Connect an AI Agent

An AI agent — Claude, ChatGPT, or anything else that can call tools — can create, complete, and manage your TaskRatchet tasks on your behalf, right from a chat. Pick whichever path below matches your client.

Using an MCP client

If your client speaks MCP (Model Context Protocol) — this now includes most current Claude surfaces, ChatGPT, and many other AI products — TaskRatchet runs a remote MCP server.

For Claude Code, run this once in your terminal (not inside a Claude Code session):

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

In another MCP client, add a new connector pointing at:

https://api.taskratchet.com/mcp

Either way, the first time you use the connection, your client sends you to TaskRatchet to log in and approve exactly which permissions the agent is requesting — you're authorizing that one agent, not handing out your personal API key. No need to visit your settings page or paste in a token. You'll see a screen like:

An application wants to access your TaskRatchet account This will let it:

• View your tasks
• Mark your tasks complete or incomplete
• ...

Approve it, and you're connected.

Money-affecting actions go through a preview step

Anything that affects money — creating a task, editing one, marking one incomplete, giving up early ("uncle") — requires two separate calls: one that describes exactly what's about to happen, and a second one that actually does it. That split gives a well-behaved client a natural point to show you the preview and wait for your go-ahead before committing anything.

TaskRatchet can't force a client to actually pause there, though — a misbehaving one could make both calls back-to-back without asking you anything. Only connect agents/clients you trust to genuinely show you the preview.

Managing access

See everything you've connected, and revoke access at any time, from Connected Apps in your settings. Revoking stops future access immediately; a token already issued to the agent keeps working for up to 15 more minutes until it naturally expires.

Using the Agent Skill

For a client that doesn't speak MCP, or if you'd rather use a personal API key than go through OAuth — install the taskratchet-tasks Agent Skill. It works with Claude and any other agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and more):

npx skills add TaskRatchet/skills --skill taskratchet-tasks

You'll need a TaskRatchet API key (API Token on your account settings page) set as the TASKRATCHET_API_KEY environment variable. The skill relies on your agent's own consent prompts before it acts on your account.

Which should I use?

• Your client speaks MCP: use MCP — OAuth handles login with a browser approval, and access is scoped to specific permissions and revocable per agent, without sharing your API key.
• Your client doesn't support MCP, or you'd rather use a personal API key: use the Agent Skill.
• Claude Code specifically: MCP is the simpler setup either way — one claude mcp add command plus a browser approval, versus generating and saving a personal API token for the Skill.

Building an integration

Writing your own client instead of using an existing one? See the OAuth Reference and MCP Reference.