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How to add Pickleheads to Claude, ChatGPT, or any other AI tool

picture of Max Ade
Max Ade

Published on: Sep 18, 2026

Connect Pickleheads to your favorite AI tool

Ask your AI who's signed up for Thursday. Ask which of your regulars hasn't played since June. It can answer both, along with most of the questions you'd normally dig through your pickleball sessions to work out, once you connect it to your Pickleheads account.

That link is called an MCP connector: a secure connection between your AI tool and your Pickleheads account that lets the AI read your data when you ask it to. Setup takes about a minute. Here's how to do it in Claude, in ChatGPT, and in everything else that speaks MCP.

Here's the MCP address that you'll need to connect to your AI tools.

👉 https://mcp.pickleheads.com/mcp

Connect it to Claude

1. Open Customize

It's near the bottom of the left sidebar in Claude.

The Customize option near the bottom of the Claude sidebar

2. Switch to the Connectors tab, then click Add

The tab opens on the directory of ready-made connectors. Pickleheads isn't in there, so you're adding your own.

The Connectors tab in Claude's Customize settings, with the Add menu open
The Add button on Claude's connectors directory

3. Name it and paste the address

Type Pickleheads in the first field so you can spot it in the list later, paste https://mcp.pickleheads.com/mcp in the second, then click Continue.

Claude's Add custom connector dialog filled in with the Pickleheads name and address

4. Click Connect

Pickleheads now appears in your connectors list marked Web and Custom. Sign into Pickleheads to approve access.

The Pickleheads row in Claude's connectors list, marked Web and Custom, with a Connect button

5. Confirm you started this

Claude asks whether you began the connection yourself. Click Continue connecting. It checks because a link on its own should never be able to attach anything to your account.

Claude's Finish connecting a connector confirmation screen

6. Allow access

The approval screen names the account you're connecting and lists exactly what Claude gets: read. That's the whole permission. Click Allow.

The Pickleheads approval screen showing that Claude gets read access

Connect it to ChatGPT

1. Open Settings

Click your name at the bottom of the left sidebar, then Settings.

The ChatGPT account menu with Settings

2. Turn on developer mode first

Go to Plugins, then Developer mode, which drops you into Security and login, then flip the Developer mode toggle. Do this before anything else. Until it's on, there's no way to add your own plugin.

ChatGPT Plugins settings, with Developer mode at the bottom of the list
The Developer mode toggle under Security and login in ChatGPT settings

3. Start a new plugin

Click Plugins in the left sidebar, then the + at the top right of the page.

The ChatGPT Plugins page with the plus button at the top right

4. Fill in the form

Name it Pickleheads, leave Connection set to Server URL, paste https://mcp.pickleheads.com/mcp, and leave Authentication on OAuth. The description is optional. Tick the box to acknowledge the risk warning, then click Create.

ChatGPT's New Plugin form filled in with the Pickleheads name and address

5. Open Pickleheads from your settings

It now sits at the top of Settings, then Plugins. Click it.

Pickleheads at the top of the Plugins list in ChatGPT settings
The Pickleheads plugin page in ChatGPT, with Connect another account

6. Connect your account

Click Connect another account, then Sign in with Pickleheads. This is the step that actually links the two. Until you do it, the Actions list on this page reads "No app actions available yet," which looks broken but just means ChatGPT hasn't been let in yet. Once you sign in, the approval screen is the same one Claude shows: check what you're granting, then click Allow.

The Sign in with Pickleheads prompt in ChatGPT

7. Call it in a chat

Start a new chat and pick Pickleheads from the tools menu, or name it in your message. Your choice applies to that message, so mention it again when a follow-up needs fresh data.

💡 Good to know: Developer mode is web only. It won't show up in the ChatGPT mobile app, so do the setup on a computer even if you plan to use it from your phone afterwards.

Connect it to anything else

Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Claude Code, and Raycast all want the same address: https://mcp.pickleheads.com/mcp. So does anything else built on MCP.

The setting is usually under MCP servers, custom connectors, or integrations, depending on the app. Add the address as a remote or HTTP server, sign in when it asks, and you're done. We've tested Claude and ChatGPT hardest, so those are the smoothest, but most MCP clients work.

Try these first

The connection earns its place on the questions you'd otherwise work out by hand:

  • "Who's signed up for Thursday, and how many spots are left?"
  • "How many people drop out at the last minute?"
  • "Which members of my group haven't played since June?"
  • "Who's attended the most sessions?"
  • "How are my league standings looking?"
  • "Who's played with us but still hasn't joined my group?"

💡 Pro tip: Ask follow-ups. The answer to "who's gone quiet" is a list of names, but the useful version is the next question: "of those, who used to come every week?" Your AI still has the data from the first answer, so it can slice it again without starting over.

What it can see

Everything you can already see in the app when you're logged in, and nothing beyond that. If a player's information is hidden from you in Pickleheads, it stays hidden here.

Your groups and members

  • Group details and membership
  • Member activity, including who's active and who's gone quiet
  • Players who've joined your sessions but aren't in your group yet

Sessions and rosters

  • Session details and rosters
  • Signups, including when each player signed up
  • Check-ins and dropouts

Leagues, competitions, and teams

  • Leagues and current standings
  • Competitions and round robin results
  • Teams and lineups

You and your account

  • Your profile and alert settings
  • Courts you follow
  • Players you've partnered with
  • Your invite funnel: who you invited and what happened next
  • Participation and dropout reports
  • Your plan usage

Privacy and data sharing

No email addresses or phone numbers, ever, for anyone. The MCP never exposes contact details to your AI, for you or for any of your players. They stay in Pickleheads.

You're handing your personal AI keys to your Pickleheads account. Make sure you trust your AI provider with information about your sessions, groups, leagues, plans, and more.

Read-only, for now

It can read. It can't change anything.

It won't create a session, edit a roster, message your players, or delete anything, even if you ask it to directly. Write access is coming, and creating sessions is first in line.

If there's something you'd want to do through your AI rather than in the app, tell us. We're building the write side now, and what organizers actually ask for is shaping the order we build it in.

You're good to go. Everything about the connection, including what's shipping next, lives at pickleheads.com/mcp.

FAQs

About the author
Max Ade
Max is the co-founder and CEO of Pickleheads. As an experienced technology entrepreneur, Max turned his personal love for pickleball into a vibrant community-driven company. He actively plays and engages with the pickleball community in Atlanta, and can frequently be found at Dill Dinkers, Southside Park, and Grant Park.
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