Connecting an AI assistant
Scratchpad is an MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex and anything else that speaks MCP can read, search and write your notes.
Scratchpad speaks MCP, the protocol assistants use to reach tools. None of it is specific to one app. It's an ordinary remote MCP server over HTTPS, so anything that can add one can work with your notes.
The address
https://app.scratchpad.sh/api/mcpConnecting one
Give it the address. Most apps take it from there: they enrol themselves, send you here to sign in, and ask what they may do. Approve it and you're connected.
You're shown a screen listing the app's name and what it's asking for. That screen is the only thing that grants access, so read it. An app you don't recognise asking for Full is an app to deny.
Claude
You add Scratchpad once, and it's then there wherever you use Claude: the desktop app, claude.ai, and the phone app.
- In Claude, open Settings → Connectors and click Add custom connector.
- Give it a name, like Scratchpad, and the address above:
https://app.scratchpad.sh/api/mcp - Claude checks the address and fills in the rest. Leave what it picks:
- Authentication: Sign in now
- OAuth client: Register automatically
- Add it, then click Connect next to Scratchpad. Your browser opens Scratchpad, where you sign in if you aren't already.
- Scratchpad shows you what's asking and where the approval goes. Pick what it may do, Capture, Read or Full, and click Approve.
- You land back in Claude, and the connector says it's connected.
To use it in a chat, open the tools menu under the message box and check that Scratchpad is switched on. Then just ask.
If Claude says it couldn't register, add the connector again and choose Use your own OAuth client under OAuth client instead. Paste your client ID (see If an app asks for a client ID below) and leave the secret blank.
Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user scratchpad https://app.scratchpad.sh/api/mcp--scope user makes it available in every project. Leave it out and it's only
added for the folder you ran the command in.
Then /mcp, pick Scratchpad, and choose Authenticate to sign in and
approve it. Claude Code names itself after the connector, so the approval
screen says Connect an app, going to an app on this computer: Scratchpad
never lets another app use its name there. claude mcp list shows whether it
connected.
ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, and the rest
Wherever the app takes a custom MCP server, give it the address. There's nothing else to fill in.
If an app asks for a client ID
Some ask for one instead of enrolling themselves. There's one waiting for you in Settings → Connected apps, in Scratchpad. Copy it, paste it in, and leave any secret field blank: there is no secret, and a client that can't keep one shouldn't be given one.
A client ID starts with scr_client_. An API token from Settings → API
tokens starts with scr_ too, but it's a different thing, and pasting one
here gets you an "Unknown app" page. If you did, revoke that token, since it
has now been sent to the other app.
What it can do once connected
Ask in plain words. "What did I write about the Lisbon trip?" searches. "Add the ferry booking to my Lisbon note" appends. "Start a note called Q4 plan with these three headings" creates one. "Put everything about Lisbon in a Travel folder" makes the folder and files the notes.
It can list, read, search, create, and edit notes, look through a note's history, and read a PDF or picture attached to a note. A long note is read a part at a time, so it can go straight to the chapter you ask about. With Full it can also rename, archive, pin, and copy notes, put a note back to an earlier version, and organise your folders: file notes in them, make folders and sub-folders, rename them, and move them around, all within the permission you granted.
It can't delete a note or put one in the Trash. That's always yours to do, in the app.
Editing asks first
The assistant can't rewrite a note that already has words in it without first producing the change as a diff, and what gets written is exactly that diff. It's told to show you the diff and let you decide, and an app set to ask before making changes stops there for your yes. Adding to the end of a note, or starting a new one, skips the diff, since neither can lose anything.
It changes only the passages it means to, quoting each one and giving its replacement, so even a very long note is never typed back out whole. Putting a note back to an earlier version saves the note as it stood to its history first, as restoring in the app does, so that can be undone too.
Folders
Moving notes and folders around never changes a word inside a note, so there's no diff step. The usual rules still hold: three levels deep at most, and a folder can't go inside itself.
It can delete a folder only once the folder is empty. Deleting a full folder in the app asks first and offers Undo, and an assistant has neither, so it moves the notes and sub-folders out first, one step you can see at a time, or asks you to delete the folder yourself. It can't move a locked note, either.
What each permission allows
The same three that API tokens use, so a connector can be exactly as narrow as you want.
| Choice | It can |
|---|---|
| Capture | Create notes, and nothing else. It cannot read one back |
| Read | List, read, search, and look through history. It cannot change anything |
| Full | Read, search, create, edit, and organise notes and folders |
A locked note's title, contents, and hint are refused whichever one you pick. The assistant can still see that the note exists, with its title hidden, so that asking it to add to that note doesn't quietly create a second, unlocked one instead.
Taking it back
Settings → Connected apps lists what you've approved, what for, and when it was last used. Disconnecting takes effect on the connector's next request.
Anything it already wrote stays written, and stays in each note's history under the name it connected as. An approval lapses after sixty days without use.
Last updated 29 September 2026