The Phoneware AI Connector links your phone system to AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT using the open Model Context Protocol (MCP). Instead of clicking through portal screens to find call records or change an answer rule, you can ask your AI assistant directly in plain English. The connector is free for all Phoneware customers.

What the connector does

The connector gives your AI assistant secure access to your Phoneware Edge phone system:

Look up activity: Ask about recent calls, missed calls, voicemails, call queues, call center statistics, and AI voice agent conversations.
Manage settings: Update call forwarding, set answer rules, log in or out of call queues, or send a text message, each only after you confirm it.
Maintain security: All requests run under your own portal login and permissions. Every request is logged and kept for 6 years.

Features available today include your cloud phone system, call center queues, and AI voice agents. Cloud fax and billing tools will appear automatically once Phoneware enables them for your account.

Who can turn it on

Every user type on Phoneware Edge can turn access on within their own scope:

Basic users: Can turn the connector on or off for their own extension. If your office manager has enabled self-enrollment, you can enroll yourself for read-only access to your own calls, voicemail summaries, texts, and answer rules. Basic users cannot grant themselves write capabilities. You cannot see or modify anyone else’s calls or voicemail.
Call center supervisors: Can monitor call queues, agent availability, queue wait times, and callback requests across the office, in addition to their own extension.
Office managers: Can view and manage the entire domain, including all user extensions, phone numbers, auto attendants, call queues, faxes, and billing records once enabled. Office managers can issue or revoke seats for any user, grant write capabilities, and control the domain-wide recorded-content privacy setting.
Resellers and Phoneware staff: Can access the specific customer domains they already administer in the portal.

Writes (such as updating call forwarding, changing answer rules, updating agent status, or sending messages) must be granted by an office manager or above.

How to add the connector to your AI assistant

The Phoneware MCP server address is:

https://mcp.phoneware.us/mcp

Claude (web, Desktop and mobile)

Claude keeps connectors on your Claude account, so a connector you add once works on claude.ai, in Claude Desktop and in the mobile apps. Custom connectors are available on every Claude plan; the Free plan allows one.

Pro and Max plans:

Go to Customize > Connectors.
Select + Add, then Add custom connector.
Enter Phoneware as the name and https://mcp.phoneware.us/mcp as the remote MCP server URL, then select Continue.
Keep the authentication settings Claude detects (sign in with OAuth, using Claude’s published identity), then select Add.
Select Connect next to Phoneware and sign in with your portal login.

Team and Enterprise plans: an owner adds the connector once in Organization settings > Connectors (select Add, then Custom, then Web, and use the same name and URL). Each person then goes to Customize > Connectors, finds Phoneware and selects Connect to sign in with their own portal login.

To use it in a conversation, select + in the message box, then Connectors, and turn Phoneware on.

Claude Code (CLI)

Add the server from your terminal, then run /mcp inside Claude Code to sign in:

claude mcp add --transport http phoneware https://mcp.phoneware.us/mcp

ChatGPT

ChatGPT connects to MCP servers on the web only, at chatgpt.com. Full support, including changes such as call forwarding, is available on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces, where an admin or owner adds the connector. ChatGPT Pro accounts can connect but are limited to looking things up.

Go to Plugins.
Select the plus button, then Add custom MCP server.
Enter Phoneware as the name and, under Connection, https://mcp.phoneware.us/mcp as the URL.
Choose OAuth for authentication.
Review the risk warning, check I understand and want to continue, and select Create as a plugin.
In a chat, type @ and select Phoneware. ChatGPT opens the sign-in window the first time.

On a Business workspace, an admin or owner publishes the plugin so others in the workspace can use it.

When you first connect, a sign-in window opens asking for your Phoneware Manager Portal credentials:

Enter your username and password: Use your standard portal login (such as 1001@yourcompany). If you forgot your password, visit the portal password reset page to set a new one.
Enter your MFA code: If your account has multi-factor authentication turned on, enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app.
Approve access: Once authenticated, your seat connects and you return to your assistant.

You do not need to create API keys or developer tokens. The connector uses your existing portal account.

Recorded-content privacy levels

Your office manager controls what level of call content the AI can see. Phoneware provides four distinct settings:

Blocked (default): Call details like who called, when, and for how long are visible. Recorded content (call recordings, transcripts, voicemail, message text, AI call summaries, fax pages) is left out entirely, and the assistant tells you plainly that your office setting withheld it.
Metadata: The assistant also learns which records carry recorded content and what kind, for example that a call has a transcript or an AI summary. It never gets the words.
Redacted: The AI receives call transcripts and message text after sensitive information is automatically masked. Automated data-loss prevention replaces names, phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, Social Security numbers, payment cards, birthdates, driver’s licenses, bank accounts, and medical identifiers with redact tags. Masking is automated and can miss things. Automated scanners cannot catch every unusual phrase or handwritten detail, so do not assume every identifier is scrubbed.
Full: The AI receives the complete text transcript or message without redaction.

Audio is never handed to the AI. Recording audio files and voicemail audio links are bearer URLs that remain strictly withheld across every setting. Spoken words reach the AI only as text transcripts, subject to the level your office manager chooses.

Who can change this: Only your customer office manager can raise the setting above Blocked, with an affirmative attestation recorded in the portal. Resellers and Phoneware support staff can only lower the level, never raise it.

How write confirmations work

Whenever you ask the AI to change a setting (like forwarding your extension, switching an answer rule, or changing your call queue status), the connector uses a safe two-phase confirmation via confirm_action:

Preview: The connector calculates the exact change and shows you a summary in the chat, listing affected records and consequences.
Review: The action is stored in a pending state for up to 10 minutes.
Approve: The action executes only after you explicitly click confirm or tell the assistant to proceed. The assistant calls confirm_action with the unique pending action ID. If you say no or take no action before the 10-minute window closes, the pending action expires and nothing changes.

No modification ever runs silently in the background without your review.

Turning access off

You can disconnect access at any time:

Individual users: You can toggle off your own AI access in the Manager Portal or disconnect the server in your AI client settings.
Office managers: You can revoke any user’s seat or turn off the connector for the entire office inside the AI Connector tile.

Revocations take effect immediately on the very next prompt. You do not have to wait for an authorization token to expire.

Fax and billing features

Fax: Fax tools let each person check the faxes they sent and received and send new faxes with confirmation, after linking their own fax login once. Office managers also see the account’s fax numbers. Fax features become available once Phoneware enables them for your account.
Billing: Office managers will be able to review account balances, past invoices, and billing summaries. Billing tools become available once Phoneware enables them for your account.

Both fax and billing tools ship in an off state and will appear automatically in your tool list once enabled for your organization.

Troubleshooting

Sign-in failed: Ensure you typed your full login name, including your extension and domain (for example, 1001@yourcompany). If you forgot your password, use the portal password reset page.
MFA prompt rejected: Check that the clock on your mobile device is synchronized with network time, then enter the current code from your authenticator app.
Seat denied or access blocked: If the login screen says you do not have an active seat, ask your office manager to open the AI Connector tile in the Manager Portal and assign you a seat.
Phoneware missing in ChatGPT: ChatGPT supports MCP connectors on the web only, at chatgpt.com. On a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace, an admin or owner has to add and publish the connector before others can use it.
Message saying content was withheld: If your assistant says “Withheld by domain AI setting (Blocked)”, this is normal behavior. Your office manager has chosen to keep recorded content such as transcripts and message text private. Contact your office manager if your role requires transcript access.
ChatGPT shows stale tools: ChatGPT keeps the tool list from when the plugin was added or last refreshed. After a different person signs in or access changes, open Settings > Plugins > Phoneware and click Refresh tools (or uninstall and re-add the plugin).

Set up and use the Phoneware AI Connector (MCP)