Skip to main content

Recruit CRM - MCP (Model Context Protocol)

This article will guide you to set up the Recruit CRM MCP server to connect your account to AI assistants like Claude and Codex.

Written by Saurav

Recruit CRM MCP Server

Connect your Recruit CRM account to AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity and interact with your recruitment data using natural language.

🔑 [IMPORTANT] Previously connected using an API key?

Recruit CRM MCP previously authenticated with a single account-wide API key — one key per account, giving full access to your entire database regardless of user role. This has been replaced by OAuth-based authentication, scoped to each individual user's role and permissions.

If you were connected using the old API key method, that connection no longer works. To reconnect:

  1. Delete the existing Recruit CRM connection in Claude, ChatGPT, or whichever app you used it with — the old API key–based connection won't upgrade itself and needs to be removed first.

  2. Confirm MCP Access is enabled for your role:
    Go to Admin Settings → User → Roles & Permissions and enable MCP Access for the user role. Please contact your admin if you don't have access to the Roles & Permissions settings.
    ​


    The old API key had full read and write access by default. The new OAuth connection depends on your role's MCP Access setting: Read Only gives search and view access, Read & Write gives the same full access the old API key had. Please contact your admin if you're not sure which one your role has.
    ​

  3. Reconnect using the OAuth steps below for your AI app.

⚠️ If the old API key is no longer used anywhere else, rotate or revoke it — it still grants full account access to anyone holding it.

Who Is This For?

This is intended for Recruit CRM Users who want to connect their Recruit CRM data to an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT via MCP (Model Context Protocol).

Prerequisite

  1. The Recruit CRM MCP feature is available only on the Business and Enterprise plans.

  2. MCP Access needs to be enabled for the User's Role, and set to either Read Only or Read & Write:

    Go to Admin Settings → User → Roles & Permissions and enable MCP Access for the user role, then choose the access level.

    • Read Only — search, list, and view Recruit CRM data through MCP. Write actions aren't available.

    • Read & Write — full access to all available MCP tools, same as before.

Note: By Default, Account Owner and Admins have MCP access and their roles always have Read & Write MCP access, and this can't be changed for those roles.

Claude Setup

For the Claude Team plan, the Admin needs to add the connector for the team. Click here to view a quick help guide on it.

For Pro and Max plans (individual users):

Method 1:

  1. You can click on this link: https://claude.ai/directory/recruit-crm and click on the 'Connect to Claude' button.

  2. On the authentication page that opens, click on 'Authorize' to connect.

Screen Recording 2026-09-02 at 8.39.27 PM.mov [video-to-gif output image]

Method 2:

  1. Go to Customize → Connectors

  2. Click "+", then "Add custom connector"

  3. Enter the MCP server URL: https://agent.recruitcrm.io/mcp and click "Add"

  4. Click "Connect" on the Recruit CRM connector that appears

  5. On the authentication page that opens, click on 'Authorize' to connect.

Enabling connectors after configuration

You can enable connectors for individual conversations via the “+” button on the lower left of your chat interface, then "Connectors." You'll see your configured connectors with toggles allowing you to enable/disable them per conversation.

Reference

For more details, see Claude’s guide on custom connectors using remote MCP:

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-get-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp

ChatGPT Setup

Remote MCP connectors require Developer Mode on ChatGPT

  1. Open ChatGPT Settings, navigate to Security and login, then scroll down to enable Developer mode.
    ​

  2. Open ChatGPT and go to Plugins
    ​

  3. Click on the "Plus" icon

  4. Enter name: Recruit CRM and paste the MCP server URL: https://agent.recruitcrm.io/mcp

  5. Upload Logo (optional)

  6. Select Authentication: OAuth (if not selected by default)

  7. Check: I understand and want to continue

  8. Click the ‘Create’ button

  9. Follow the on-screen instructions to connect

Reference

For more details, see ChatGPT’s guide on MCP and Developer Mode:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12584461-developer-mode-and-mcp-apps-in-chatgpt

Perplexity Setup

  1. Navigate to the correct settings page:

    • For your account: Account settings → Connectors

    • For the organization (admins only): Enterprise settings → Permissions → Connectors permissions

  2. Click + Custom connector in the top-right corner.

  3. In the modal pop-up, select Remote.

  4. Fill in the required fields:

  • Name: Recruit CRM

  • MCP Server URL: https://agent.recruitcrm.io/mcp

  1. Optionally, fill in these additional fields:

    • Description: A short explanation of what the connector does.

    • Authentication: OAuth

    • Transport: Streamable HTTP

  2. Check the acknowledgment box to confirm you understand the risks of custom connectors.

  3. Click Add. The connector will appear in the Connectors screen in your Account settings.

  4. Click the connector card to start the authentication flow and enable it. To modify or remove the connector later, click the ellipsis (⋮) and choose the appropriate option.

Reference

For more details, see Perplexity’s guide on adding custom connectors: https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/13915507-adding-custom-remote-connectors

Gemini

Gemini does not currently support custom remote MCP connectors in the standard consumer Gemini web app (gemini.google.com) or Gemini mobile apps. Custom MCP servers are only available in Gemini Enterprise (Google Cloud), which is a separate enterprise product. If your organization uses Gemini Enterprise, your administrator can add custom MCP data stores — contact your Google Cloud admin for setup.

Grok Setup

Grok supports custom MCP connectors, allowing you to connect Recruit CRM and access supported Recruit CRM tools through Grok.

  1. Open Grok and sign in to your account. Click Plugins.

  2. Select New Connector.

  3. Choose Custom Connector.

  4. Enter the connector name, paste https://agent.recruitcrm.io/mcp into the MCP Server URL field, and click Add Connector.

  5. On the authentication page, connect your Recruit CRM account by logging in with your Recruit CRM credentials.

  6. Review the requested permissions and click Authorize to approve the connection.

  7. Once the connection is successful, open Plugins and navigate to Connected Plugins to view your connected Recruit CRM plugin.

Reference:

For more details, see Grok’s guide on custom connectors using remote MCP:

https://docs.x.ai/grok/connectors

What Can It Do?

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant questions like:

  • "Show me open jobs for Acme Corp"

  • "What tasks are due this week?"

  • "Pull up recent notes on John Smith"

  • "Show call logs from last month"

  • "Show me Frank's progression across all jobs"

  • "How many candidates are in interview hiring stage for Sales Consultant?"

  • "Which candidates aren't assigned to any job?"

  • "Show me all candidates in the Interview stage across all jobs, along with the assigned job and job owner."

  • "Which candidates on the Senior Engineer role have been idle for more than 7 days?"

  • "Review candidates added today and create notes on what to discuss during the initial phone call based on their profiles."

  • "Give me a bottleneck report for this job and suggest what to do next"

  • "For the 'Director of Product Management' (Job ID-842), review all candidates in the Shortlist stage and prepare a professional, modern-themed executive search report, including an executive summary and other notable details."

Currently supported:
The write actions listed below (create, update, assign, etc.) are only available if your role has Read & Write MCP access. With Read Only access, you can search, view, and review records, but not create or modify them.

Entities & Activities

Supported Actions

Candidates

Find candidates, review profiles and job history, create or update records, assign them to jobs, move them through hiring stages, and manage off-limit status. Search for unassigned candidates or for candidate-job assignments, matching the All Unassigned and All Assigned views in Recruit CRM.

Jobs

Find roles by title, company, owner, or status; review assigned candidates by stage; create or update jobs; and diagnose pipeline bottlenecks.

Companies

Find companies, review account details, create or update company records, and manage off-limit status.

Contacts

Find contacts, review relationship history, create or update records, pitch candidates, track pitch progress, and manage off-limit status.

Tasks

Find upcoming or overdue work, including tasks associated with the record as well as tasks where it's the primary relation; review related context; create tasks; and update existing tasks.

Meetings

Find scheduled meetings, including meetings associated with the record as well as meetings where it's the primary relation; review attendees and related records; create meetings; and update meeting details.

Notes

Search notes across candidates, contacts, companies, jobs, and deals, including notes associated with the record as well as notes where it's the primary relation; create notes; and update existing notes.

Call Logs

Review call activity across candidates, contacts, companies, jobs, and deals, including call logs associated with the record; log new calls on candidates, contacts, and companies; and update existing call records.

Hotlists

Find hotlists, create new lists, and add records to existing lists.

Custom Fields

Custom fields are supported for searching, creating, and updating records, including parent-child dependencies.

Client Briefs

Prepare account briefs with open jobs, contacts, candidate pipeline status, recent activity, risks, and recommended follow-ups.

Pipeline Analysis

Diagnose a job's hiring pipeline. Returns stage distribution, days-in-current-stage per candidate, idle candidate detection, bottleneck verdict, recent activity (notes, meetings, tasks), etc.

Data Enrichment

Unlock a candidate's or contact's email ID and phone number right from your AI assistant without leaving the workflow to go into the Recruit CRM app.

Read-only MCP accounts do not have access to perform Data Enrichment. Since enrichment updates the record, it's suppressed entirely for Read-Only MCP sessions from the start, and it won't appear as an option.

A valid LinkedIn profile URL is required for enrichment to work, and at least one of the fields (email or phone) must be empty. If the LinkedIn URL is not available or is invalid, the system will attempt to find data using a combination of the Candidate/ Contact's Full Name, Job Title, and Current Organization, provided all three fields have valid data.

If there is more than one personal or work email available for a candidate or contact, the secondary email will be saved as a note on the record and credits are charged only once similarly for phone numbers too. Every successful MCP enrichment shows up in Data Enrichment History.

Credit Consumption:

  • Credits are only consumed when the email ID/phone field is actually populated and never on a failed, pending, or blocked attempt.

  • 1 credit for a work email (contact), 3 credits for a personal email (candidate), 4 credits for a phone number (either entity) are charged.

  • Draws from the same shared account credit pool as in-app enrichment - no separate MCP quota.

Please note: If a field (email ID/phone) is already populated/available, enrichment isn't attempted at all, and you will get a message regarding the same, with zero credits consumed.

Search experience:

All entity search tools work like search inside the Recruit CRM app.

  • Boolean search support for more precise candidate and entity discovery

  • Advanced Filter search support for narrowing results using structured criteria

  • App-like search behavior across entities for a more familiar and more powerful MCP experience.

Assigned and unassigned candidates:

  • You can search for candidates who aren't assigned to any job.

  • When you search assigned candidates, each job assignment shows up separately. A candidate on 3 jobs appears 3 times, each with that job's Hiring Stage, Job Owner, and Stage Date.

  • You can search by Assigned Job, Job Owner, Hiring Stage, Stage Date, and Assignment Remark.

  • Candidates in every stage, including Rejected and Placed, are included.

📌 Please note: "How many candidates are in Interview?" counts each candidate once. Listing all Interview assignments can show a higher number because one candidate can be in Interview for more than one job. Both numbers are correct.

This version does not support delete actions in Recruit CRM. Write operations are supported and occur only when explicitly requested. Delete actions remain unavailable to everyone regardless of access level, this is enforced at the server level. Write operations also require your role to have Read & Write MCP access, as described above.

Notes, call logs, tasks, and meetings created or updated through MCP are always attributed to the account you're connected as. Assigning a different owner to a task or meeting still works, but you can't set the author of an activity to another user. Attempting this returns an error explaining that MCP-created or MCP-updated records are always logged under the connected account.

If your use case isn't supported yet, let us know through Recruit CRM Support - we'd love to hear what you need.

⚠️ Data Privacy - Please Read Carefully

When you use this MCP server, your Recruit CRM data is sent to the AI assistant you're using (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT). This means:

  • Candidate profiles, names, email, phone, job history, hiring stage, etc. will be exposed to the AI provider so that it can assist with the data.

  • Company and contact data, job details, notes, and call logs may also be exposed depending on what you ask.

  • The AI provider processes this data on their servers according to their own privacy and data retention policies.

What you should check before using:

  • Most AI providers (including Claude) have a data retention period - typically around 30 days for conversation data, though this varies by plan and provider. Always check the latest policies directly on their official websites:

  • If your team or organization has data residency, GDPR, or other compliance requirements, confirm that using an AI assistant with live recruitment data is permitted.

  • Use good judgment about what you query - only ask for data that's necessary for the task at hand.

By using this tool, you accept responsibility for ensuring its use complies with your organization's data policies and applicable regulations.

Troubleshooting

Problem: ChatGPT can perform simple Recruit CRM searches but says it does not have a callable Recruit CRM search function when handling complex prompts that require multiple searches.

Likely Cause: The Recruit CRM MCP connection may need to be refreshed for ChatGPT to properly invoke the available tools.

What to check: Confirm the Recruit CRM connection is active and connected through OAuth. Test whether simple Recruit CRM searches are working.

Resolution: Disconnect the Recruit CRM connection in ChatGPT without deleting it, then reconnect it through OAuth and grant the required permissions again. After reconnecting, retry the complex prompt.

🤔 Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be technical to set this up?

No local configuration or terminal commands are required. Setup takes a few clicks in your AI assistant's settings.

Will this change anything in my Recruit CRM account?

If your role has Read & Write MCP access, yes, it can create and update data in Recruit CRM based on your prompt. Write operations are supported, such as creating/updating records, activities (notes/tasks/meeting/call logs), etc., and occur only when explicitly requested. If your role has Read Only MCP access, it can only search and view your data, no write actions are available.
Any activity you create or update this way (a note, call log, task, or meeting) is always logged under your own account; you can't attribute it to a teammate.

Can multiple people on my team use this?

Yes, but user roles must allow MCP access, set to either Read Only or Read & Write. MCP access does not override existing permissions, users connecting via MCP can only read and write data that their role allows elsewhere in Recruit CRM. A role with Read Only MCP access can search and view data through MCP but can't create or update anything, regardless of its other permissions.

Can users log in during the consent flow?

Yes. The consent screen includes a Login button, and users are then asked to authorize access.

Can I connect MCP clients other than Claude and ChatGPT?

Yes. Any MCP client that supports remote MCP servers over OAuth (Streamable HTTP) can connect using the same URL: https://agent.recruitcrm.io/mcp.

Step-by-step instructions exist for Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity because those are the most common, but the pattern is identical elsewhere: add a custom/remote MCP connector in that client's settings, point it at the URL, complete OAuth.

What happens if a user doesn't have MCP Access when they try to connect?

The consent screen still loads and confirms they're logged in, but shows a permission denied message: "You do not have permission to connect... Contact your Recruit CRM admin to enable access." The connection stops there — they'll need an admin to enable MCP Access for their role in Roles & Permissions before retrying.

What happens if MCP Access is revoked after a user already connected?

User's existing connection stops working. The next time user tries to use MCP through Claude, ChatGPT, or any connected app, they'll be prompted to reconnect. When users attempt to reconnect, they'll see the same "You do not have permission to connect... Contact your Recruit CRM admin to enable access" screen. To use MCP again, your admin needs to re-enable MCP Access for your role.

What happens if a user's MCP access is changed from Read & Write to Read Only, rather than fully revoked?

Unlike full revocation, their connection isn't broken; they don't need to reconnect to keep using MCP. Write actions stop working from their next MCP action, but their AI assistant's connector configuration may continue to display write tools until they manually reconnect. Reconnecting refreshes the tool list shown in their client to match the Read Only access they now have.

What's the difference between Read Only and Read & Write MCP access?

Read Only allows searching and viewing data through MCP without write tools. Read & Write provides the full existing set of MCP tools, including creating and updating records, as described in "Will this change anything in my Recruit CRM account?" above.

Does Recruit CRM show an audit log for actions taken via MCP?

Not currently — write actions performed through MCP (creating or updating records, notes, tasks, etc.) aren't yet logged in the audit log. Audit log visibility for MCP-originated actions is on the roadmap.

If a candidate is assigned to multiple jobs, how do they appear?

Each assignment shows up separately, with its own job and hiring stage.

Please feel free to reach out to your Recruit CRM account representative or contact Recruit CRM Support if you have any questions.😊

Related Articles
Did this answer your question?