Connect Openstatus to ChatGPT (MCP Setup Guide)

Sep 08, 2026 | by openstatus | [education]

TL;DR — Switch on developer mode, add https://api.openstatus.dev/mcp as a custom connector, approve it in the browser, and ChatGPT can drive your status pages: list incidents, draft updates, and schedule maintenance from the chat window. No config file, no key to paste. Every mutation is audit-logged under actor_type = 'mcp' and notifications never fire unless you explicitly approve.

ChatGPT speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — the open standard for letting AI assistants reach external services with explicit approval on every call. This guide wires the openstatus MCP server into ChatGPT as a custom connector so you can list status pages, post incident updates, resolve reports, and schedule maintenance windows without leaving the chat window.

Why connect Openstatus to ChatGPT?

If your incident workflow already runs through chat, ChatGPT is a natural drafting surface. Concrete scenarios:

• Drafting customer-facing copy — turn engineer shorthand ("payment-api spiking p99 to 6s") into the calm, structured update your subscribers expect, then approve and post it without leaving the chat.
• On-call summaries — "Summarize the last 7 days of incidents on my API page" in seconds, useful for weekly reviews and handoffs.
• Read-only audits — a teammate connects with read-only access; their ChatGPT sees only the list_* and get_* tools and cannot mutate anything.

The same server works with Codex, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, opencode, Cursor, and any other MCP-compatible client.

Prerequisites

• An openstatus account with at least one status page.
• ChatGPT on the web, signed in on a Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu plan. On Business, Enterprise, and Edu, a workspace admin may need to allow custom connectors.

Step 1: Enable developer mode

Custom MCP connectors — and especially their write tools — are gated behind developer mode. Open Settings > Security and login and switch on Developer mode. This is a one-time toggle per account.

Step 2: Add a custom connector

Open Settings > Connectors and click Create. Fill in:

• Name: openstatus
• Description: something short, e.g. Status pages, incidents, and maintenance windows
• MCP server URL: https://api.openstatus.dev/mcp
• Authentication: OAuth

Leave the client id and client secret fields empty. openstatus registers the connector automatically; there is nothing to enter.

Step 3: Approve the connection

Click Create. ChatGPT opens the openstatus consent screen:

• Workspace — the workspace this connector can reach. If you belong to several, pick one; each workspace is a separate connection.
• Access — Read-only lets ChatGPT list status pages, reports, monitors, and maintenance windows. Read & write also lets it create reports, append updates, resolve incidents, and schedule maintenance.

Click Approve. You land back in ChatGPT with the connector listed and its tools discovered. Tokens refresh in the background; you won't be asked again unless the connection is revoked.

The connector's detail page in Settings lists every tool the server exposed. With read-only access you'll see list_status_pages, list_status_reports, list_maintenances, list_monitors, and the other read tools. With read & write you'll also see create_status_report, add_status_report_update, update_status_report, resolve_status_report, and create_maintenance. You can switch individual tools off here, and Refresh re-syncs the list after a scope change.

Step 4: Run your first prompt

Custom connectors are enabled per chat. Open a new chat, click the + button, choose Developer mode, and select openstatus.

Try a read tool first:

List my openstatus status pages

ChatGPT calls list_status_pages and returns the slugs and ids in your workspace. With write access, draft an incident — ChatGPT shows you the title, status, message, and notify choice before firing:

Draft a status report on my "api" page: investigating elevated latency on the payment endpoint, do not notify subscribers yet

Write tools require confirmation by default. ChatGPT shows the exact JSON it is about to send to create_status_report, including notify: false; review it, then approve or deny. You can remember the choice for the rest of the conversation.

Prefer a desktop or terminal surface?

ChatGPT's connector form has no header field, so this path is OAuth-only. If you need an API key — a shared machine, or a key that outlives your user — use the ChatGPT desktop app or Codex instead. Both read the same ~/.codex/config.toml: in the desktop app open Settings > MCP servers > Add server, choose Streamable HTTP, enter the URL, save, and choose Restart. The Codex guide covers the header-based setup.

Built-in safeguards

Four properties make this safe enough for a real incident:

• Workspace-scoped consent — the token only reaches the workspace you approved, with the access level you chose. A connector that asks for write access can be downgraded to read-only on the consent screen.
• Required notify: boolean on every mutation tool — the schema rejects calls that omit it, so the LLM has to ask before firing. notify: false is a hard guarantee that no subscriber alert goes out.
• Lookup-before-mutate — create_status_report and create_maintenance require a pageId resolved via list_status_pages rather than guessed.
• Audit log attribution — every mutation lands in the audit log under actor_type = 'mcp', with actor_id (the connection) and actor_user_id (the user who approved it), so AI-driven actions are traceable as a separate slice. Connecting and revoking are audited too.

Disconnecting

Open Settings > Integrations > Connected apps in the openstatus dashboard. Each connection shows the client, its access, who connected it, and when it was last used. Revoke it and the connector's next call fails; reconnect from ChatGPT's Settings > Connectors. Members revoke their own connections; owners and admins can revoke any. Removing a member from the workspace revokes their connections automatically.

To remove the connector on the ChatGPT side, open it under Settings > Connectors and delete it.

Troubleshooting

• There is no Create button under Connectors. Developer mode is off, or your plan or workspace doesn't allow custom connectors. Check Settings > Security and login > Developer mode, then ask your workspace admin if the button is still missing.
• The connector shows as disconnected. Open Settings > Connectors, click openstatus, and reconnect. This is expected after a revoke from the dashboard.
• Tools don't show up in a chat. Connectors are enabled per chat: click +, choose Developer mode, and select openstatus.
• "Tool not available" when creating an incident. Your connection is read-only. Reconnect and pick Read & write on the consent screen, then Refresh the tool list on the connector's detail page.
• ChatGPT reports that the server URL failed to load. Sanity-check reachability with curl -i -H "Accept: text/event-stream" https://api.openstatus.dev/mcp — a 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header means the server is up and waiting for a sign-in.

What's next?

• MCP Server Reference — full tool schema, error codes, OAuth endpoints, and scope mechanics.
• Connect to Codex — terminal-shaped variant of this guide.
• Connect to Claude Desktop — the same setup for Anthropic's chat client.
• Openstatus CLI — for terminal workflows that don't need an LLM in the loop.
• Slack Agent — for teams that live in Slack.

Frequently asked questions

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