AI MCP Server

Live Helper Chat can expose its back office as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Any MCP capable client - ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot or your own agent - can then ask questions about your Live Helper Chat installation, such as:

• "Which user ID belongs to support@example.com?"
• "What permissions does user 5 have?"
• "Why can user 5 not open chat 1234?"
• "Would chat 1234 be auto assigned, and if not, why?"

note

This page is about Live Helper Chat acting as an MCP server - it exposes read only tools to an AI agent that runs elsewhere. To build an AI agent inside Live Helper Chat itself, where Live Helper Chat is the harness that drives the agent, see How to use a bot (AI agent builder).

The tools are read only. They inspect configuration and evaluate the same conditions the back office applies, but never change anything.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or newer with the composer dependencies installed:

  cd lhc_web
  composer require mcp/sdk symfony/finder
  composer dump-autoload -o

  composer.json ships with mcp/sdk and symfony/finder, so a normal composer install is usually enough. The classmap is authoritative, so always run composer dump-autoload -o after upgrading - otherwise the tool classes are not discovered and the endpoint answers 503.

Enabling the endpoint

1. Log in to the back office.
2. Open System configuration → AI MCP Server (/site_admin/aimcp/key). The menu entry and the page require the lhaimcp → use permission, which has to be granted in the role setup.
3. Fill in:

Field	Description
MCP server name	Name reported to the client during the initialize handshake. Default is Live Helper Chat.
MCP endpoint URL	Read only. This is what you paste into the client - it already contains the access token as ?token=<token>.
Access token	Shared secret carried by the URL. The endpoint is disabled while the field is empty. Use Generate new token to create a 64 character random token, then Save.

Clearing the token disables the endpoint again (it answers 503 MCP endpoint is not configured).

The page also lists every tool currently exposed by the endpoint, read directly from the tool definitions, so the list can never drift away from what the client sees.

Connecting a client

The endpoint speaks Streamable HTTP. Authentication is part of the URL - the token is simply a query parameter, there is nothing else to configure in the client:

https://<your-host>/aimcp/mcp?token=<token>

Setting	Value
URL	https://<your-host>/aimcp/mcp?token=<token> (copy it from the MCP endpoint URL field)
Transport	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	None - the token travels in the URL

For clients that cannot use query parameters, the same token is also accepted as an Authorization: Bearer <token> header. Both forms are checked, only one is needed.

ChatGPT

Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Developer mode → Add custom connector, paste the MCP endpoint URL from the back office (it already includes the token) and leave authentication as None.

Whatch youtube video

https://youtu.be/PfcDh0JekIk

Claude

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then provide the same URL. No token field needs to be filled in.

Watch video how to setup:

https://youtu.be/PfcDh0JekIk

Manual check

curl -X POST "https://example.com/aimcp/mcp?token=<token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

Available tools

Available tools you will find in MCP configuration window.

Example prompts

• Find the user ID for support@example.com and list what departments it can access.
• Why can user 12 not open chat 555?
• Does /site_admin/department/edit/3 require special permissions?
• Nobody picks up chats in department 4. Which settings prevent auto assignment?
• Would chat 9876 be auto assigned, and to whom?

Notes on privacy

The tools return identifiers, flags and generic labels (Department #12) only. User names, usernames, chat nicks, visitor e-mail addresses and message bodies are not returned - the only exception is get_user_id_by_email, where the address is the lookup key itself.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause
503 MCP endpoint is not configured	No token set in AI MCP Server.
401 Unauthorized	Wrong or missing token.
503 The MCP server is not available	The SDK is not installed or the autoloader is stale. Run composer require mcp/sdk symfony/finder and composer dump-autoload -o.
Tool missing in the client	A new tool class was added. Run composer dump-autoload -o and reconnect the client.
Client cannot reach the endpoint	Check that your web server forwards Authorization to PHP (some FastCGI setups strip it) and that no WAF blocks POST to the endpoint.