AI Connections (MCP)
An AI Connection lets an outside AI assistant — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other tools that speak the Model Context Protocol — work with your Simplio3D projects directly, instead of you copying answers back and forth. You create a token, decide exactly what it is allowed to touch, and paste it into the AI tool. It is the same idea as giving a contractor a key that only opens certain doors, with an expiry date on it.
What a connected agent can and cannot do
It can
- Read your projects — option blocks, variants, materials, pricing, conditional rules, form fields and quote requests.
- Inspect a 3D model's part names so it can talk about the right meshes.
- Make low-risk edits, such as renaming a block or adding a variant.
- Propose risky changes — pricing, SKUs, deletions, a store product link — which then wait for you.
- See whether a store is connected, list its products, and follow the progress of a workflow.
It cannot
- Publish a project, create a share link or change embed settings.
- Connect, disconnect or read the credentials of a Shopify or WooCommerce store.
- Upload a file, or delete a project.
- Apply its own risky change — every one of those needs your approval in the app.
- Reach a workspace the connection was not created for, or anything outside the scopes you ticked.
Creating a connection
- 1Open Dashboard → Integrations → AI Connections.
- 2Copy the MCP endpoint shown at the top — that is the address your AI tool connects to.
- 3Click "Create connection" and give it a name that says which tool it is for, such as "Claude Desktop". A name per tool makes it obvious which one to revoke later.
- 4Choose the workspace. A connection is tied to the workspace you pick here, permanently.
- 5Tick only the scopes that tool actually needs (see below), then create it.
- 6Copy the token immediately — it is shown once and never again — and paste it into your AI tool's configuration alongside the endpoint.
Choosing scopes (give it the least it needs)
Scopes are the doors the key opens. Start read-only, then add one write scope at a time as you find you need it — an agent that only reviews your pricing does not need to create projects or edit materials.
| Scope group | What it allows | Tick it when the agent should… |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace (read) | See your workspace, plan and usage summary. | Answer "what plan am I on / how much am I using". |
| Projects (read / write) | List and inspect projects; create, rename, duplicate and change safe project settings. | Report on your projects, or set new ones up for you. |
| Assets (read) | List assets and inspect a 3D model's part names and hierarchy. | Talk about the meshes inside your models. |
| Materials (read / write) | Read the library; create and edit materials and assign them to variants. | Build or tidy your material library. |
| Configurator (read / write) | Read and author option blocks, variants and conditional rules. | Build or restructure the options shoppers see. |
| Pricing (read / write) | Read prices and formulas; propose pricing, SKU and formula changes. | Work on pricing — every write still lands as an approval. |
| Forms (read / write) | Read and author quote and checkout form fields. | Build or adjust the lead form. |
| Quotes (read) | Read submitted quote requests, including customer details. | Summarize or triage incoming leads. Be deliberate — this is customer data. |
| Commerce (read / write) | See whether a store is connected and list its products; link a product and set the checkout mode. | Wire a project to a store product. Never grants access to store credentials. |
| Workflows (read) | List workflow types and follow the progress of a run. | Report on a long job you started in the app. |
Expiry, rotating and revoking
- Every token expires after 90 days. The connection list shows the expiry date and an Expired badge once it passes; an expired token simply stops working.
- Rotate issues a replacement and stops the current token immediately. Use it on schedule, and always after any exposure. Update the tool with the new token straight away.
- Revoke cuts the connection off immediately and cannot be undone. Use it when a tool is retired, or when you are unsure who has the token.
- Each row shows when it was created and last used — a connection that has never been used is a good candidate for revoking.
One connection, one workspace
The workspace you choose at creation is baked into the connection and cannot be switched afterwards. If an agent asks about a project that belongs to a different workspace, it will be told the project does not exist — that is the boundary working, not a bug. To work across two workspaces, create a connection from each.
Approving what an agent proposes
Risky changes never happen out in the AI tool. They appear under Pending AI changes on the same AI Connections page, each listing every change it wants to make. Press Apply to accept or dismiss it to decline. Proposals are short-lived, so an old one is refused rather than written over your newer edits — just ask the agent again.
OAuth instead of a token
Some AI tools can authorize themselves rather than asking you for a token. You will see a Simplio3D consent screen naming the app, the workspace and the exact permissions it is requesting; approve it and the connection appears in the same list, marked OAuth app. Rotate and revoke work identically.
The full tool list
Every action an agent can take — what it reads, what it can change, and which ones always need your approval — is catalogued in the MCP documentation, along with connection instructions for individual AI clients.