About the UserGems MCP
What is MCP in simple terms?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI tools to other systems. UserGems MCP is our headless interface — it exposes the full command center to whatever AI interface your team already prompts from, like Claude or ChatGPT. Instead of clicking through the UI, you ask, and UserGems does the work behind the scenes.
Who is this for — reps, admins, or both? Do reps and admins see different tools?
Both, and yes. Your UserGems profile controls it: reps get rep tools, admins get everything. Campaign creation and editing are admin-only.
How do I see which UserGems tools I have available?
Ask "What UserGems tools do you have available?" in a new chat. You'll get the list you have access to, which depends on your UserGems permissions. Full list available below.
When should I use the MCP vs the API?
Both work. They're built for different jobs.
The API is for machines. You push first-party data in from your own systems on a schedule, it lands as a Custom Signal, and it runs the same way every time without anyone watching. It takes engineering time to set up, and there's no extra cost to use it.
UserGems MCP is for people and agents. Ask about an account, surface your hottest prospects, research someone you've never touched, build a campaign, change messaging across campaigns at once. No engineering, and you work in whatever AI tool you already have open.
Rule of thumb: if it should run on a schedule with nobody watching, use the API. If a person is deciding something in the moment, use the MCP.
When should I use the MCP versus the UserGems app?
Use the MCP for quick answers. Research an account before a call, rank who to reach, pull signal history, draft a message. This is where most reps will spend their time.
Build campaigns and audiences wherever you prefer. Set up a full campaign conversationally — audience, actions, messaging, sending controls — or build it in UserGems. Same result either way, and UserGems runs the campaign once it's live. Admins also use the MCP to make one change across many campaigns at once, which beats doing it screen by screen.
Combine UserGems with your other tools. Connect UserGems alongside your other MCPs to assemble one view of an account from every system you use. It works both directions — UserGems can also call your tools during a campaign so outside data feeds your messaging.
When should I use Ask Gem-E instead of the MCP?
Ask Gem-E (the in-app UserGems experience) has access to the same tools the MCP does. Identical tools, identical access — the difference is where you're working and what you can see while it happens.
Reach for Ask Gem-E when you want to watch it work. The UI updates live as the agent runs, so setting up a campaign means the workflow builder fills in on the right as each action gets created. Through the MCP you wait for the build to finish, then follow a link into the app to review it.
Do I have to tell Claude or GPT to use UserGems, or will it figure that out on its own?
It depends on which one you're in.
In Claude, your assistant picks a connector based on how your question sounds. "Show me my top accounts" reads like a CRM question, so it can go to Salesforce and scan thousands of records to hand back something slow and generic. Ask it to use UserGems, and the same question comes back as one filtered call with scoring, buying stage, and live signals already attached.
In ChatGPT, you ask for the tool yourself or select UserGems. Hit the + button next to the message box and pick UserGems before you send. That selection applies to the conversation you're in, so a new chat means picking it again.
To stop repeating yourself, paste our routing instructions into your project instructions or memory once. You'll find them at the top of the Prompt Library.
Can it write data from the UserGems MCP into my CRM?
Yes. If your CRM is connected as an MCP, you can pull data from UserGems and write it straight back into your CRM in the same conversation.
Worth knowing there's a more efficient path. UserGems already has your organization's CRM settings built in and writes through a direct API, so writes follow your internal policies. Routing it through your CRM's own MCP instead means your AI does the reading and the writing itself, which uses noticeably more of your AI tool's usage — so save that approach for smaller asks.
Can I use the UserGems MCP alongside other MCPs?
Yes. Claude or ChatGPT can combine UserGems with your other connectors in one conversation, and coming soon — UserGems can call your MCPs during campaign runtime so outside data feeds your messaging.
Can I push data or content into UserGems? (Coming Soon)
No. Currently the MCP is only able to pull data out of UserGems and feed it into your Claude or GPT. Coming soon you will have the ability to upload data via the MCP.
Can it research any account or person, or only ones UserGems already tracks? (Coming Soon)
No. At this time the MCP is only able to pull data on existing records that already live inside your UserGems Command Center. Coming soon you will have the option to research any account or person (even if they don't already exist) and add them into UserGems.
How do I share feedback?
Two ways. Share it with your CSM, or send it without leaving your chat — just tell Claude or ChatGPT you'd like to give UserGems feedback. You'll be prompted for it, you'll see exactly what's being sent, and it goes straight to our product team.
Can I pull other MCPs into UserGems?
Not yet — it's on the roadmap. Today you use the UserGems MCP from within Claude or ChatGPT. In the future, you'll also be able to bring data from other MCPs directly into the UserGems Command Center.
Will the MCP proactively flag recommendations while I'm building a campaign?
No — Claude doesn't surface this on its own unless asked. What you can do is ask it to analyze your existing audiences and campaigns and recommend filters/actions to match your existing campaigns and audiences.
Can Claude mimic routing logic from one of my existing campaigns?
Not automatically, but yes on request. Clone the whole campaign, or ask Claude to inspect one action's settings and copy them into a new one. It won't infer nuanced routing — net-new accounts, lead vs. contact, hold nodes — unless you prompt for it.
Can Claude reference a CRM field I haven't imported into UserGems yet?
No. The field has to be manually imported into UserGems first. Once it's in, it's promptable like any other filter and can be pulled into Claude or GPT.
Setup & access
Will the MCP be in the marketplace, or does it still require a custom connector/plugin?
Getting listed in the Claude and ChatGPT connector directories is actively in the works, and we'll update this once it lands. In the meantime, the connector/plugin must be installed via the custom path.
Do I need a paid Claude or GPT plan?
No. Both work on free Claude/GPT plans. On Claude Free you can have one custom connector at a time, so you'd need to remove another to add UserGems. If your company is on Claude Team or Enterprise, a workspace Owner has to add the connector before anyone can connect to it.
How do I connect UserGems to Claude or GPT?
Setup is a one-time connection that takes about a minute. Follow the guide for the tool you use — Set up the UserGems MCP in Claude or Set up the UserGems MCP in ChatGPT.
Does my Claude or GPT admin need access to UserGems?
Yes. Whoever adds the connector has to be logged into UserGems, ideally as an admin, so the connection is set up correctly. If the person who administers your Claude or ChatGPT workspace doesn't use UserGems, a dedicated service user works. Here's how to create one.
Can multiple people at my company connect to the UserGems MCP?
Yes. Each person connects with their own UserGems login and inherits their own permissions — an admin sees admin tools, a rep sees rep tools. There's no shared connection or service token.
Does it work with Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor, or other MCP clients?
Only Claude & ChatGPT. Evaluating other connections (coming soon).
Permissions, security & governance
Can someone at my company connect if they don't have UserGems access? What happens when they try?
They can't complete the connection. Authorization runs against an active UserGems session, so without a UserGems login there's nothing to authorize against.
Can an admin turn MCP access off — for one person, or for our whole workspace?
For one person: their MCP access follows their UserGems account profile, so removing their UserGems access or changing their profile (i.e., from Admin to User) can either remove MCP access entirely or reduce the tools they have access to. For your whole workspace: MCP access can be controlled by your team admin (Claude or GPT) — they can remove or add the connector/plugin.
Which actions will ask for my approval before running, and which tools are safe to set to always-allow?
Everything arrives preset to requires-approval. Your Claude or ChatGPT admin sets what the whole organization can use when they add the connector — if they switch a tool off, nobody sees it at all. Within what's available to you, you can set individual tools to always-allow. It works the same way in both.
Read-only tools are safe to always-allow: account and prospect lookups, signal history, audience counts, research. Keep write actions on ask — campaign create and edit, CRM writes, sequence enrollment, and ad-audience syncs.
Can the MCP delete anything?
No. It can pause and archive campaigns, and archived campaigns stay inspectable. Nothing can be permanently deleted through the MCP.
Does UserGems data get used to train Claude or ChatGPT?
UserGems doesn't store your conversations. When you ask something, Claude or ChatGPT never sends your prompt to us — it just calls the tool it needs. We record which tools ran and when, and nothing about what you asked.
Whether your AI provider trains on your chats is set by your plan with them, not by UserGems. Anthropic doesn't train on Claude conversations unless you opt in, and excludes Claude for Work, Education, Government, and API use entirely. OpenAI doesn't train on ChatGPT Team, Enterprise, or API data — but individual ChatGPT plans are opt-out, so check your data controls if that matters to you.
Can UserGems see who at our company has connected, and what they've done?
UserGems records which tools were called and when, for credit tracking. It does not record who called them or what was asked.
How credits work with the MCP
Is the MCP included in my plan?
The MCP is included on our new pricing, Advanced and above. Using it consumes credits from your existing pool.
Do all requests to the MCP count toward AI credits?
Yes, every request does, and it draws on AI credits rather than data credits. How much a request costs depends on what you asked.
How many credits does one prompt use?
There's no fixed price. Think of it the way you'd think about what one Claude or ChatGPT prompt costs you. Depending on the complexity of your request (i.e., pulling data on one company vs. on your entire TAM) the cost of each prompt will be variable.
How do we limit how much of our credit pool goes to the MCP?
Yes. You can configure a limit for MCP usage. Your credits are one pool, spent on either AI tasks or data tasks. By default, most of that pool stays reserved for your regular consumption — running your workflows, tracking companies, tracking accounts.
Can admins limit how much one person uses?
Yes. Admins can set a weekly limit per user to prevent someone from burning through the company's credits.
How will I see our MCP usage, and what got consumed via the MCP versus the Writing Agent?
On the credit usage page, under your avatar in the top right. Usage breaks down by category, MCP has its own line alongside campaigns and tracking, and there's a per-user view. MCP usage counts as AI usage.
Can I see usage per person?
Yes. The usage page includes a per-user view.
MCP tool status — what's live and what's next
Two things to know before reading: admins have every rep tool plus the admin tools, and activate and delete are intentionally not available through the MCP.
Find & research
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Search accounts & prospects | Find accounts and the right people at them | Rep & Admin |
| Get account info | Full account picture in one prompt: firmographics, buying stage, current signals, funding, news | Rep & Admin |
| Rank best prospects | The right people to reach at an account, ranked, with why they qualify | Rep & Admin |
| Pull intel | Signal and score history of an account over time, plus intel from past conversations and deal history. Requires Gong connected for past-call intel. | Rep & Admin |
| Get signal history of a company | Full signal history for an account over time | Rep & Admin |
| Run account research | Complex questions about any account, answered from CRM data and public sources | Rep & Admin |
| Deep research companies / people | Deeper multi-source research on a company or a person | Rep & Admin |
Messaging
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Draft personalized emails | Gem-E writes a tailored message using its instructions and your content library. Personalizes for known contacts today. | Rep & Admin |
| Generate messages / sequences | Generate messaging or a full sequence from a prompt | Rep & Admin |
| Manage & test Gem-E | Global and campaign-level instructions, content library, preview and test messaging | Admin |
Campaigns
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Set up a campaign (guided) | Build a campaign from scratch — audience, actions, schedule — saved as a reviewable draft. Supports outbound and marketing branches. | Admin |
| See what's running | List and search live campaigns, pull their audiences and actions | Admin |
| Create / edit / clone campaigns | Full lifecycle: edit, clone, pause, archive | Admin |
| Cross-campaign changes | Make one change across many campaigns at once | Admin |
| Configure campaign actions | Sequences (Outreach, Salesloft), Gem-E messages, CRM writes, email, Slack alerts, ad-audience sync (LinkedIn, Meta, Google), webhooks, research steps, timed delays | Admin |
| Set sending controls | Caps per day, account, owner, rep | Admin |
Audiences
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Build & inspect audiences | Full filter set including CRM custom fields; see who matches, check a sample, get record counts | Admin |
| Set up and review audiences | Create an audience and review it before anything goes live | Admin |
Research at scale
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Research at scale | Run research across a whole audience within a campaign | Admin |
| Set up and monitor researches | General and campaign-level research plans and runs | Admin |
Coming soon
| Tool | What it does | Rep / Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Find any person or company not already tracked | Real-time search for net-new prospects, including records UserGems doesn't track yet. Works in the Chrome extension too. | Rep & Admin |
| Upload company / people lists | Bring lists of accounts or contacts into UserGems from a prompt | Admin |
| Upload individual records into existing lists | Add one record at a time to a list that already exists | Admin |
| Upload sources | CRM report, CSV, spreadsheet, direct upload (similar to API), and direct CRM query (keyword dynamic search) | Admin |
| Upload and set custom signals | Account-level and contact-level custom signals, set from a prompt | Admin |
| Push data or content into UserGems | Update-or-create records and push signals onto them | Admin |
| Persona / ICP auditing and setup | Audit and configure personas and ICP from a prompt | Admin |
| Signal setup and auditing tools | Set up and audit signals across the workspace | Admin |
| Scoring tools | Create and adjust how accounts and contacts are scored | Admin |
| Basic reporting tools | Support the numbers we display in the app today | Admin |
| Basic campaign run auditing tools | Audit how a campaign is actually running | Admin |
| Recommendations / insights | Surface gaps and propose the multi-step fix | Admin |
| Connect apps | Connect integrations from a prompt | Admin |
| Basic CRM settings review | Review CRM settings and flag issues | Admin |
| Native signal setup that needs configuration | Website visitors, intent, and other signals that require configuration. Champion tracking is covered by list upload. | Admin |
| Claude / ChatGPT connector directory listing | Getting UserGems listed so it no longer has to be added as a custom connector | — |
| Bringing other MCPs into UserGems | Pull external MCPs into UserGems rather than the other way around | Admin |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Try this |
|---|---|
| Connector shows Connected, but no UserGems tools appear | Start a brand-new conversation. Existing chats don't pick up new connectors. |
| No "Add custom connector" option | Your Claude workspace reserves this for admins. Send them the setup guide. |
| Authorized against the wrong account | Log out of UserGems in your browser, log back in, then remove and re-add the connector. |
| Connection fails or times out | Claude reaches our server from Anthropic's cloud rather than your laptop. If your company routes traffic through a strict proxy, ask IT to allow app.usergems.com. |
| Need to change the connector URL | Connectors can't be edited. Remove it and add it again. |
| It can't find an account or contact I know exists | Confirm that the account or contact already exists within UserGems. Right now it's only able to pull data on existing accounts or contacts. In the future you will be able to research and pull data on anyone. |
| Gong or past-call intel comes back empty | Past Interactions Add-On is required to pull data. Additionally, past-call intel requires Gong connected. Without it, those tools return empty. |
| It picked the wrong company | Confirm whether querying by domain rather than company name helps, as it does in Clay. |
| Responses are slow | Deep research across many sources can take several minutes. |