Installing the ChatGPT plugin

Basic  If you use ChatGPT, this is the way to connect Protocol: add our marketplace once in the ChatGPT desktop app, install the plugin, sign in.

What it is

The Protocol CRM plugin for ChatGPT is the same package Claude users install, built for ChatGPT. It bundles the Protocol connection with ready-made playbooks: reviewing a client, building and assigning programs, nutrition plans, running a check-in cycle, scheduling, reports and clearing your inbox. It’s a different route to the same AI agent feature described elsewhere in this section.

Before you start

• Use the ChatGPT desktop app. Plugins you add yourself run in the desktop app, not in ChatGPT in the browser. If you open the plugin on chatgpt.com, ChatGPT offers Open in desktop app.
• A paid ChatGPT plan. We tested this on ChatGPT Plus.
• Your Protocol coach account. You sign in with it once, during setup.

Install it

1. In the ChatGPT desktop app, open Plugins.
2. Click Add, then Add a marketplace.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Source: protocolcrm/protocol-plugins
   • Git ref: main
   • Sparse paths: leave empty
4. Click Add marketplace. A marketplace called Protocol appears.
5. Open it and install Protocol CRM.
6. ChatGPT opens a Protocol sign-in screen. Sign in and approve (see the next section).

That’s it. To use it, start a chat, type @Protocol CRM and ask, for example: “What needs my attention today?”

What the sign-in screen asks

You sign in to Protocol and approve the connection, the same way you’d approve any app asking for calendar or email access. The screen asks you to pick an access level, and read + write is preselected:

• Read only. It can look things up and answer questions, but cannot change anything.
• Read + write (the default, and right for most coaches). It can build programs, update clients, log progress, manage tasks, and book or cancel appointments. It cannot send anything to a client.
• Read + write + send. Adds the three actions that reach a client: firing an appointment reminder, arming a recurring one, and running an automation on request.

ChatGPT may ask you to approve an action before it runs. That approval is ChatGPT’s, on top of the access level you chose in Protocol. Open the AI agent page from your profile menu to disconnect at any time, and it stops immediately. See Safety, scopes & privacy for what that access does and doesn’t cover.

Check one privacy setting first

When ChatGPT reads your clients through Protocol, that information goes to OpenAI so ChatGPT can answer. On personal ChatGPT plans, OpenAI can use conversations to improve its models unless you turn that off. Before you connect Protocol, open ChatGPT Settings, then Data controls, and turn off Improve the model for everyone.

The other way: a custom MCP server

ChatGPT also has Add custom MCP server (on chatgpt.com, under Plugins, then Add). It connects the same Protocol tools from the server address https://api.protocolcrm.com/mcp, with OAuth as the authentication and the client ID and secret left empty. It does not install the playbooks, and OpenAI limits which plans can use it and whether it can make changes. Prefer the plugin above.

See also: AI agent overview · Connecting your assistant · Installing the Claude plugin · Safety, scopes & privacy