Cobalt + Claude (MCP)

Connect Claude — or any MCP-capable assistant — to your Cobalt boards, so it can read, search and build moodboards for you in plain language.

What is this?

MCP (the Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant securely connect to an external app and use its tools. Cobalt ships an MCP server, so an assistant like Claude can work directly with your boards.

Once connected, you can ask your assistant things like "add these three reference images to my Autumn Editorial board" or "summarise everything on my Lookbook board", and it acts on your real boards — the same data you see in the app. Access is scoped to your own account only.

What the assistant can do

Once connected, the assistant has these tools. Everything runs as you, on your boards only.

Tool	What it does
`list_boards`	See all your top-level boards.
`get_board`	Read a whole board — every note, image, link and column on it.
`get_element`	Inspect a single card or container and its direct children.
`search`	Full-text search your boards — note text, titles, link URLs and image captions.
`create_board`	Create a new sub-board.
`create_column`	Create a column to group cards on a board.
`create_element`	Add a card — note, link, to-do, heading, color swatch and more.
`add_image`	Add an image from a URL or inline data (up to 25 MB).
`update_element`	Edit a card's text/content, position or size.
`move_element`	Move a card into another board or column, or reposition it.
`delete_element`	Move a card (and anything inside it) to Trash.

How to connect

Your MCP endpoint is: https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp

Claude.ai / ChatGPT (browser sign-in)

Open your assistant's connector settings and add a custom connector (sometimes called a "custom MCP server").
Paste the endpoint https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp as the server URL and save.
A browser window opens — sign in to Cobalt and approve access. No token needed; the assistant registers itself.

Claude Code / Desktop, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, VS Code (Bearer token)

These clients read a local config file and authenticate via a Bearer token — no browser popup.

Go to Settings and, under "Connect AI assistants (MCP)", generate a token. Copy it — it's shown only once.
Add the server with that token as a Bearer header. For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http cobalt https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>"

For Claude Desktop, add an entry to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cobalt": {
      "url": "https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your-token>" }
    }
  }
}

For OpenAI Codex, add a server to ~/.codex/config.toml pointing at an env var that holds your token:

[mcp_servers.cobalt]
url = "https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "COBALT_MCP_TOKEN"

Then set the token in your shell: export COBALT_MCP_TOKEN=<your-token>.

Cursor, VS Code (Copilot) and Google Antigravity connect the same way — add a custom / remote MCP server with the URL above and an Authorization: Bearer <your-token> header. Clients that take a JSON config accept the same url + headers block as the Claude Desktop example above.

Tokens are generated in Settings and are tied to your account. Revoke a token any time from the same screen to instantly cut off that client.

FAQ & troubleshooting

Can the assistant see other people's boards?

No. Every connection is scoped to the account that signed in or generated the token. The assistant only ever sees and changes your own boards.

My CLI client says it's unauthorized (401).

Check the Authorization: Bearer <token> header is exactly the token from Settings, that it hasn't been revoked, and that the URL ends in /api/mcp.

The browser connector won't finish signing in.

Make sure you're already logged in to Cobalt in the same browser, then retry adding the connector. The endpoint must be reachable over HTTPS at https://app.cobalt.photos/api/mcp.

Did the assistant delete something for good?

No — deletes move items to Trash, so you can restore them. New images count toward your storage quota, just like uploads you make yourself.

Ready to connect? Generate a token in Settings →