Connect an AI assistant

Tarsen speaks MCP, the Model Context Protocol. That means Claude, or any assistant that supports it, can read your board and act on it while you talk to it. No plugin, no middleman, no copying and pasting your cards into a chat window.

What it lets you do

Once connected, your assistant is talking to your actual workspace. So you can ask it things only your board knows the answer to:

  • “What’s on my plate this week, and what’s overdue?”
  • “Which cards on the Roadmap board are blocked, and what’s blocking them?”
  • “Add a card to Roadmap for the billing migration, high priority, due Friday.”
  • “Summarise the comments on TAR-142 and tell me what was decided.”
  • “I was off for a week. What actually changed?”

It reads and writes the same board you use. A card it creates is a real card, and a comment it posts is attributed to you and notifies your team.

Set it up

  1. Create an API key

    In Tarsen, go to Workspace → Integrations → API keys. Give it a name (“Claude Desktop”, say) and press Create key. Copy it straight away, because for security we only store a scrambled version, so it can never be shown again.

  2. Find your workspace address

    It is your Convex site URL with /mcp on the end. If you are self-hosting or unsure, it is the NEXT_PUBLIC_CONVEX_SITE_URL value from your deployment, and it ends in .convex.site.

    https://your-deployment.convex.site/mcp
  3. Add it to Claude Code

    claude mcp add --transport http tarsen \
      https://your-deployment.convex.site/mcp \
      --header "Authorization: Bearer tsn_your_key_here"
  4. Or add it to Claude Desktop

    Settings → Developer → Edit Config, then paste this in and restart the app.

    {
      "mcpServers": {
        "tarsen": {
          "type": "http",
          "url": "https://your-deployment.convex.site/mcp",
          "headers": {
            "Authorization": "Bearer tsn_your_key_here"
          }
        }
      }
    }

Any other client works too, as long as it supports HTTP with custom headers. The server speaks standard JSON-RPC and the key goes in an Authorization header.

What your assistant can reach

Eight tools. Five only read; three can change something.

ToolWhat it does
list_projectsLists the projects you can see.
get_boardOne project’s lists, in order, with the cards in each.
search_cardsSearches card titles across everything you can see.
get_cardOne card in full: description, assignees, labels, checklist, recent comments.
list_my_workYour open cards, soonest due first.
create_cardAdds a card to a project.
update_cardChanges a title, description, priority or due date.
add_commentComments on a card, as you.

Is this safe?

A key acts as you, in one workspace. That is the whole rule, and everything else follows from it:

  • It reaches exactly the projects you can reach. A private project you are not a member of is invisible to your assistant, just as it is to you.
  • It cannot do anything you cannot. If you have view-only access to a project, so does your key.
  • It is locked to the one workspace it was made in. There is no way to point it at another.
  • If you leave the workspace, the key stops working immediately.
  • Keys are personal. Even a workspace admin cannot see or use yours.

You can revoke a key at any time from the same screen you created it on. It stops working on the next request.

Because a key can create cards and post comments, treat it like a password. If you paste one somewhere public, revoke it and make a new one. It takes about ten seconds.

If something goes wrong

What you seeWhat it means
Missing or malformed API keyThe key did not arrive. Usually a truncated paste, or a missing “Bearer ” in front of it.
Invalid or revoked API keyThe key was revoked, or you are no longer a member of that workspace. Create a new one.
The assistant invents a project nameAsk it to list your projects first. It cannot guess ids, and saying so usually fixes it.
“You have view-only access”Working as intended: your key inherits your permissions. Ask an admin for edit access to that project.

Something missing here? Email support@tarsen.co and we’ll write it.