Causal Map can be added to an AI chat app such as Claude or ChatGPT as a connector, so the app's AI can read your projects while you talk to it. The connection uses MCP (Model Context Protocol, the standard way for an AI app to use outside tools). You add Causal Map's address to the app once and sign in with your Causal Map account. After that you can ask about your coded projects in the same conversation as the rest of your work: "In my endline project, what do the women say leads to children staying in school, compared with the men?", or "Show me the map from my bookmark called Final report map 2." The Garden page Asking your own AI about your causal maps says what this is good for and what to watch for.

• Who can use it: every Causal Map account with a confirmed email, free accounts included.
• What it costs: no Causal Map credits. The thinking is done by the model in your chat app, on your plan with that app.
• What it reads: exactly what you can read in the app: your own projects, those shared with you and public ones. The sign-in gives the chat app read-only access, so it cannot change your projects.

What you can ask it#

• Which projects you have, and which are shared with you. A public project somebody else owns can be read by its exact name.
• Counts and rankings: the most-mentioned factors, the links into and out of a factor, and comparisons between groups of sources. It uses the same tool MapCat uses in the app, so the two answer alike.
• A map, after the filters it chooses or from a bookmark you saved. In claude.ai and the Claude desktop app the map appears in the chat, drawn by Causal Map: click an arrow for the quotes behind it, or a factor for its links. Every map comes with a link that opens the same view in the app.
• The evidence: the links behind a map or behind one arrow, each with its quote and source.
• How the project was coded: what its AI coding prompt is made of, and which recent coding runs used it.
• Method: it reads this help, the filter reference and the Garden's pages on answering questions, so it follows the same rules as MapCat, such as putting tracing at the top of a filter chain and the frequency filters at the bottom.

It cannot code sources, edit links or change a project: MapCat in the app does those, with a confirm step. It does not apply the filters that use AI (such as Soft Recode and the clustering filters) or the Pathways filter, so a bookmark that uses one comes back with its link to open in the app instead. Nor does it apply a factor label set chosen in the app.

Connecting it#

The address is https://ltonrdstoclpnhefgmtz.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp.

• claude.ai or the Claude desktop app, on a Free, Pro or Max plan: go to Customize > Connectors, click + Add, then Add custom connector. Name it Causal Map, paste the address and click Continue. Under Authentication choose Sign in now, under OAuth client choose Register automatically, and click Add. Sign in with your Causal Map account and allow access on Causal Map's page. A Free Claude plan allows one custom connector.
• Claude Team or Enterprise: an owner adds it once for the organisation, under Organization settings > Connectors: Add, then Custom, then Web. Each member then finds it under Customize > Connectors and clicks Connect.
• In a Claude chat: click + at the lower left of the message box, then Connectors, and switch Causal Map on for that conversation.
• Claude Code: run claude mcp add --transport http causal-map https://ltonrdstoclpnhefgmtz.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp, then /mcp inside Claude Code, and sign in in the browser window it opens.
• ChatGPT, Cursor and other apps that connect to remote MCP servers with a sign-in take the same address. In Cursor it goes in .cursor/mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "causal-map": { "url": "https://ltonrdstoclpnhefgmtz.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp" } } }

We have tested the connection from Claude. If another app does not connect, tell us at help@causalmap.app.

Where your data goes#

What Causal Map sends back to your chat app (factor labels, quotes, counts) goes to the AI company behind that app. That company handles it under your agreement with them. It is not covered by the arrangements Causal Map's own AI features work under, such as a project's AI region (Project Details). If a project's data must stay in one region, or must not reach a particular AI company, do not read it this way. To stop the connection, remove or switch off the connector in your chat app.