MCP Server

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 38 tools covering search, reads, natural-language queries, 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 — via a developer-mode connector
Connect Microsoft Copilot — via a Copilot Studio agent
Connect Google Gemini — Gemini app, Gemini Enterprise, or the Gemini CLI

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

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

AI features are enabled for the organization. Contact Sessionboard support or your account manager if they are not.
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.

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 (38)

The MCP server exposes 38 tools in four groups. 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 (10 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

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)

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

Security

Org isolation — The SbQL compiler injects org_id into every query from the authenticated token. Prompt injection cannot access other organizations’ data.
PII masking — OAuth connections always mask PII in query results: emails become j***@a***.com, phone numbers become ***-***-4567. For API-token calls to the query routes, masking follows that token’s PII Obfuscation setting (off by default — turn it on for any token a third party will use). 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.

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.”
“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.”

Getting Started

Guides

Reports & Dashboards

Release Notes

What is MCP?

Server URLs by region

Prerequisites

Setup

Available Tools (38)

Search & Discovery (10 tools)

Read Details (4 tools)

Read-Only Lists (9 tools)

Create & Manage (15 tools)

Parameter Conventions

Result Size Safety

Resources

Prompt Templates

Security

Example Conversations

​What is MCP?

​Server URLs by region

​Prerequisites

​Setup

​Available Tools (38)

​Search & Discovery (10 tools)

​Read Details (4 tools)

​Read-Only Lists (9 tools)

​Create & Manage (15 tools)

​Parameter Conventions

​Result Size Safety

​Resources

​Prompt Templates

​Security

​Example Conversations

What is MCP?

Server URLs by region

Prerequisites

Setup

Available Tools (38)

Search & Discovery (10 tools)

Read Details (4 tools)

Read-Only Lists (9 tools)

Create & Manage (15 tools)

Parameter Conventions

Result Size Safety

Resources

Prompt Templates

Security

Example Conversations