Custom Connectors

This guide covers building an external MCP server and connecting it to Chainabit, or using a webhook for simpler integrations. It does not cover exposing Chainabit as an MCP server or the NEXUS local MCP server.

Overview

When available for your deployment and account, there are two approaches to custom integrations:

1. Build an MCP server and connect it via the mcp-generic connector
2. Use the http_webhook tool type for simple request/response integrations

For validated remote presets, prefer the dedicated Zapier or Context7 connector pages instead of building a custom path from scratch.

Option 1: Build an MCP Server

When the MCP connector is available, you can build a standard MCP server, deploy it, and connect it to Chainabit. Check availability before starting.

How It Works

1. Create an MCP server that exposes your tools using the Model Context Protocol
2. Deploy it over public HTTPS with Streamable HTTP (streamable-http) or legacy SSE (sse) transport.
3. Connect it to Chainabit using the mcp-generic connector (see the MCP guide).
4. Sync its tools after storing any required credentials. Every discovered tool requires approval by default.

Benefits

• Standard protocol supported by a growing ecosystem
• Full control over tool logic, authentication, and error handling
• Tools can be discovered without manual registration.
• Works with any language that has an MCP SDK (TypeScript, Python, Go, etc.)

Building a compatible server

Use the MCP documentation to build and deploy your server, then follow the external MCP server guide to connect it. A local stdio server is not an HTTP endpoint that Chainabit can connect to directly.

Option 2: HTTP Webhook

For simple integrations that only need to make a single HTTP request and return the response, you can use webhook-based tools.

How It Works

1. Define a custom connector tool with the http_webhook type.
2. Configure the tool to call your HTTP endpoint.
3. Each execution sends a request to your endpoint and returns the response.

When to Use

• You have an existing REST API you want to expose as agent tools
• The integration is simple (single request/response per tool)
• You do not need bidirectional communication or streaming

Example

If you have your own API at https://service.example.com/api, you can create a connector instance and configure tools that map to specific endpoints.

Chainabit as an MCP server

Connecting an external MCP server to Chainabit is different from connecting an MCP client to Chainabit. For client setup and authentication, use the dedicated Chainabit MCP server guide.

Best Practices

• Keep tools focused. Each tool should do one thing well. Prefer many small tools over a few large ones.
• Validate inputs. Define clear input schemas so agents know what parameters are expected.
• Return structured data. JSON responses are easier for agents to interpret and act on.
• Handle errors gracefully. Return meaningful error messages that help agents (and users) understand what went wrong.
• Secure your endpoints. Use the authentication type appropriate to your server or webhook endpoint, and treat tool output as untrusted input.