Plenty of people at engineering and architecture firms already use Claude or ChatGPT every day, to draft letters, summarize specs, or check a calculation. What most of them can't do is ask it about their own projects. The budgets, contracts, time, and client email live in the firm's project software, and the assistant can't see any of it. Pasting an export or an email thread into a chat works for one question, and the answer is out of date by the next week.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets an assistant read and update those records directly. This post covers what MCP is, how to connect an assistant to your project records, what's worth asking, and what to keep with your team.
What MCP is
MCP is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other software. A product that supports it runs an MCP server, which offers the assistant a set of tools, like "list projects," "get an invoice," or "create a time entry," each with a description of what it does. Claude, ChatGPT, and a growing number of other assistants can connect to MCP servers, usually under the name connectors.
When you add a connector, you sign in to the other product the same way you would in a browser. From then on the assistant works as you. It sees the records your account can see, and it can change only the ones your account can change. When you ask a question, it picks the tools it needs, calls them, and answers from what comes back, so the answer reflects your records as they are at that moment.
Why use an outside assistant
Many project tools now have an assistant built in, and it's often the quickest place to ask about the screen you're looking at. Connecting the assistant your team already uses adds two things.
The first is habit. If your engineers and project managers already keep Claude or ChatGPT open all day, they can ask about a project there without switching windows.
The second is that one conversation can draw on more than one source. An assistant connected to your project records and your calendar can enter last week's time from your meetings. Attach a consultant's fee proposal to the chat, and it can draft the change order that adds that fee to the contract.
Setting it up
Connecting takes a few minutes:
- In the assistant's settings, add a custom connector with your project software's MCP server address.
- Sign in to your project software when it asks, and approve the connection.
- Ask a question that names a project, and check the answer against what you know.
Where the setting lives depends on the assistant and the plan. On business plans for Claude and ChatGPT, an admin may need to add the connector or allow custom connectors first.
Claude Code, the command-line version of Claude, connects the same way. Add the server with claude mcp add --transport http, followed by a name and the address, then run /mcp inside Claude Code to sign in.
What to ask
These prompts are written for a firm's project and billing records. Name the project, by its name or job number, so the assistant doesn't have to guess.
Where a project stands
- "What needs attention on the Riverside Library project?" The assistant can list overdue tasks and invoices, reviews that are waiting, time waiting for approval, and change orders that have been submitted.
- "Which phases on the Main Street Bridge contract are close to their budget?" It reads each phase's budget and what has been billed against it, and does the arithmetic you'd otherwise do in a spreadsheet.
- "Who on the Elm Street project has the most open tasks, and what's overdue?"
Billing
- "Draft this month's invoice for the Main Street Bridge contract." The draft is built from the contract's progress and approved time, and it waits for someone to review and send it.
- "Draft a change order on the Elm Street contract that adds $8,500 to the structural design fee for the added retaining wall."
- "Record a $12,600 check payment on the latest Wildflower Estates invoice."
Time
- "Enter my time for last week: Monday and Tuesday, 8 hours each on the Riverside Library construction documents, and Wednesday, 6 hours on Elm Street." The entries go in as drafts for you to check and submit.
- "Look at my calendar for last week and enter time for the project meetings." This needs the assistant connected to your calendar too.
Email, documents, and the team
- "What did the client ask for in their last email about Riverside Library?"
- "Find the geotechnical report for the Elm Street project."
- "Move Sam's open tasks on Riverside Library to Priya."
- "Set up a project for the Harbor Point pump station with phases for schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration."
What to keep with your team
A connected assistant can change real records, so decide up front what it shouldn't finish on its own:
- Anything that goes to a client. Invoices, credit notes, and proposals should start as drafts that someone on the team reviews and sends.
- Time approval. The person who did the work checks and submits their week, and an approver approves it.
- Professional judgment. Whether a request is in scope, or whether a sheet meets a standard, is a decision for an engineer or architect. Reviewers decide each checklist item themselves.
Before you rely on it, check what it did. Assistants show which tools they called, and changes they make appear in your project software like anyone else's. Start with questions, then move on to drafts once the answers match what you'd have found yourself.
How Kineo handles it
Kineo runs an MCP server at https://app.gokineo.com/mcp with more than 130 tools for projects, documents, tasks, proposals, contracts, change orders, invoices, time, expenses, rates, project email, and reviews. Claude, ChatGPT, and other assistants that support connectors with sign-in connect as the person who signed in, in their active workspace, and Kineo's roles and permissions apply the same way they do in the app.
Invoices and credit notes an assistant creates start as drafts, and someone on your team issues and sends them from Kineo. Time it enters starts as a draft, and reviewers decide checklist items themselves. Pages your team has open in Kineo refresh on their own when an assistant changes something.
Kineo also has its own assistant built in, with usage included for each seat, for anyone who'd rather ask from inside Kineo. The MCP server reference lists every tool a connected assistant can use.