Set up Plane MCP

This guide walks you through connecting an MCP client to your Plane workspace so you can ask it questions about workers, payroll, and payments in plain English. By the end, you will have a client connected over OAuth and reading live data from your workspace.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets an application call external tools in a consistent way. An app that connects to MCP servers is called an MCP client. Most AI assistants, such as Claude and ChatGPT, act as the MCP client here. Plane provides an MCP server that exposes a set of tools for your workspace, so your MCP client can look up your data on your behalf instead of you clicking through screens. You do not install anything. Plane’s MCP server is remote: you point your MCP client at one URL and sign in.

What is a connector?

A connector is how an MCP client registers an MCP server. Different clients name it differently. Claude calls it a connector, and ChatGPT calls it an app. Either way the setup is the same: you add Plane as a custom connector by entering its URL, the client handles sign-in, and then it discovers the tools Plane exposes.

The Plane MCP surface is read-only today. Use it to list and read records such as workers, payrolls, and payments.

Prerequisites

A Plane account with admin or manager access to the workspace
An MCP client that supports remote HTTP MCP servers, such as Claude or ChatGPT
OAuth support in your client, or a Plane API key for the manual fallback

Keep API keys and access tokens secret. Do not paste credentials into public repositories, shared chat logs, client-side code, or anywhere people outside your organization can read them.

Endpoint

Point your MCP client at:

https://api.plane.com/mcp

Most clients handle the rest automatically: they discover Plane’s authorization server and prompt you to sign in with your Plane credentials. You usually only need to provide the /mcp URL.

Connect your client

OAuth is the recommended way to connect. You add Plane as a connector, sign in through the browser, and the client receives a short-lived access token scoped to your Plane permissions. Pick your client below.

Claude
ChatGPT

Open connectors

In Claude, click Customize, then Connectors.

Add a custom connector

Click the + button and choose Add custom connector (not Browse connectors). When prompted, enter a name such as Plane and set the remote MCP server URL to https://api.plane.com/mcp.

Complete the Plane sign-in flow in the browser when Claude prompts you.

Use Plane in a chat

Start a new conversation, make sure the Plane connector is enabled, and try List the first 10 workers in Plane.

Claude calls workers_list and returns the result.

If your Claude Desktop build cannot complete the OAuth flow, use the manual API key fallback below.

Set this up in ChatGPT on the web (chatgpt.com). The desktop apps may not offer custom MCP setup.

Enable developer mode

Go to Settings > Apps > Advanced settings and turn on Developer mode. ChatGPT flags this as elevated risk because it allows custom, unverified connectors; it may also be restricted by your workspace admin.

Create the app

Back on Settings > Apps, click Create app. In the New App dialog, enter a name such as Plane, set Connection to Server URL, and enter https://api.plane.com/mcp. Set Authentication to OAuth.

Confirm and connect

Check I understand and want to continue, click Create, and complete the Plane sign-in flow when prompted.

Use Plane in a chat

Start a new conversation, make sure the Plane app is enabled, and try List the first 10 workers in Plane.

ChatGPT calls workers_list and returns the result.

Connect over OAuth only when you want the client to work with live workspace data. To experiment safely, use a sandbox API key with the manual fallback.

Try it

Once connected, start with prompts that read data:

List the workers we paid in May.
How much did we pay [contractor name] this year?
Show me the most recent payroll and what it totaled.
Which payments are still pending?
Pull a list of contractors hired in the last 90 days.

What you can do today

Tool names follow {resource}_{action}, for example workers_list or payments_get. List tools accept pagination arguments: limit, cursor, starting_after, and ending_before.

All available tools

Resource	Tools
Benefit elections	`benefit_elections_get`, `benefit_elections_list`
Benefit enrollments	`benefit_enrollments_get`, `benefit_enrollments_list`
Benefit events	`benefit_events_get`, `benefit_events_list`
Benefit plans	`benefit_plans_get`, `benefit_plans_list`
Benefit programs	`benefit_programs_get`, `benefit_programs_list`
Charges	`charges_get`, `charges_list`
Classifications	`classifications_get`, `classifications_list`
Compensations	`compensations_get`, `compensations_list`
Employments	`employments_get`, `employments_list`
Events	`events_get`, `events_list`
Labor taxes	`labor_taxes_get`, `labor_taxes_list`
Leave balance transactions	`leave_balance_transactions_get`, `leave_balance_transactions_list`
Leave balances	`leave_balances_get`, `leave_balances_list`
Leave entitlements	`leave_entitlements_get`, `leave_entitlements_list`
Leave policies	`leave_policies_get`, `leave_policies_list`
Leave requests	`leave_requests_get`, `leave_requests_list`
Leaves	`leaves_get`, `leaves_list`
Locations	`locations_get`, `locations_list`
Offers	`offers_get`, `offers_list`
Payment requests	`payment_requests_get`, `payment_requests_list`
Payments	`payments_get`, `payments_list`
Payroll	`payrolls_get`, `payrolls_list`
Positions	`positions_get`, `positions_list`
Refunds	`refunds_get`, `refunds_list`
Reportings	`reportings_get`, `reportings_list`
Roles	`roles_get`, `roles_list`
Sandboxes	`sandboxes_get`, `sandboxes_list`
Time entries	`time_entries_get`, `time_entries_list`
Worker addresses	`worker_addresses_get`, `worker_addresses_list`
Worker beneficiaries	`worker_beneficiaries_get`, `worker_beneficiaries_list`
Worker dependents	`worker_dependents_get`, `worker_dependents_list`
Workers	`workers_get`, `workers_list`
Workforce calculations	`workforce_calculations_get`
Workforce plans	`workforce_plans_get`, `workforce_plans_list`

Manual API key fallback

Use an API key only when your client cannot complete OAuth, only supports static headers, or you are testing the endpoint directly. Create live API keys from Developers > API keys in Plane; see API access. For test keys, create a sandbox first and generate a key from inside it; see Your first API call. Send the key as a bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Claude Desktop config

On macOS, Claude Desktop stores local MCP configuration at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Open Claude Desktop, go to Settings > Developer, and click Edit Config. Add Plane as an HTTP MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "plane": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.plane.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

If the file already contains other servers, add the plane entry inside the existing mcpServers object rather than replacing the file. Fully quit and restart Claude Desktop to load the change.

Advanced: test the endpoint with curl

You can verify the endpoint without a full MCP client by sending a JSON-RPC request with an API key. List the available tools:

curl https://api.plane.com/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/list",
    "params": {}
  }'

Then call a read-only tool:

curl https://api.plane.com/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "workers_list",
      "arguments": { "limit": 10 }
    }
  }'

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "result": {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "{\n  \"data\": []\n}"
      }
    ]
  }
}

MCP wraps the Plane result in a content text block, so the text field holds the JSON returned by the underlying operation. Treat cursors as opaque: if the response includes a cursor, pass it back unchanged as the cursor argument to fetch the next page. When cursor is absent, you have reached the end of the list.

Troubleshooting

The OAuth flow doesn't start

Confirm your client supports remote HTTP MCP servers with OAuth. Some clients only support local stdio servers or static API-key headers. If yours cannot complete OAuth, use the manual API key fallback.

Tools don't appear in my client

Restart the client after adding the connector. If tools still don’t show, confirm the OAuth flow completed and that your account has access to the workspace.

Tool calls return empty results

Empty data arrays are normal in new or empty workspaces. Confirm your credential has access to the workspace you expect. If you are using an API key, verify it is from the right workspace (sandbox keys start with sk_test_, live keys with sk_live_).

I get permission errors on some tools

MCP tools inherit the permissions of the credential the client sends. If a tool fails a permission check, the underlying user or API key does not have access to that resource. Review the credential’s role in Members and roles.

I want to test without touching live data

Use a sandbox API key with the manual fallback. Create a sandbox from Developers > Sandboxes, generate a key inside it (prefix sk_test_), and configure your client with that key. See Your first API call.

Next steps

Using Plane Agent

Ask Plane Agent questions about your workspace directly inside Plane.

Your first API call

Make a direct API call without MCP, using cURL, Node.js, or Python.

Authentication

Review API-key authentication for the manual fallback.

API reference

Browse every endpoint and object the API exposes.

Getting Started

CLI

Workers

Payments

What is MCP?

What is a connector?

Prerequisites

Endpoint

Connect your client

Try it

What you can do today

Manual API key fallback

Claude Desktop config

Advanced: test the endpoint with curl

Troubleshooting

Next steps

Using Plane Agent

Your first API call

Authentication

API reference

​What is MCP?

​What is a connector?

​Prerequisites

​Endpoint

​Connect your client

​Try it

​What you can do today

​Manual API key fallback

​Claude Desktop config

​Advanced: test the endpoint with curl

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Using Plane Agent

Your first API call

Authentication

API reference

What is MCP?

What is a connector?

Prerequisites

Endpoint

Connect your client

Try it

What you can do today

Manual API key fallback

Claude Desktop config

Advanced: test the endpoint with curl

Troubleshooting

Next steps