Connect Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants

Connected AI lets you run your shop from the AI assistant you already use: Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Claude Code, Grok, Gemini, or any app that speaks the open Model Context Protocol (MCP). Ask it “what's stuck on the board?”, “add 2 front brake pads and 1.5 hours to the Camry and send the estimate”, or “text everyone whose car is ready”, and it does the work in Carvikon.

The assistant acts as you. It sees what you can see and can do what you can do, nothing more: a technician's connection can't read the money, and a manager's can't change pay rates. Everything it does shows up in Carvikon exactly as if you had pressed the button yourself, with your name on it.

Connected AI is part of the Elite plan. The assistant's own thinking is paid by your Claude, ChatGPT or Grok subscription. When it uses Carvikon's features (a text to a customer, an AI picture, a Social AI post), those count against your plan exactly as when you use them in Carvikon. Nothing is charged twice and nothing is free.

Open Settings → Integrations and find the Connected AI card at the top. Two switches at the bottom of the card belong to the shop's owner:

• AI assistants: on by default. Turning it off ends every connection in the shop at once.
• Staff and technicians: off by default. Owners and managers can always connect; turn this on to let staff and technicians connect their own assistant too.

The card also shows the server address. You only need it for apps that ask for one:

https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp

For Claude on the web, the desktop app and the phone app. You sign in; there is no token to copy.

1. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors and choose Add custom connector.
2. Name it Carvikon and paste the server address: https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp.
3. Press Connect. A Carvikon page opens: sign in if you aren't already, then choose what Claude may do (see what it can do) and press Allow.
4. In a new chat, turn Carvikon on from the tools menu and ask something like “what's on the board today?”

Claude shows the board, a car and an estimate as interactive cards right in the chat: move a car, send an estimate, undo, without leaving the conversation.

1. In ChatGPT, open Settings → Apps & Connectors. If custom connectors are hidden, turn on Developer mode under Advanced settings first.
2. Choose Create (or Add connector), name it Carvikon, paste https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp and choose OAuth for authentication.
3. Sign in to Carvikon on the page that opens, choose what ChatGPT may do, and press Allow.
4. In a chat, pick Carvikon from the tools (+) menu and ask away.

On a ChatGPT team or business workspace, an admin may need to allow custom connectors first.

Apps that run on your computer, and any app without a sign-in button, use a personal token instead:

1. In Settings → Integrations → Connected AI, press Create token.
2. Give it a name you'll recognise (“Codex on the office Mac”), choose its access, its areas and how long it lasts (30 days, 90 days, 1 year; 90 days if you don't choose).
3. Copy the token. It is shown once; Carvikon keeps only a fingerprint of it. The same dialog shows the exact setup line for each app, with your token already in it.

Claude Code, in a terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http carvikon https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer cvk_pat_…"

Codex: put the token in an environment variable and add the server to ~/.codex/config.toml:

export CARVIKON_TOKEN=cvk_pat_…

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.carvikon]
url = "https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "CARVIKON_TOKEN"

Any other MCP app (Grok, Gemini CLI, Cursor, n8n's MCP client…) takes the same address and an Authorization: Bearer header. Most accept this shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "carvikon": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://www.carvikon.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer cvk_pat_…"
      }
    }
  }
}

Treat a token like a password: anyone who has it can act as you in Carvikon until it expires or you revoke it.

Every connection has an access level, chosen when you connect or create the token:

A connection starts with day-to-day shop: the board and cars, customers and leads, the schedule, messages, payments, parts, notifications, reports and the team. Add more areas with the Areas button on the connection (or when you create a token):

• Estimates
• Documents & e-sign
• Files
• Boards & settings
• Customer updates
• Time clock
• AI receptionist
• AI tools
• Social AI
• Visualizer & proofs
• Billing

Fewer areas make the assistant faster and more accurate, so add only what you use. The change takes effect on its next request.

It asks before anything reaches a customer. Before a text, an email, an estimate, a payment link or a social post goes out, the assistant shows you exactly who gets what and waits for your yes. Changing a stage message so customers start receiving it, or turning on automatic reviews, asks first too.

Changes can be undone. Most changes come back with an undo, good for ten minutes: say “undo that” and the car goes back, the tag comes off, the note is removed.

Some things only the owner can approve. Refunds, voiding a payment or a balance, deleting a car or a customer, inviting or removing people, pay rates, adding a shop, and anything that buys something (a phone number, Social AI packs, a shop slot) never happen from a chat. The assistant files a request; the owner gets a notification and approves or declines it under Waiting for your approval on the Connected AI card. Approve runs it as the owner, with every check the button has.

Things it never does: change passwords or sign-in emails, see or create tokens, close the shop, or change the plan.

Daily limits. At most 100 customer messages a day per shop through assistants, and 50 per connection, on top of your plan's own allowances.

See and stop. Each connection on the card shows when it was last used and how many calls it made. Revoke stops it at once. The owner sees and can revoke everyone's.

Customer words are treated as data. Messages, call transcripts and reviews reach the assistant marked as the customer's words, so a text saying “ignore your instructions” can't steer it.

• “What's stuck on the board, and why?”
• “Add a 2021 Subaru Outback for Mia Torres, 503-555-0142, brakes squeal when cold.”
• “Add front pads and rotors with 1.8 hours of labour to her estimate and send it by text.”
• “Who owes us money? Send each of them a payment link.”
• “Draft replies to today's unread messages.”
• “Tell me when the Sorento reaches Ready for Pickup.”
• “Plan next week's Instagram posts.”

Claude, Codex and Gemini also list Carvikon's ready-made commands (type /): Morning briefing, What's stuck, Chase money owed, Reply to customers, End of day.

To have another tool react when something happens in the shop (a car moves, a payment lands, an estimate is approved, a new lead comes in), the owner adds an endpoint on the Webhooks card, just under Connected AI. Pick the events, copy the signing secret (shown once), and press Send test.

Deliveries follow the Standard Webhooks format: a JSON body signed with HMAC-SHA256 in the webhook-id, webhook-timestamp and webhook-signature headers. Failed deliveries are retried for up to three days. Payloads carry ids, names, the vehicle and a link into Carvikon, never message text, phone numbers or email addresses.

“Connected AI is part of the Elite plan.” Change plan in Settings → Billing.

“The owner hasn't allowed your role.” Ask the owner to turn on Staff and technicians on the Connected AI card.

The assistant says it can't do something you can. Check the connection's access level and areas. Sending to customers needs “Also contact customers”; estimates, settings or Social AI need their area.

“Needs a fresh sign-in” or “do this in Carvikon”. A few things always need you in Carvikon itself: changing where customer replies go, transfer numbers for the AI Front Desk, the billing portal. That is on purpose.

It stopped working. The token expired or was revoked. Create a new one, or reconnect Claude or ChatGPT, which signs you in again.

Still stuck? Get in touch.