How to connect an AI chat to your profile
You can let an AI chat app (Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Claude Desktop or Claude Code) read and edit your Prosopia profile for you. You add Prosopia to the app as a connector once; after that you can ask it things like “add my 2024 papers to my profile” or “rewrite my summary”, and it makes the changes itself.
The Prosopia home page and the Build tab also show this address, with a Copy button. The connector address is:
https://prosopia.databio.org/mcpAdd the connector
Section titled “Add the connector”Claude.ai or Claude Desktop. Open Settings, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector. Paste the address above.
ChatGPT (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education plans):
- Open Settings, then Apps, then Advanced settings, and switch on Developer mode. On a Business or Enterprise workspace, an admin may have to allow custom MCP connectors first.
- Open Plugins in the sidebar, click the + next to the search box, and choose Create app, then Create MCP App.
- Name it
Prosopia, paste the address above under Connection, and set Authentication to OAuth. - Tick I understand and want to continue, then click Create.
- In a chat, turn on the Prosopia app before you ask it to do something.
Claude Code. Run:
claude mcp add --transport http prosopia https://prosopia.databio.org/mcpIn each case a Prosopia window opens. It shows the app’s name, the website that vouches for it, and where you will be sent back. Check these before you click Allow. Sign in, then choose what the app may do:
- Edit my profile: read everything your account can see, and change your profiles’ sections, narrative and papers.
- Read only: read, but change nothing.
If you choose Read only and later ask the app to change something, it may open the Prosopia window again to ask for edit access. You can also switch the connection to editing on the Privacy page.
Click Allow and you are back in the chat.
What it can do
Section titled “What it can do”The app gets fourteen tools. In most apps you never need their names, but you may see them when the app asks to use one, or in a permission setting:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_item | Read a profile or a paper: the main facts, a paper’s summary, and how big the longer texts are. |
list_papers | List your papers, or find the ones on a topic. |
read_text | Read a paper’s full text, or your “how I think” narrative. |
find_passages | Find the passages in one paper, or in your profile, that answer a question, such as a quote or a fact. |
get_profile_guide | Get the script for interviewing you, or for bringing your profile up to date. It also says your current rank (current_rank) and whether you confirmed it, and asks different questions of a student than of faculty. |
whoami | See which profiles the app can reach, and what it may change. |
get_feed | Read the new papers your literature feed found for you. |
create_my_profile | Create your profile if you have none yet. The app should ask your current rank (graduate student, postdoc, professor, and so on) and pass it as current_rank. |
add_paper | Add a new paper. It never replaces one that is already there. |
update_profile | Change your profile’s fields (summary, field, expertise, and so on), including the narrative. |
update_paper | Fix details of one paper, such as a missing DOI. |
remove_paper | Remove one paper. |
add_seed_papers | Add papers that define your interests (not papers you wrote). They tune your feed and matching and never show up as your publications. |
remove_seed_paper | Remove one of those interest papers. |
update_profile, update_paper, remove_paper and remove_seed_paper
change or remove what is there, so a good app asks you before
it uses them. Every change also carries the version the app last read, so it
cannot overwrite an edit you made somewhere else in the meantime.
It can also interview you. Ask it to “interview me for my Prosopia profile”, or pick Interview me for my profile from the app’s prompt menu. It asks your career stage first, then asks one question at a time about the topics that fit you. For students and postdocs that means your program, your lab and PI, your projects, your skills, your interests, and 5 to 10 papers that capture what you want to work on. It saves each answer once you approve it. At the end it writes a short summary and a “how I think” narrative from your own words for you to approve. Once those are saved, your profile becomes searchable and matchable within a few minutes, even with no papers.
To keep it current, ask it to “update my Prosopia profile”, or pick Update my profile. It looks up papers you published since the newest one on your profile (on OpenAlex, by your ORCID iD), asks which are yours, and checks that your affiliation, title, interests and summary are still right.
It can never publish your profile or change what the public sees. A new profile starts private, and only you can share it, on the Privacy page.
A good app shows you each change and asks before making it. If it tries to change something its access does not allow, it gets an error that says which part is missing.
Change or revoke it
Section titled “Change or revoke it”The connection shows on the Privacy page under API keys: it is listed as, for example, “Claude connector”, with the website that vouches for the app next to it when there is one. There you can change what it may read and write, or revoke it. After you revoke it, the app asks you to sign in again the next time it tries to use Prosopia.
The app renews its access by itself every hour, so you will not be asked to sign in again while you keep using it. If it goes unused for 90 days, it disconnects, and the app asks you to sign in the next time. The connection works only through the app’s Prosopia connector, not as a key for scripts; for those, create your own API key on the Privacy page.
Without a connector
Section titled “Without a connector”If your app cannot add connectors, you can still use one of your own API keys from a tool that sends a header, for example Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http prosopia https://prosopia.databio.org/mcp \ --header "Authorization: Bearer rpa_..."Or use the command-line route described in Build a profile.