my BlueTally account?

No. The MCP integration is completely read-only. Your assistant can read your data to answer questions, but it can never create, update, delete, or check items in or out - regardless of which API key you use. We still recommend creating a Read-only API key for it, so the same key can't be used to make changes elsewhere either.

Which AI assistants are supported?

Any MCP-compatible client, including Claude Desktop, Microsoft Copilot (via Copilot Studio), and ChatGPT / OpenAI Codex. The connection details are the same for all of them - only the setup screen differs.

I'm on the Corporate plan with only one tenant. Do I still need the Tenant ID?

Yes. If you have multi-tenancy enabled, you'll need to include the Tenant ID in the URL so the integration knows which tenant to connect to, even if you only have one tenant active.

Can I connect one assistant to more than one tenant?

Each connection is tied to a single tenant. If you'd like to query multiple tenants, add a separate MCP server entry for each one, using that tenant's ID in the URL.

Is there a limit on how much I can ask?

Your BlueTally account allows up to 10,000 API requests per hour, shared across the MCP integration and any other API usage on the same key. Because assistants can make several requests to answer a single question, we recommend using a dedicated API key for MCP if you expect heavy usage.

My assistant says the token is invalid or that it couldn't connect.

Please double-check that you copied the full API key with no extra spaces, and that the key still exists under Settings → API Keys. After any change to your configuration, remember to fully quit and reopen the app so it reloads the connection.

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