Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Codex to your account

4 steps · Checked against the API code 3 November 2026

A guide does one task from start to finish. Every endpoint, with all its fields and cases, is in the API reference.

Hostup runs an MCP server at https://cloud.hostup.se/mcp. Add it to Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Claude Code or any other MCP client. The app signs in with your Hostup account and gets the access you approve. Then you say what you want done and the app uses Hostup’s tools to do it. Purchases, reinstalls, restores and cancellations wait until the account owner confirms them in the client area.

Before you start

The account owner’s login to the client area. Users added to the account and people with delegated access cannot connect an app. They cannot approve its actions either.
An AI app that can use a remote MCP server.
No OAuth sign-in in your app? Use Connect with an API key instead.

Steps

1. Add the server to your app

The address is the same for every app: https://cloud.hostup.se/mcp. The client area shows the same commands on the API Management page, in the card Connect an AI app.

Claude Code

Run this in a terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http hostup https://cloud.hostup.se/mcp

Then type /mcp in Claude Code. A browser opens for the sign-in in step 2.

Codex

Run both commands. The second one opens the sign-in in your browser.

codex mcp add hostup --url https://cloud.hostup.se/mcp
codex mcp login hostup

Claude

In the Claude app or on claude.ai, open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. Paste the address. Leave sign-in on Sign in now and click Add. Then click Connect. The sign-in in step 2 opens in a new window.

ChatGPT

Open Settings → Plugins → + (New plugin). Paste the address as the Server URL. Choose OAuth under Authentication and save. ChatGPT then opens the sign-in in step 2.

The support guide Connect Claude or ChatGPT to your account shows every click in both apps.

Other MCP clients

Add a remote MCP server with the Streamable HTTP transport and OAuth sign-in. Build an MCP client with OAuth sign-in has the details.

The app opens a Hostup page in your browser. If you are not logged in, the client area asks you to log in first. The page names the app and the account it wants to reach. Check both. Approve only a connection you started yourself.

Under What may the app do? you choose one of three levels:

Read and change: the app can manage services, domains, DNS, email and invoices. It gets the scopes read:all and write:all.
Read only: the app can look things up and change nothing. It gets read:all. That leaves out the web hosting lookups that go through the hosting control panel, such as email accounts and databases. Those need console:services.
Choose yourself: you tick the scopes the app gets. Authentication and scopes says what each one allows.

Click Approve. The browser returns to the app. Cancel sends the app back without access.

Approving creates an API key for the app with the scopes you chose. It costs nothing and no e-mail is sent. The connection does not expire. It lasts until you disconnect it.

If the page says “Unknown app”

An app Hostup does not recognise is marked “Unknown app – check the address before you approve”. Read only is then chosen from the start. You can choose more. An app that runs on your own computer gets a warning to approve only if you started the connection yourself.

3. Check the connection

Ask the app to list your services. An answer with your VPS, web hosting accounts and domains shows that the connection works.

The app now shows under Connected AI apps on the API Management page. The row shows the access level and when the app was last used.

4. Let the app work

Ask the app for what you want done. Most actions run as soon as the app calls the tool, the same as a call to the API. That includes some you cannot take back:

A DNS record or a snapshot the app deletes is gone.
Rolling a VPS back to a snapshot replaces its disk at once. The server restarts.
A VPS plan upgrade creates an invoice for the difference. The server can restart when the new plan is applied.
Account credit the app applies to an invoice is used at once.
A switch from a fixed VPS plan to Cloud VPS billing cannot be reversed once it takes effect.
A VPS with auto-renewal turned off expires at its due date and is later deleted with its data.

If your app asks before it runs a tool, read the request before you allow it. Purchases, reinstalls, restores and cancellations always wait for you (below).

A password the app sets or a transfer code it fetches comes back in the tool result. It is then part of the chat history in the app.

The tools cover VPS, domains and DNS, web hosting, billing, support tickets and checks such as DNS propagation and website status. Which ones the app sees follows the access you chose in step 2.

If the app asks you to confirm

Some actions never run from the app:

a purchase: VPS and web hosting orders, Cloud VPS, domain registrations, transfers, renewals and backorders, web hosting plan upgrades and a new IP address
paying an invoice with the card saved on the account
reinstalling a VPS
restoring a VPS, a web hosting account or one database from a backup
cancelling a service

The app gets a link to a confirmation page instead. It passes the link on to you. It looks like https://cloud.hostup.se/confirm/acfm_…. The account owner opens it and logs in. The page shows the action, the amount when it costs money and how long the link is valid. Nothing runs before the click. A domain transfer that costs nothing does not need the page. It runs at once.

Click Confirm & execute to run the action. Cancel drops it. What happens next depends on the action:

A confirmed order creates an invoice. The new service is set up once the invoice is paid.
A Cloud VPS is billed by the hour from the moment you confirm until it is deleted.
A confirmed payment charges the card saved on the account. Without a saved card nothing is charged. You get a payment link instead.
A cancellation ends the service when its paid period runs out. Its data is deleted after that.

The app is not told that you confirmed. Ask it afterwards to check the result. A reinstall or a restore runs as a job. The app can follow the job until it is done.

If the app says a tool is missing

The app sees only the tools its access allows. A tool outside it is not listed at all. When the app needs one, Hostup gives it a link for you: https://cloud.hostup.se/api-management?upgrade=…. The link opens Give full access. One click there gives this same connection full access. Go back to the app and ask again. Start a new chat if the new tools do not show up.

The unknown_tool error names only https://cloud.hostup.se/api-management. That page can only disconnect a connected app. Disconnect it and connect it again with Read and change.

To narrow the access later, disconnect the app and connect it again.

Disconnect the app

Open API Management and find the app under Connected AI apps.
Click Disconnect.
The box Revoke API Key? names the app. Click Revoke Key.

The app loses access at once. To use it again, connect it again from the app.

An app can hand its key back when you remove the connection inside the app. Not every app does. Check Connected AI apps afterwards and disconnect the app there if it is still listed.

Connect with an API key instead

Use this for a client without OAuth sign-in. Create a key under API Management with the scopes the app should get. The key’s scopes decide the tools the same way the access level does.

Create the key without an IP address limit. The tools call the API with the same key from Hostup’s own servers, not from your address. With a limited key, every tool that reads or changes your account fails.

Put the new key in a variable of its own. Your own HOSTUP_API_KEY then stays as it is.

export HOSTUP_APP_KEY="…"   # the key you created for the app

Send the key as a header to the same address:

claude mcp add --transport http hostup https://cloud.hostup.se/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $HOSTUP_APP_KEY"

In other clients, set the header Authorization: Bearer followed by the key.

A key added this way is listed with your other keys, not under Connected AI apps. Revoke it there to disconnect the app.

Errors you may hit

401 with error="invalid_token": the token or key is wrong, revoked or expired. For an OAuth connection it means the app was disconnected. Sign in again from the app.
429: the key’s limit of 300 requests per five minutes is used up. Each tool call makes its own API calls with the same key. One tool call can count several times. Wait up to five minutes. More than 30 calls in a minute without a valid key from one address also get 429 until the minute is over.
unknown_tool in a tool result: the tool does not exist or the connection has no scope for it. See If the app says a tool is missing.
“Only the account owner can connect an AI app” on the sign-in page: you are logged in as a user on the account. Log in as the account owner and start the connection again from the app.
The confirmation page says the link has expired: nothing has run. Ask the app to prepare the action again.
The confirmation page says no confirmation was found: check that you are logged in to the account the app is connected to.

Next: Authentication and scopes: what each scope lets the app do.

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Connect Claude or ChatGPT to your account, the support guide with pictures