Connect an AI assistant to Foldr

You can connect an AI assistant to Foldr so it can search and read your files in a chat. It acts as you. It sees the shares and files you can open and nothing more.

What you’ll need

• An administrator has turned on connected apps, and you’re allowed to connect them. If you aren’t, the sign-in page says “Your account isn’t allowed to connect apps yet. Ask your Foldr administrator.”
• An assistant that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth sign-in. We haven’t listed any assistant as tested yet, so check your assistant’s own documentation for how to add a remote server (some call it a custom connector).

Connect it

1. In your assistant, add a remote MCP server with the address https://<your Foldr site>/mcp. Use the same address you open Foldr at.
2. The assistant sends you to a page called Sign in to connect an app. Sign in as you normally do, including any two-step check.
3. Foldr shows “(App) wants to access your Foldr account” and a list headed “It will be able to:”. Read the list. An app you connected yourself shows Unverified app, which is normal. Only carry on if you started this from an assistant you trust.
4. Click Allow. To refuse, click Deny.
5. Foldr says “You can close this tab and return to the app.” Close the tab.
6. In the assistant, ask for something that needs Foldr, such as “List my shares in Foldr.”

Foldr emails you when an app is connected.

What the assistant can do

• Read. By default it can list your shares and folders, read files, search, see custom fields and see what’s shared with you and by you.
• Change. Only if your administrator has allowed it for that app, and only in the shares they’ve named. The consent list shows exactly what the app was given, and you agree to it when you click Allow. A request to share something always waits for an approver, and the assistant never receives a link.
• Never delete. No assistant can delete, move away or replace a file through MCP.

A share that opens with your own sign-in on the storage (an SMB share that asks for your password, for example) can’t be opened by a connected app.

What the assistant reads goes to its provider, because that’s how it answers you. Only connect assistants your organisation is happy with.

Disconnect

1. Open your account settings.
2. Go to Security.
3. Under Connected apps, click Disconnect beside the app.

This works even if an administrator has since switched connected apps off.

If it doesn’t work

• The address answers “not found”. Connected apps are off for your site, or your plan doesn’t include them. Ask your administrator.
• “(App) is waiting for an administrator to approve it.” Your administrator needs to approve the app first.
• It signed in, then every call fails. Some assistants don’t say which server a sign-in is for, so Foldr gives them a token that /mcp refuses. Ask the assistant’s vendor for a client that sends the resource parameter, as the MCP standard requires.
• It worked, then stopped. Connections end after 90 days, or 30 days unused, by default. Connect again. If Security > Connected apps says your apps are paused, your administrator has taken away your permission to connect apps.
• A change is refused. The app may not be allowed to change that share, or it has reached its daily limit.

More detail: Connect a client and Troubleshooting.