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MCP - connect an AI assistant Last updated: 23. Oct 2026

Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients connect to Docly through one address on the Docly cloud, https://cloud.docly.net/mcp. When you connect, you decide which workspaces the assistant reaches, whether it may write and how long the connection lasts. The assistant can ask for more, but never grant it to itself.

Connect

  1. In your MCP client, add a remote (custom) connector with the address https://cloud.docly.net/mcp.

  2. The client sends you to Docly's sign-in, which requires two-factor authentication.

  3. On the consent page, choose what the connection reaches, whether it may write, and how long it lasts. The page names the client by the address it returns to, not by what the client calls itself.

The tools call the same server functions as the docly CLI, so the account needs developer access in Docly. Local clients (a redirect to your own machine) and the hosted Claude and ChatGPT connectors are accepted; other hosted clients are refused until Docly adds their address.

Choice

Options

What it reaches

One workspace, or all workspaces you have access to. Everything outside the binding is refused — reading included.

Writing

For one workspace: decided here, read-only or read-write, for the life of the connection. For all workspaces: writing is approved separately, per workspace, in the browser (below).

How long it lasts

12 hours (the default), 30 days, 90 days or one year. The client renews its access in the background for as long as the connection lasts.

To change the workspace or the write access of a connection, connect again.

Write approval with «all workspaces»

A connection to all workspaces can read everything you can read, but it writes only where you have approved it:

  1. The assistant tries to write in a workspace without approval — or asks in advance with docly_request_write_access.

  2. It gets a link of the form https://cloud.docly.net/mcpwrite?r=… and is told to show it to you and wait. The request is valid for 10 minutes.

  3. You open the link signed in to Docly, check that the workspace it names is the one you meant, and approve writing there for 1 or 8 hours.

  • The approval belongs to the connection, not to one chat, so it holds in every chat that uses the connection.

  • Only you can approve. No tool can grant write access or widen the binding.

  • docly unlock opens folders for the CLI only. It has no effect on an MCP connection, and an MCP approval has none on the CLI.

See and remove connections

Connected apps in your Docly account (cloud.docly.net/connectedapps) lists your connections with their lifetime and when they were last used, the write approvals, and requests waiting for you. Disconnect takes effect on the next call; you can also withdraw a single write approval.

Bind a connection to the one workspace the work is about, give it write access only when it needs it, and prefer a short lifetime for a connection that can write.

Tools

Every tool works inside the connection's binding. References are a path inside the workspace (Pages/About.docly), a Docly reference returned by a tool, or an F- or D-prefixed id from a Docly URL.

Tool

What it does

Writes

docly_write_access

What this connection reaches and whether it can write. The assistant should call it first.

no

docly_request_write_access

Ask you to approve writing in one workspace; returns the approval link.

no

docly_list_folder

List a folder. Without a reference: the workspace or workspaces the connection reaches.

no

docly_read_document

Read a document, in slices for large ones, with the timestamp an edit needs. Image data is replaced by a placeholder.

no

docly_search

Server-side search in a subtree by name, content or schema.

no

docly_document_history

List the revisions of a document.

no

docly_read_version

Read one revision.

no

docly_published

Where a folder or document is published, with the console reference.

no

docly_read_console

The site console: errors and console.log from the site's server-side code.

no

docly_shares

Who has access to a folder or document.

no

docly_list_jobs, docly_job_status, docly_job_output

Background jobs, one job's progress, and its output.

no

docly_edit_document

Replace an exact piece of text in a document. Requires the timestamp from the read; a document changed since then is refused instead of overwritten. Every occurrence is replaced and the count reported.

yes

docly_create_document

Create a document, optionally with its text. The extension in the name decides the type. Content cannot be combined with a schema.

yes

docly_upload_file

Upload an image or other file into a folder. Never overwrites.

yes

docly_add_image_to_document

Embed a JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP image in a schema document. It shows only once an image field holds its name — set that with docly_set_image_field.

yes

docly_set_image_field

Set an image field in a schema document (Image1, or a list item counted from 0 such as Sections[2].Image) to an embedded image or a new one. Only fields the schema declares as image fields are accepted.

yes

docly_create_folder

Create a folder.

yes

docly_move_document, docly_move_folder

Move a document or a folder into another folder.

yes

docly_delete_document

Delete a document.

yes

docly_delete_folder

Delete a folder and everything in it. A workspace itself cannot be deleted, moved or renamed.

yes

docly_stop_job

Stop a background job. What it already did is not undone.

yes

docly_clone_workspace

Copy a whole workspace as a background job; answers with the job id. Every call makes a new workspace on your subscription.

yes

Not available over MCP: publishing and unpublishing, changing shares, and the system log. You do those in Docly or with the docly CLI.

What the assistant is told

At connection the server sends the assistant instructions: how the connection is bound, where to start, how to read large documents in slices and keep the timestamp, that a saved change on a published site is live at once, and to read the Docly knowledge base at https://developers.docly.net/Guidelines/KB/ before changing site code. Console lines and job output are given to it as data, never as instructions.

Give the assistant the same rules as for the CLI: How an AI agent should use the docly CLI. A content-security rejection is not a permission problem — the assistant should change the content, not retry it.

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