Docs / Contact / ai/claude-code

AI Skills

When you connect an AI assistant to the Contact MCP server, it automatically receives skills: guided instructions that teach the assistant how to use the tools effectively. No plugins or extra installation needed.

Setup#

Add the Contact MCP server to your Claude Code configuration (.mcp.json in your project root or ~/.claude.json globally):

json


{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contact": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://app.tendrl.com/contact/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <CONTACT_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Create API keys in the Contact dashboard under Access Control → API Keys.

Use an account key with an admin-capable role

The MCP tools call IAM- and account-gated endpoints. Connect with an account API key whose role grants those actions (the built-in Admin role is the simplest choice). An entity-bound key with the DefaultEntity role will connect but 403 on nearly every tool.

The Add New API Key form: Name, Role selector, and optional expiration Access Control → API Keys → Add. The Role you pick here is what decides whether the MCP tools work — this is an account key, not a device's own key.

Once connected, Claude automatically discovers the available skills.

How it works#

The Contact MCP server serves skills as MCP resources alongside its documentation. When any MCP client connects, it calls resources/list and sees the available skills. When you ask a question that matches a skill, the AI assistant reads the skill content via resources/read and uses it to guide which tools to call, what parameters to use, and how to interpret results.

This works with Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, and any MCP-compatible client. No plugins, no file downloads, no extra configuration; the skills ship with the server itself.

Skills#

You don't need to remember tool names or parameters. Just describe what you want.

Skill	What it does	Example triggers
`contact-devices`	Register devices, list entities, search messages, manage fanouts	"register a new temperature sensor", "show my devices", "search messages from last week"
`contact-admin`	Set up flows, manage connectors, services, roles, API keys, and usage	"set up a flow", "create a read-only role", "check my usage"
`contact-dashboards`	Discover what devices publish, build dashboards (charts, gauges, fleet tables, status tiles), and run ad-hoc analytics	"build a dashboard for my sensors", "which device is hottest right now", "compare this week's validation rate to last week"

How skills work#

When you ask Claude something like "register a new temperature sensor," it reads the contact-devices skill from the server which provides context on:

Which tool to call (create_entity)
What parameters to include
How to interpret the response
Common follow-up patterns (e.g., grouping the new entity)

Local Dev Server#

If you work with physical MicroPython devices, also add the local dev server to your MCP config:

json


{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tendrl-dev": {
      "command": "tendrl-dev-mcp"
    }
  }
}

This provides device provisioning, file management, and debugging skills. See Local Dev Server for details.

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