TripWorks can connect to AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, so you can look things up and make changes in your account by typing a plain-English request instead of clicking through screens. Ask "How many guests have we added this month?" or "Which of our kayak tours have a group minimum?" and your assistant goes and gets the answer from your real TripWorks data.

The connection uses MCP (the Model Context Protocol), an open standard for securely linking AI assistants to the tools you already use. You turn on AI Assistants once, copy a connection URL into your assistant, and approve the connection with your normal TripWorks login.

What MCP is

MCP is a shared language that lets an AI assistant talk to another system in a controlled way. When you connect TripWorks, your assistant gains a set of tools, each one a specific thing it can do in your account, such as "search for a guest," "list my experiences," or "update a location."

You don't pick tools yourself. You describe what you want, and the assistant chooses the right tool, runs it, and explains the result. Because it reads live data, the answer reflects your account as it is right now.

The TripWorks server URL

Every assistant connects to the same address. You'll find it, with a copy button, on the AI Assistants page in TripWorks, where it's labelled Connection URL:

https://mcp.tripworks.com/mcp

Paste this address wherever your assistant asks for a server URL, connector URL, or custom connector. It's the same URL for every account, because the account you're connecting is chosen when you approve the connection, not in the address.

Which assistants you can connect

Any AI assistant that supports MCP custom connectors can connect to TripWorks. The AI Assistants page has ready-made steps for the first three. Antigravity has its own article:

• Claude (Claude.ai and Claude Desktop): add a custom connector and paste the server URL. See Connect Claude to TripWorks.
• ChatGPT: add a custom connector in ChatGPT's settings and paste the server URL. See Connect ChatGPT to TripWorks.
• Gemini: add a custom app in the Gemini web app and paste the server URL. See Connect Gemini to TripWorks.
• Google Antigravity: add TripWorks to its MCP server config with the server URL. See Connect Google Antigravity to TripWorks.

People who prefer a command-line assistant can use the same URL. The AI Assistants page shows a local setup snippet for Claude Desktop and for the Gemini CLI, and points ChatGPT users to the Codex CLI.

What you need

• AI Assistants turned on for your account. Someone with the Setup integrations catalog permission does this once (see the steps below).
• Your own TripWorks login on an account that's live. You approve every connection by signing in as yourself.
• The permissions for what you want to do. Your assistant can do only what your own permission group allows. See How security and permissions work.
• An AI assistant account on a plan that supports custom connectors.

Turn on MCP and connect your assistant

1. In TripWorks, go to Setup Integrations and open the AI Assistants card.
2. Switch on Enable AI assistants. It takes effect right away, with no Save button. Until it's on, no assistant can connect to your account.
3. Under Connect your assistant, select Copy URL next to the Connection URL.
4. Choose the Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini tab for the exact clicks, then add a custom connector or app in that assistant and paste the URL.
5. Your assistant opens a TripWorks page in your browser. Sign in if asked, then choose the account to connect.
6. Choose what to allow: Read access (view your data), Write access (create and edit), or both. Then select Approve.
7. Back in your assistant, start a new conversation and ask something like "List my experiences." If the answer comes back with your real activities, you're connected.

What your assistant can do

Once connected, your assistant can work with these parts of your account. Read access lets it look things up; Write access lets it create and change the items marked below.

A few things worth knowing about how it works:

• Filtering. When your assistant lists customers, experiences, phone calls, and other records, it can filter by fields such as email, name, or date, so "customers with a gmail address" works as you'd expect.
• Totals. Your assistant can count, add up, and average values across matching records, and compare one period with another, which is how it answers "how many" and "what's the average" questions.
• Preview before it changes anything. Every create, edit, and delete shows you a preview of the change first. Nothing is saved until the assistant repeats the request with your confirmation, so you always see what will happen before it does.

Start from a recipe

The AI Assistants page has a Recipes library of ready-made prompts. Search it, or browse by category: Front desk, Bookings, Schedule, Reports & insights, Catalog, Calls & reviews, Guests, and Account & team. Open one, change the highlighted details, and paste it into your assistant.

Each recipe is labelled Read-only or Makes changes, so you can see at a glance whether it only looks things up. Recipes are starting points. Your assistant can only do what its connected tools allow, so a recipe may need rewording, and some tasks may not be possible yet.

Example requests

Try these in a new conversation once you're connected. Each one shows what your assistant does behind the scenes.

• Find guests named Rivera. The assistant searches trips, bookings, and customers and lists the matches with their contact details.
• Find the booking for confirmation code 4F7K2. The assistant searches by code and opens the matching trip.
• Find customers with a gmail address. The assistant filters your customer list by email and shows who matches.
• Count how many customers we have in total. The assistant runs a total across your customer records and gives you the number.
• List every experience at our downtown aquarium location. The assistant reads your experiences and locations and groups them for you.
• Find phone calls from last week. The assistant lists recent calls, including AI callbot calls, with the details TripWorks recorded.
• Who's booked on tomorrow's 10:00 AM departure? The assistant reads the manifest and lists the parties, with check-in and waiver status.
• What are callers asking about most? The assistant reads the questions and tips found in your recent calls and summarizes the themes.
• Run a sales report for last month. The assistant starts the report and gives you a download link. The link expires after 15 minutes, so ask again if you need it later.
• Find who changed the museum's timed-entry experience yesterday. The assistant reads your audit log and shows what changed, when, and which team member made the change.
• Do add a new location called Riverside Kayak Launch. The assistant shows a preview of the new location. Nothing is created until you say yes.
• Do add a note to a trip. The assistant shows the note and waits for your go-ahead before saving it.
• Do update a customer's email address. The assistant previews the change to that record and waits for your go-ahead before saving.

Choosing between MCP, the REST API, Zapier, and webhooks

TripWorks offers four ways to connect to other tools. They solve different problems, so the right one depends on who is doing the work and which way the data needs to flow.

Zapier is a fourth option for no-code automations that react to something happening in TripWorks. For the full picture, including Octo for resellers, see Does TripWorks have an API?

A quick way to choose:

• "I want to ask a question or make a quick change myself." Use MCP.
• "I want something to happen automatically every time a booking comes in." Use Zapier if you want no code, or webhooks if you're sending data to your own system.
• "I'm building my own software on top of TripWorks." Use the REST API. Its documentation is at api-docs.tripworks.com, and you create an API key under Setup Integrations REST API.

The biggest difference is who is acting. With MCP, a real person is always behind the connection, so it follows that person's permissions and needs their approval. An API key or a Zapier connection is a standing credential for software, with no person approving each request. Use MCP when a person is in the loop, and the others when software runs on its own.

How security and permissions work

Your assistant runs as you. When you approve a connection, TripWorks treats every request from your assistant as if you made it yourself. It can see and do only what your permission group already lets you see and do, and never more. If you can't open the Locations setup screen, your assistant can't list or change locations either.

Two layers of control work together:

1. Your permissions. Your permission group decides what you can do in TripWorks. The connection can never go beyond it. Someone who is later moved to a group with less access loses that access in their assistant too.
2. Your approval choices. On the approval screen you choose Read access, Write access, or both. This narrows what that one connection can do. If you leave Write access unchecked, your assistant can't create, edit, or delete anything, even if your own permissions would allow it.

Here is the permission each area needs, in addition to the approval choice above:

More ways your account stays protected:

• You sign in yourself. Approval happens in your browser with your normal TripWorks login. Nobody shares a password or key with the assistant.
• One connection, one account. If you belong to more than one TripWorks account, you pick which one when you approve. Each connection reaches that account only.
• You stay in control. Turn Enable AI assistants off under Setup Integrations AI Assistants and every connected assistant stops working right away.
• Changes are previewed. Nothing is created, edited, or deleted without a preview and a confirmation.
• Your assistant provider sees what it reads. Anything your assistant looks up is passed to that AI platform to answer you, and is handled under that provider's own terms. Turn on Read access only for what you're comfortable sharing, and review your provider's privacy settings.

For the full list of what each permission unlocks, see the User permissions reference.

Frequently asked questions