MCP Server

Note

Early Access — The MCP server is available to organizations with AI features enabled. Reach out to your Sessionboard account manager if you’d like it turned on.

The Sessionboard MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini query and manage your event data directly. Built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, it exposes 39 tools covering search, reads, natural-language queries, cited answers about an event, reports and dashboards, and write operations.

This page is the technical reference. If you just want to connect an assistant, the Help Center has friendlier step-by-step guides with screenshots — start at the AI assistants overview:

• Connect Claude — including Sessionboard’s listing in Claude’s connector directory
• Connect ChatGPT — install the Sessionboard app from ChatGPT’s plugin directory (US), or a developer-mode connector with your regional URL (EU / Middle East)
• Connect Microsoft Copilot — via a Copilot Studio agent
• Connect Google Gemini — Gemini app, Gemini Enterprise, or the Gemini CLI

Workflows built on these tools (Agent Skills, one SKILL.md per job, plus a Claude Code plugin) are in the Skills tab.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol is an open standard that enables AI assistants to securely connect to external data sources and tools. Instead of copying data into prompts, MCP lets the AI query and update your data on demand through a structured interface.

Server URLs by region

Each Sessionboard region runs its own MCP server. Use the one matching where your organization is hosted:

Region	MCP server URL
United States	https://mcp.sessionboard.com/mcp
Europe	https://mcp-eu.sessionboard.com/mcp
Middle East	https://mcp-me.sessionboard.com/mcp

The server uses the streamable HTTP transport and supports OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and dynamic client registration — most clients discover the sign-in flow automatically.

Prerequisites

Caution

Two things must be true before the hosted MCP server will accept a sign-in:

1. AI features are enabled for the organization. Contact Sessionboard support or your account manager if they are not.
2. The person signing in has the Connect AI assistants permission. Organization administrators have it. Other roles need it granted in role settings.

Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and any other remote client connect with OAuth. There is no MCP switch on the organization or on an API token, and pasting an API token into the assistant will not authenticate. The hosted server (https://mcp.sessionboard.com/mcp and the regional hosts) accepts the OAuth bearer token from that sign-in.

An API token is for scripts calling the public API with x-access-token. Those calls to /v1/insights/... need the read:insights scope (a token with an empty scope list is the legacy full-access case and can call them too). Write scopes such as write:sessions are separate.

Setup

Connect your AI client

Most assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot Studio, Gemini) connect through their own UI — follow the Help Center guides above. For clients configured by file (Claude Code, Cursor, and similar), add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sessionboard": {
      "url": "https://mcp.sessionboard.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Swap in the EU or Middle East URL from the table above if that’s where your organization is hosted.

Sign in

On first use the client walks you through Sessionboard’s OAuth sign-in and organization consent automatically — no token to copy. A client that cannot complete that sign-in cannot use the hosted MCP URL. Scripts call the public API with an API token instead.

Start querying

Ask your AI assistant questions about your event data in natural language. The assistant uses the MCP tools to query Sessionboard and return results.

Available tools

The MCP server groups its tools as below. Write operations use a manage_* pattern — one tool per entity with an action parameter to pick the operation (e.g., action: "create").

All tools include MCP annotations for safe AI behavior — read tools are marked readOnlyHint: true, every manage_* tool is marked destructiveHint: true because each can overwrite an existing record through its update action (even the ones with no delete), and all are openWorldHint: false because every tool is bounded to your organization’s data. Clients such as Claude and ChatGPT use these hints to ask for confirmation before a write runs.

Search & Discovery (11 tools)

Find events, search your data, ask questions in plain English, and explore your schema.

Tool	Description
list_events	List all events in the organization
find_event	Search events by name
get_event_overview	Event summary — session counts, speakers, tracks, status breakdown
search	Full-text search across sessions and speakers with citation URLs
fetch	Fetch a single search result by ID (pairs with search)
get_schema	Browse your data model — entities, fields, and relationships
query_data	Ask a question in plain English and get results (AI writes the query for you)
execute_sbql	Run a SbQL query directly with pagination
get_suggestions	Get suggested queries based on your data
get_widget_schema	Widget types, configs, and grid layout rules for dashboards
ask_event	Ask a question about one event and get a cited answer — see Asking about an event. Needs read:ask

Read Details (4 tools)

Fetch sessions and contacts. All read-only and paginated.

Tool	Description
list_sessions	List sessions for an event (paginated, up to 100 per page)
get_session	Get a single session by ID with full details
list_contacts	List contacts for an event (paginated, up to 100 per page)
get_contact	Get a single contact by ID with full details

Read-Only Lists (9 tools)

Read counterparts to the manage_* tools — safe to call without any write scopes.

Tool	Description
list_metadata	Rooms, tracks, tags, formats, levels, languages, statuses, and custom fields
read_agenda_drafts	List and inspect agenda drafts
list_draft_sessions	Session placements within a draft
read_event_rules	Scheduling rules and constraints
read_personas	Evaluation personas
read_event_dashboards	Event-scoped dashboards
list_event_reports	Event-scoped saved reports
read_org_dashboards	Org-level dashboards (cross-event)
list_org_reports	Org-level saved reports (cross-event)

Create & Manage (15 tools)

Each manage_* tool handles all operations for an entity — create, update, delete, and more — using an action parameter. For example, manage_session with action: "create" creates a session, while action: "update" updates one.

Tool	Actions	Scope	Description
manage_metadata	list, create, update	write:metadata / write:fields	Rooms, tracks, tags, formats, levels, languages, statuses, and custom fields
manage_session	create, update, restore, update_fields	write:sessions	Session CRUD + custom field values
manage_contact	create, update, restore	write:contacts	Contact CRUD (find-or-create by email)
manage_exhibitor	create, update, restore	write:exhibitors	Exhibitor CRUD
manage_sponsor	create, update, restore	write:sponsors	Sponsor CRUD
manage_agenda_draft	list, get, create, update, delete, get_changes, commit	write:events	Agenda draft lifecycle
manage_draft_sessions	list, create, update, delete, bulk	write:events	Session placements in drafts
manage_event_rules	list, get, create, update, delete	write:events	Scheduling rules and constraints
manage_personas	list, get, create, update, delete	write:events	Evaluation personas
manage_event_dashboard	list, get, create, update, delete	write:events	Event-scoped dashboards
manage_event_widget	create, update, delete	write:events	Event dashboard widgets
manage_event_report	list, run, create, create_from_nl, update, delete	write:events	Event-scoped saved reports
manage_org_dashboard	list, get, create, update, delete	write:events	Org-level dashboards (cross-event)
manage_org_widget	create, update, delete	write:events	Org-level dashboard widgets
manage_org_report	list, run, create, create_from_nl, update, delete	write:events	Org-level saved reports (cross-event)

Sharing a webinar (9 tools)

A webinar’s sharing pieces, the same ones as on the webinar’s After tab in Sessionboard: email signatures for your team (a banner that says “Save your seat” until the start and “Watch the recording” after), share cards, speakers’ personal links and a draft kit of LinkedIn posts for your team. Reads need read:events, changes write:marketing, and the connected user needs the same sharing permissions on the webinar as in Sessionboard. They call the Sharing endpoints. Webinars only.

Tool	Description
get_email_signatures	The banner, the three signature versions as your team will paste them, whether they are out of date, and the team with each teammate’s link, when they were emailed, opened and copied it, clicks and registrations
make_email_signatures	Make (or remake) the signatures from the webinar as it is now; signatures already pasted pick up the new banner
set_signature_team	Add teammates (add, user_ids) or take one off (remove, teammate_id); emails no one
send_email_signatures	Email each teammate a link to copy their signature. Waits for your OK (see below); refused once the webinar has started
get_share_cards	The six share cards (three with the speakers’ faces), which are on the sharing pages, and whether they are out of date
make_share_cards	Make (or remake) all six cards, or some designs
get_speaker_links	Each speaker’s and co-presenter’s personal tracked link and shares; pending until they have one
give_speaker_links	Turn sharing on and give every speaker a link; emails no one
make_team_kit	A draft kit of posts for your team (share cards before the start, clips after), with a link to pick the team and send it; nothing is sent

Try: “Make email signatures for next week’s webinar and add Jordan and Priya to the team” or “Which speakers don’t have a sharing link yet?”

Marketing: preview and edit before it goes out (7 tools)

So an assistant can show you an email, newsletter, sign-up form or ad before anyone sees it, and change it, without opening Sessionboard. Reads need read:events (event emails) or read:marketing; changes need write:marketing.

Tool	Description
preview_event_email	One of an event’s or webinar’s lifecycle emails rendered as Sessionboard’s preview draws it: the live version, or the design the assistant proposed (version: proposed), with accessibility warnings. Renders only. Calls Preview a lifecycle email
update_newsletter_issue	Change a draft or scheduled issue’s subject, preheader, layout or blocks. get_newsletter_issue returns the rendered issue to show
send_newsletter_test	Send the issue to your own inbox only, as subscribers will get it. Not counted and not in results
unschedule_newsletter_issue	Take a scheduled issue back to draft before it sends
list_signup_forms	Every sign-up form and recording gate: where it shows, its words, what it asks, its list and double opt-in
update_signup_form	Change a form’s words, fields, list, double opt-in or consent text, or archive it. A form on a live page changes at once
update_ads	Edit an ad draft (cap, dates, audience, copy) before you approve it. Each edit needs a new approval; nothing spends

Try: “Show me the reminder email you proposed for Thursday’s webinar” or “Send me a test of this month’s newsletter, then hold it until Monday”

The Marketing tools’ descriptions also carry the event rules an assistant should follow: registrations and turnout are different numbers; speakers get their sharing link while there is still time to post before the start, and sharing switches to the recording after; nothing is emailed or posted without your yes; and only your organization’s own first-party data is used.

Sessionboard Sessions (37 tools)

The self-serve Sessions workspace: one call for speakers per event, your own accept and decline decisions, and the agenda for your website. The tools call the Sessions workspace routes (/v1/sessions-workspace/…, the organization taken from the token); reads need read:sessions, changes write:sessions, and a key restricted to particular events cannot use them. Ids come back in every answer: event_id from get_sessions_home, session ids from list_submissions or get_event_agenda, room, track and format ids from get_event_agenda.

Tool	Description
get_sessions_home	Your plan, every Sessions event with its counts, and whether its call for speakers is open. Start here
get_sessions_event	One event: dates, where, its call for speakers (link, title, welcome text, closing date), rooms, tracks, sponsors
manage_sessions_event	Create or update an event: name, dates, timezone, where, and the language speakers read
import_sessions_event_from_url	Make a Sessions event from its public page. Preview with dry_run: true first; a page that redirects says which address to use instead
set_rooms_and_tracks	Replace the rooms, tracks and formats, in order (keep one by passing its id)
manage_call_for_speakers	Change what speakers see, close the call, or open it. Opening waits for your OK
get_call_questions / manage_call_questions	The questions on the call; add, create, remove, require or reorder them
list_submissions	Submissions with speakers, decision, time, room, track and the team’s picks
get_team_picks / set_my_pick	Each teammate’s Yes, Maybe or No; your own pick
decide_submission	Accept, waitlist, decline or undecide. Emails no one
manage_program_session	Add a session (accepted, or as a submission) or update one: time, room, track, format, sponsor tags. A session can be placed on the agenda in the same call
list_event_speakers	Everyone on an accepted session
get_event_agenda	The agenda, its conflicts, and the rooms, tracks, formats and sponsors to choose from
manage_event_sponsors	Add or remove a sponsor to tag sessions with
preview_event_import / import_event_program / import_event_speakers / import_event_sponsors	Preview and import rows of sessions, speakers or sponsors
publish_event_agenda	Publish the agenda and speaker wall to your website (embed snippets). Waits for your OK
get_decision_emails / preview_decision_email / update_decision_email	The declined and waitlisted emails: read, preview as a speaker gets it, edit
send_decision_emails	Email declined or waitlisted speakers. Waits for your OK
get_speaker_emails	The speaker emails plan for accepted speakers: tasks, due date, reminders, each speaker’s progress
update_speaker_emails_plan / pause_speaker_emails	Change the plan; pause or resume every email at once
approve_speaker_emails	Approve the plan so the invites and reminders go. Waits for your OK
list_event_connections / link_event_connection / preview_event_push	The apps the agenda can be pushed to, the vendor event it is linked to, and what a push would send (blocked says what stops it). A person connects an app with its keys in Sessionboard
push_event_agenda / get_push_history	Push sessions, speakers and the agenda one way. Waits for your OK
get_sessions_marketing / list_session_media / transcribe_session_media	Speakers’ share kits, and a session’s recordings and transcripts

Try: “Make our 2027 summit from its web page, add a Main Stage and an AI track, and open the call for speakers” or “Accept the three highest-rated submissions and draft the speaker emails”

Tasks (2 tools)

Your team’s to-dos in Sessionboard Platform: a title, an assignee, a due date with an optional time, a reminder, and the contacts, sessions, sponsors, exhibitors or groups a task is about. See the Tasks guide. In an organization that uses a self-serve Sessionboard product, these tools answer “Tasks are part of Sessionboard Platform.” instead.

Tool	Actions	Scope	Description
list_tasks	—	read:tasks	List tasks by event, assignee (me, an email, none, any), status, due (overdue, today, upcoming, none), due dates or linked record; or read one by id
manage_task	create, update, complete, reopen, delete	write:tasks	Create a task (assignee by email, records by id, due_date YYYY-MM-DD plus an optional due_time HH:mm in the event’s time zone, reminder), change it, complete it with a note, reopen or delete it

Try: “What’s on my plate this week?”, “Remind Dana to chase Dr. Okafor’s disclosure by Friday”, “What’s overdue across my events?” or “Mark the AV task done: forms received”.

Sessionboard CRM

Everything in Sessionboard CRM — People, Groups (companies, sponsors, exhibitors), tags, imports, connected apps, the pipeline, contracts, exports and hand-offs to the other Sessionboard apps — over the Public API CRM routes. Reads need read:crm, changes write:crm; OAuth clients get both by default. A self-serve CRM account needs a card on file before it imports or adds people: the tools say so and hand you get_card_link (product crm), a Stripe page the person opens. Deleting, archiving, sending, resending and voiding ask you first.

Tool	Scope	Description
get_crm_home	read:crm	Counts by tag, active contacts against the plan’s limit, setup steps, newest people
find_crm_people, get_crm_person, find_warm_opportunities	read:crm	Everyone the organization knows, one row per email, with tags, companies, pipeline stage and signals
manage_crm_person, tag_crm_people, delete_crm_people	write:crm	Add or change a person, add or remove tags on up to 500, delete (after you say yes)
find_crm_companies, manage_crm_company, tag_crm_companies, link_crm_company_people, delete_crm_companies	read:crm / write:crm	Groups and the people in them
import_crm_people	write:crm	Preview, then import people or companies from a spreadsheet’s rows; returns each person’s key and each company’s id for the next step
list_crm_sources, discover_crm_people, start_crm_attendee_sync	read:crm / write:crm	What a connected CRM, AMS or event platform holds, compared with your People, and bringing an event’s attendees in
find_crm_contacts, get_crm_contact, add_people_to_crm_contacts	read:crm / write:crm	The Contact record behind a speaker or a company’s person
list_crm_tags, manage_crm_tag, tag_crm_contacts	read:crm / write:crm	Your own tags: list, create, rename, delete, and add or remove them on up to 500 Contacts
add_crm_note	write:crm	A note on a Contact, for anything a standard field doesn’t hold
get_crm_pipeline, add_to_crm_pipeline, move_crm_pipeline_entry, archive_crm_pipeline_entry	read:crm / write:crm	Stages and entries; add by Contact id or person key, move with a note, take off (after you say yes)
list_crm_contract_templates, add_crm_contract_starter, list_crm_contracts, get_crm_contract, send_crm_contract, void_crm_contract	read:crm / write:crm	Templates and starters, contracts and signers; sending, resending and voiding only after you say yes
export_crm_contacts, export_crm_list	read:crm	Contacts, People, Groups, the pipeline or contracts as CSV with the list’s own filters (first 1,000 rows)
hand_off_crm_people	write:crm	Hand a selection to Marketing, Sessions, Learning or Awards as a tag, with the link that opens it there
get_ams_mapping, get_member_snapshot, preview_ams_writeback, run_ams_writeback	read:crm / write:crm	An association management system’s field mapping, member snapshot and write-back

Try: “Import this sheet of speakers, tag them speaker and put them in the pipeline for our spring summit”, “Who came to five of our webinars but isn’t in the pipeline?” or “Export everyone tagged sponsor at Acme”.

Asking about an event

ask_event answers a question about one event the way an organizer would want it answered. The answer is grounded in the event’s program (sessions, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors), session transcripts, the event’s knowledge and pinned answers, and the Sessionboard Help Center, and it cites its sources with [n] markers listed under Sources. It calls POST /v1/event/{eventId}/ask.

Input	Required	Description
event_id	Yes	The event to ask about
question	Yes	The question, in plain language (up to 500 characters)
conversation_id	No	The conversation_id from a previous answer, to ask a follow-up in the same thread
lang	No	Answer language as a language tag (e.g. en, fr, pt-BR)

• Scope — needs read:ask. Assistants connected before this scope existed hold only the scopes they were granted; reconnect to grant it.
• Read-only — marked readOnlyHint: true. Ask never changes the event.
• Use it for synthesis — “which sessions cover X”, “what did speakers say about Y”, “how do I set up Z”. For exact counts and lists, execute_sbql and query_data are faster and exact.
• Slow — an answer takes several seconds; the tool waits up to 90 seconds.
• Follow-ups — the answer ends with a conversation_id. Pass it back to continue the thread.
• Refusals come back as tool errors — Ask turned off for the event, AI features off, the per-user question limit (with the seconds to wait), the event’s daily Ask budget used up, or a question Ask would not take.

Parameter Conventions

• Event scoping — All event-scoped tools require event_id (snake_case string).
• Action selection — Consolidated tools use action to pick the operation (e.g., action: "create").
• Entity IDs — snake_case: session_id, contact_id, entity_id, draft_id, widget_id, query_id.
• Optimistic concurrency — Update actions require updated_at (ISO 8601 timestamp from the last read). Returns 409 Conflict if the entity was modified since.

Result Size Safety

All results are automatically truncated to prevent context window overflow:

• List results — Capped at 50 items. When truncated, the response includes truncated: true, total_count, and a hint with guidance on pagination.
• Query results — Capped at 100 rows with truncation metadata.
• SbQL queries — execute_sbql and query_data default to a 50-row limit. Use the limit parameter for more.

Resources

The MCP server also exposes two MCP resources that AI clients can load into context:

URI	Description
sbql://schema	The SbQL schema — entities, fields, relationships, and format functions
sbql://events	List of events in the organization with metadata

Prompt Templates

Pre-built templates that structure the AI’s approach to common report types:

Prompt	Description
speaker_roster	Generate a speaker roster with contact info and session assignments
session_schedule	Generate a day-by-day session schedule grid
evaluation_summary	Generate an evaluation/review score analysis
task_status	Show outstanding tasks across speakers and exhibitors

Actions that wait for your OK

Some Marketing, Learning and Sessions actions reach people outside your team, spend money or publish something public. When an AI assistant asks for one of these through MCP, Sessionboard does not run it. It records a request and answers with a link where a person on your team approves or declines it:

{
  "status": "needs_approval",
  "approval_id": "49a31154-…",
  "url": "https://app.sessionboard.com/marketing/<orgId>/approvals?id=49a31154-…",
  "message": "Waiting for your OK in Sessionboard: https://…"
}

• What waits: launching or resuming a campaign, sending invitations, content kits or email signatures, sending a “Keep everyone engaged” round or offer, publishing an event page, gallery, course or on-demand library, approving ads or raising an ad budget, starting live captions, assigning training, and in Sessions opening the call for speakers, publishing the agenda, pushing it to an app, sending decision emails and approving the speaker emails plan.
• What runs: drafts, edits to drafts and reads. Credit is never set or granted by an assistant.
• Approving runs the original request as the person who approved it, with their permissions. Declining records the answer and nothing happens. The assistant sees the outcome the next time it reads the record.
• Don’t retry. Calling the same tool again creates another request; tell the person where to approve instead.
• See what waits: list_approvals lists every request still waiting, across Marketing, Learning, Awards and Sessions: what it is, the person’s own words when the assistant passed them (asked), who asked, when, and the link to approve it. It is read-only, and no tool approves or declines anything. It calls GET /v1/marketing/approvals (read:marketing, a key not restricted to particular events).
• Every assistant action, including the approvals, is listed under Apps › AI assistants in Sessionboard, with who asked and what changed. An admin can pause assistant writes for the organization; while paused, write tools return 423.

Edits you can see and undo

When an assistant edits something that already exists (an event page, a Site, a lifecycle email proposal, a newsletter issue, a campaign draft), the answer carries what_changed — one plain sentence per change, with before and after — and kept, which names the call that puts the earlier version back. Before an assistant edits a draft holding someone else’s unpublished work, Sessionboard keeps that draft as a version first. Results reports (get_results, get_advocacy_results, get_field_event_results, get_webinar_outcomes) also carry a story: headline, findings, next move and slide-ready sections, each number citing the field it comes from. Nothing in an edit reaches people; the actions above still wait for your OK.

Marketing in the conversation

In Claude and ChatGPT, these Marketing tools draw Sessionboard screens in the conversation, so you can see the work without opening the app. Hosts without screens, such as Claude Code, get the same answer as text.

Tool	What you see
get_marketing_home	Marketing’s Home: your next event and how it is pacing, active goals, what is waiting for your OK, new sign-ups in the last 7 days, and one next move. Read-only.
get_goal, get_turnout	A goal’s or an event’s pace: registrations so far, the target line and the estimate, with the plan and suggestions. Estimates are labelled as estimates.
get_results, list_report_sponsors	Results: totals, funnel, channels, people sharing, posts, and a sponsor picker that opens one sponsor’s counts-only report.
get_ai_discovery	Found by AI: how many AI answers mention your event, what the assistants said, and what to do next.
list_events_with_status, whos_coming, get_field_event_results	Your events and webinars, then an in-person event’s guest list and its results.
list_approvals	What is waiting for your OK.

Anything that would reach people shows as a Waiting for your OK card. The card’s only button opens Sessionboard, where a person approves or declines. Nothing in the conversation approves, sends or publishes.

Security

• Org isolation — The SbQL compiler injects org_id into every query from the authenticated token. Prompt injection cannot access other organizations’ data.
• Your access, not more — The assistant reads as the person who authorized it: what their Sessionboard role allows, in that organization, through the scopes they granted. Query results are not masked; an assistant that asks for contact emails gets them. Write tools need write scopes, and only roles with Connect AI assistants can authorize a connection. See privacy details in the Help Center.
• Scoped access — Tokens are restricted to specific scopes and optionally to specific events.
• Audit logging — Every API call is recorded with source, method, response time, and token ID. For ask_event the question text is redacted from the log.

Example Conversations

Once connected, you can ask questions like:

• “How many sessions are accepted for this year’s conference?”
• “Show me the top 10 speakers by number of sessions.”
• “What’s the breakdown of sessions by track and status?”
• “List all sessions that don’t have a room assigned yet.”
• “Which sessions cover cardiac imaging, and what did the speakers say about it?”
• “Create a new track called ‘AI & Machine Learning’ with color #4F46E5.”
• “Build a dashboard showing session counts by status and track.”
• “Create a draft agenda and schedule the keynote in the Main Hall at 9am.”