Authentication

There are two ways to connect, and which one you use is decided by your AI client rather than by you. Hosted clients sign in. Desktop and terminal clients send a key.

Both routes end at the same place: a connection in Settings → MCP connectors, with its own access level, its own last-used time, and its own revoke button.

Access levels

Every connection carries exactly one, whichever route made it.

A connection starts at Read only unless you deliberately choose otherwise, and the level is enforced on the server: a read-only connection is never offered the write tools at all.

Changing the level later

You do not need to reconnect. On the connections list, each connection has its own controls:

• Enable write access — read-only connection gains create, edit and status changes
• Enable deletion access — a write connection also gains deletion
• Disable deletion access — back to read and write
• Make read-only — back to reading only

Raising a level asks you to confirm first, because every copy of that connection gains the new permission at once.

Connect by signing in

This is the route for ChatGPT and Claude on the web. Nothing is copied or stored by you.

1. In AOV.ai Free Gift, go to Settings → MCP connectors and pick your AI app.
2. Copy the Connection URL shown there and add it in the AI app as a custom connector.
3. Start the connection in the AI app. It shows a one-time code such as QLB5-FEAX.
4. Type that code back into the app and click Preview request. You see which app is asking and where it returns to.
5. Choose the access level, then Approve.

The AI app finishes the handshake by itself within a few seconds. Until it does, the connection shows as Waiting; the list refreshes on its own, so there is no need to reload the page.

Connect with a key

This is the route for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT desktop.

1. In AOV.ai Free Gift, go to Settings → MCP connectors and pick your client.
2. Copy the Server address shown there. You will need it alongside the key.
3. Type a Connection name — use the name of the tool you are connecting, for example Claude Desktop. It is only there to tell connections apart. 1–40 characters.
4. Choose the Access level.
5. Click Create key.

The key appears once, with a ready-to-paste setup snippet underneath. Copy the snippet for your tool, then follow Install a client.

If you try to reuse the name of a connection that is still active, the field shows an error and Create key stays disabled. Names have to be distinct so that revoking the right one later is unambiguous.

Where the key goes

Your client sends it as a bearer token on every call:

Authorization: Bearer aov_mcp_your_key_here

The word Bearer, a single space, then the key. A missing prefix produces a refusal that reads like a bad key rather than a bad request, which is a confusing hour to lose. The setup snippets in the app already include it.

Nothing is ever sent in a URL. The key belongs in the Authorization header only.

Reading the connections list

Each connection shows its app icon, a name, its badges, and when it was last used.

Revoke, and delete

Revoke stops the connection working. It takes effect on the very next call, it cannot be undone, and it affects only that connection — every other one keeps working. Revoke when a key may have leaked, when you stop using a tool, or when a laptop leaves your control.

Delete appears only on a connection that is already revoked. It removes the row from the list. It does not stop anything — revoking already did that — it just keeps the list readable once you have a few spent connections.

This key does not work anywhere else

Free Gift issues keys for two separate surfaces, and they are deliberately not interchangeable:

A key minted for one is refused by the other. Paste an aov_mcp_ key into a REST integration and it is turned down as the wrong surface, rather than quietly becoming a second credential you have to track. Revoking one surface never disturbs the other.

Keeping a connection safe

• Never paste a key into a chat, an issue, a commit, or a screenshot.
• Keep it out of shared config files and anything that reaches a repository. Where a client supports it, put it in an environment variable rather than inline — the Claude Desktop snippet does this.
• Use one named connection per tool. Shared credentials make the connections list meaningless and turn revoking into a choice between breaking everything and breaking nothing.
• Grant the lowest level that does the job. A tool you are still evaluating has no business holding delete access, and lowering a level later takes one click.
• Revoke rather than reuse. Creating a replacement takes a few seconds.

Reading an authentication error

Your assistant will read the refusal back to you in plain language. Each one is specific about what to do, and in particular about what not to do.

Full symptom-by-symptom detail is in Troubleshooting.

Related

• Install a client
• Troubleshooting