Contents
What is the Golfmanager MCP?
MCP (short for Model Context Protocol) is a shared language that AI assistants — such as ChatGPT and Claude — use to connect to other software. Think of it as a standard socket: if a program offers an MCP, any assistant that speaks the protocol can plug into it.
The Golfmanager MCP is that socket for your club. Once you connect it, the assistant stops being a tool that only writes text and becomes one that can look up and work with your club's real data — bookings, customers, sales, vouchers, stock — without leaving the conversation.
One thing is worth understanding from the start: the assistant doesn't get a copy of your database. It asks Golfmanager for things as it needs them, exactly as a person clicking through the application would, and Golfmanager answers. Every request carries a credential that says who is asking and for which club, and the assistant can only do what that user could do with their own mouse.
What problem does it solve?
A club's day is full of questions that mean opening a screen, filtering, exporting and comparing. With the MCP connected, you simply ask:
"How many bookings do I have tomorrow morning, and how many slots are still free?"
"Find the customers who haven't been in since January."
"Book this group of four for Saturday at 10:00."
"Create a payment link for these two sales and give me the URL."
"Top up this member's voucher by €50."
"Compare July's occupancy with last year's."
The gain isn't only convenience: the middle step disappears — no exporting to Excel and reconciling by hand. The assistant asks, cross-checks and hands you the finished answer, based on right now.
Which systems does it connect, and which way does the data flow?
The connection joins two systems:
Your Golfmanager — your club, and only your club.
Your AI assistant: ChatGPT or Claude, under your own account.
The data flows like this:
You ask the assistant for something in plain language.
The assistant turns that into a call to the Golfmanager MCP, sending your credential.
Golfmanager checks the credential and the user's permissions, then carries out the request.
Golfmanager returns the result — the data, or confirmation of what was created.
The assistant explains it back to you in plain language.
ℹ️ The assistant always starts the conversation. Golfmanager never pushes anything to ChatGPT or Claude on its own: it only answers when asked, and only a caller carrying a valid credential for your club.
What can the assistant do in your club?
On connecting, the assistant receives a list of tools it may use. Grouped by area, they are:
Looking things up
See what information exists in your club and which fields each record has (customers, bookings, sales, products…).
See the club's configuration: language, currency, time zone and installed modules.
List and search records with filters, sorting and pagination, and open a specific record.
Bookings
Search availability (slots and tee times) with prices.
Create bookings, individually or as a group.
Cancel bookings, with or without notifying the customer.
Pull booking statistics for a date range, by day or by resource.
Sales and payments
Create a payment link for one or more sales.
Pay sales with a payment method.
Cancel sales.
Create or edit a sale (in draft or pending status).
Vouchers and stock
Top up a customer's voucher.
Create a purchase order to a supplier, with its lines.
Adjust the stock of a product in a warehouse.
The rest of the application
There is also a general-purpose tool that lets the assistant call any other Golfmanager API endpoint not covered above, for specific cases or module-specific features.
⚠️ Not everything is read-only. Several of these tools genuinely write to your club: they create bookings, cancel sales and move stock. Nothing is simulated. Treat it as handing someone your mouse — they can do whatever you can.
Prerequisites (including the paid plan)
The MCP module installed in your Golfmanager. If you don't have it, email support@golfmanager.com and we'll enable it.
Your own Golfmanager user with access to the application. The credential is created from your own user record, for you: nobody can issue a credential "on behalf of" someone else.
A paid plan on the assistant's side. Neither ChatGPT nor Claude lets you connect your own MCP server usefully on their free tiers. In practice you need ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu, or Claude Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise.
A Golfmanager that is reachable from the internet — the norm if you're on the cloud version. The assistant connects from outside, not from a computer in the clubhouse.
Some thought about permissions. The assistant inherits your user's permissions. If your user is an administrator, so is the assistant.
💡 Recommended: if you're just trying it out, consider creating a Golfmanager user with limited permissions (read-only, for example) and issuing the credential from that user. The assistant then sees what it needs and nothing more.
Step 1 — Create your credential in Golfmanager
The credential is the key that identifies the assistant to your club. You create it once, copy it, and paste it into the assistant.
Log in to Golfmanager with your user.
Go to Settings > Users and open your own user (it only works on your own record; on anyone else's, the button will refuse).
Find the MCP credentials card and click New credential.
Give it a name that tells you which device or which assistant it's for — for example "Claude on the reception laptop" or "ChatGPT for management". Golfmanager suggests one based on the device you're on.
Click OK. A window opens showing the token (a long string of letters and numbers) and the server address.
Copy the token with the copy button and paste it wherever you're going to use it.
⚠️ The token is shown only once. Golfmanager doesn't store the token itself, only a fingerprint of it used to recognise it. If you close that window without copying it, there's no way to get it back: you'll have to revoke the credential and create another. No harm done — just a wasted minute.
That same window has tabs with the text ready to paste for different clients: "Any agent" (the raw details), "Claude Code" (the full command) and "Codex" (the configuration block). The two things you'll always need are:
The MCP server URL, in the form https://yourclub.golfmanager.com/api/mcp — use the one shown in the window, with your club's own domain.
The authorization header: Authorization: Bearer <your token>.
One more detail some clients ask for: the transport is HTTP (streamable).
Step 2 — Connect it to Claude
In Claude, MCP servers are called connectors. There are three routes, depending on how you use Claude.
Option A — Claude on the web or desktop app (Pro or Max plan)
Sign in to Claude and open Settings.
Go to Connectors.
Click + and choose Add custom connector.
In the server URL field, paste the URL you'll find under Security > Users > MCP Credentials, in the 'Connect Claude or ChatGPT' section.
Open Advanced settings and, under request headers, add one called Authorization with the value Bearer <your token> — the word Bearer, a space, then the token.
Click Add, then enable the connector.
Option B — Claude for teams and organisations (Team and Enterprise plans)
The connector is added by the organisation's Owner, not by each user.
The Owner goes to Organization settings > Connectors, clicks Add, chooses Custom, and fills in the URL and the header as above.
After that, each user finds it under their own Connectors and just clicks Connect.
Option C — Claude Code (for technical users)
If you work with Claude Code, the token window gives you the command ready to run. It looks like this:
claude mcp add --transport http yourclub https://yourclub.golfmanager.com/api/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <your token>"
ℹ️ About headers in Claude: pasting a fixed token as a request header is supported, but it's a fairly recent addition to Claude's interface, and exactly where it sits inside "Advanced settings" may shift between versions. If you can't find it, search for "MCP" or "connector" in the settings search.
Step 3 — Connect it to ChatGPT
With ChatGPT you need to pick the right entry point, because not every version accepts the same kind of key.
Option A — The ChatGPT desktop app (the recommended route)
🚨 ChatGPT does not allow you to create custom connectors until Developer Mode is enabled. To enable it, go to: Profile picture → Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced Settings → Developer Mode.
Requires a paid account: Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise, or Edu.
On Team or Enterprise accounts, the workspace administrator must have enabled this option in the workspace permissions.
Once Developer Mode is enabled:
Open the ChatGPT desktop app with your paid account.
Go to Settings and find the MCP servers section (under connectors / apps, depending on the version).
Click Add server.
Give it a name — your club's name works well.
For type, choose Streamable HTTP (not STDIO).
In URL, paste https://yourclub.golfmanager.com/api/mcp.
Under headers, add Authorization with the value Bearer <your token>.
Save, and check that the server shows as connected with its tools listed.
What doesn't work today: connectors in ChatGPT on the web
ChatGPT in the browser does let you add custom connectors once you turn on developer mode (Settings > Apps and connectors > Advanced). That form, however, currently offers only two kinds of authentication: OAuth or none. There is nowhere to paste a fixed token like Golfmanager's.
⚠️ What this means in practice: to use the Golfmanager MCP with ChatGPT, use the desktop app (or Codex). It isn't possible from ChatGPT in the browser for now, simply because there's no field for the token. That's a ChatGPT limitation, not a Golfmanager one.
How to check it's working
In the assistant, confirm the server shows as connected and lists its tools (search availability, list records, create booking…).
Ask it something harmless and read-only, such as "What's my club's configuration: currency, language and installed modules?" or "How many bookings are there tomorrow?". If it comes back with real data, the connection works.
Check it's pointing at your club: on connecting, the server identifies itself with your club's name. If the assistant names a different club, something was pasted wrong.
Back in Golfmanager, open your user > MCP credentials: the Last used column should show today's date and time.
If something goes wrong, these are the usual causes:
"Invalid MCP credential": the token is incomplete or pasted wrong. Check it starts with Bearer followed by a space, and that nothing was cut off when copying.
"MCP is not installed in this tenant": the module is missing in your club. Email support@golfmanager.com.
"The user of this MCP credential is no longer active": the Golfmanager user has been disabled or deleted. Issue the credential from an active user.
No tools appear: check the connection type is HTTP streamable and that the URL ends in exactly /api/mcp.
Security: what the credential protects
It's personal. The credential is issued from your own record and acts as you: the assistant sees and does what your permissions allow, no more. Everything it does is recorded against your user.
It belongs to one club. The token is tied to the club it was issued for. Even if someone pointed it at another club, it wouldn't open — it's not a master key.
It isn't your password or your API key. It's a separate key for one assistant. If a laptop goes missing you revoke that credential, and the club's other integrations carry on working.
Golfmanager doesn't store the token. It stores only a cryptographic fingerprint. Not even we can read it afterwards.
You can have several. One per device or per assistant. Each has its own usage allowance and is revoked separately.
Golfmanager's internal tools aren't offered. There are diagnostic tools reserved for Golfmanager staff; a club's assistant isn't even told they exist.
🔒 Treat the token like a password. Don't paste it into a team chat, an email or a shared document. Whoever holds it can act in your club under your name.
Revoking a credential
Go to Settings > Users and open your user.
On the MCP credentials card, tick the credential (or several) you want to cancel.
Click Revoke and confirm.
It takes effect immediately: the assistant using that token loses access on its very next request. Revoke freely — when you change computers, when you stop using an assistant, or at the slightest doubt that the token may have been seen. Issuing a new one takes under a minute.
Limitations to keep in mind
A paid plan is required on ChatGPT or Claude. The free tiers don't support this connection in any usable way.
ChatGPT in the browser won't do, at least for now: its custom connectors accept only OAuth or no authentication, and this needs a token. Use the desktop app or Codex.
The assistant really can write. Creating bookings, cancelling sales and moving stock are real actions in your club. Review what it proposes before confirming.
The assistant can get it wrong. It interprets what you ask; if the request is ambiguous it may apply it to the wrong date or the wrong customer. For anything sensitive, ask it to show you what it's about to do first.
Data goes to an external service. Whatever the assistant looks up passes through OpenAI's or Anthropic's servers. Bear that in mind with customers' personal data and your country's data protection rules.
Usage limits apply — the same ones as your club's API. A very persistent assistant can run into them.
One credential, one user. If the user is disabled, its credential stops working.
ChatGPT's and Claude's menus change often. The exact wording of the options may differ from this article; the information you have to enter (URL and header) doesn't.
Frequently asked questions
Does the assistant download my database?
No. It asks for, and receives, only what it needs to answer, at that moment. There's no copy and no synchronisation of your database.
Can a colleague create a credential for someone else?
No. Each user issues their own, from their own record. Attempting it from someone else's record is blocked: a credential is equivalent to that person's identity.
I've lost the token — can I see it again?
No. It's shown once. Revoke the credential and create another.
Can I use the same credential in both ChatGPT and Claude?
Technically yes, but it isn't advisable. Create one per assistant: you'll know which is which, and you can cut off one without touching the other.
Can I limit what the assistant sees or does?
Yes, through the permissions of the user the credential was issued from. Golfmanager has no list of tools you can switch on and off, but many assistants let you disable individual tools in their own server settings.
Is there a record of what the assistant does?
Yes. Actions are logged as performed by the credential's user, exactly as if that person had done them on screen. The credential also stores a Last used timestamp.
Does it work with Claude Code, Codex or other coding agents?
Yes. Any client that speaks MCP over HTTP and can send a header will work. The token window itself hands you the text for Claude Code and for Codex.
Is the free version of ChatGPT or Claude enough?
Not for this. You need a paid plan: ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu; or Claude Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise.
What if my club runs on its own server?
It works the same, as long as the address is reachable from the internet: the assistant connects from OpenAI's or Anthropic's servers, not from your local network.
Recommended best practices
One credential per assistant and per device, named so you can tell them apart.
Start read-only. Spend the first few days on questions before letting it create or cancel anything.
Use a user with tighter permissions if the assistant only needs to report.
Ask for confirmation before it acts: "show me what you're going to do first" is a good habit with any assistant.
Review the credential list now and then, and revoke the ones you no longer use or whose Last used date is months old.
Revoke immediately if a computer goes missing, if someone leaves the club, or at any doubt.
Never share the token over chat, email or shared documents.
If you have any questions, or you need us to enable the module in your club, email support@golfmanager.com.