MCP Overview

MCP access lets your organization connect an AI assistant it already uses, such as Claude or Microsoft Copilot, to Amplify. Once connected, people can ask that assistant about their Amplify data — for example, which initiatives are behind on their benefits, or what's at risk in a program — and get answers alongside their other work, without opening Amplify. Where write access is turned on, they can also ask it to create and update initiatives. It uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other systems.

This article covers what MCP access includes, and what's needed to set it up. For the steps for each assistant, see What's needed to set it up.

What MCP access covers

A connected assistant can read:

• Initiatives — across your hierarchy, with their classification, stage, dates, owners, totals, and custom fields.
• Benefits — with their plan, forecast, and actual values, by period and by financial year. This means it can find benefits with missing actuals or forecasts, or compare years.
• Costs — with their category and cost group, and their budget, forecast, and actual values, by period and by financial year.
• Goals — with their targets, and the values rolled up from the benefits linked to them.
• RAID items — every type, including action plans and change logs, with their status, owner, impact, likelihood, rating, mitigation, and financial impact.
• Tasks and milestones — from initiatives' schedules, with their dates, baseline dates, progress, and whether they're overdue or coming up.
• Stage gate approvals — which initiatives are waiting on approval to move to their next stage, and who their approvers are.

It can also read your organization's classifications, stages, measurement units, and ratings, so it can describe your data in your own terms. When an answer names an initiative, it can link to the initiative, or its Performance Dashboard, in Amplify.

Creating and updating initiatives

Where write access is turned on for your organization, a connected assistant can also create initiatives and update existing ones, on behalf of the person using it. Write access is turned on separately from MCP access. Until it is, MCP access is read-only.

Every change is made as that person, and follows their Amplify permissions. The assistant can only create or change what that person could create or change in Amplify themselves. Each change is recorded in Amplify's audit records as made by that person through an AI assistant.

Approving write access

Where write access is turned on, the permissions page a person sees when they connect their assistant shows Write Content Access alongside Read Context Access. Clicking Allow grants both. Clicking Deny grants nothing, and the assistant is not connected.

Write access is approved for each connection. Where a person connects two assistants, only the one where write access was approved can make changes. Where a person connected their assistant before write access was turned on, that connection stays read-only. To make changes, they reconnect Amplify in their assistant and approve Write Content Access.

Connections made before write access was available have ended. Where an assistant reports that its connection to Amplify ended with the latest release, reconnect Amplify in the assistant, and click Allow on the permissions page. Each connection needs this once.

Creating an initiative

The assistant creates an initiative under an existing initiative, with a Name, Classification, Owner, Start Date and End Date. It can also set the Description, External ID, statuses, Completed, and custom fields. It can start from a copy of an existing initiative's details, apart from its External ID, and change any of them.

Where the classification isn't allowed under that initiative, or the owner can't own initiatives there, nothing is created. The assistant is told which classifications and owners are allowed there, so it can correct the request or ask you.

Updating an initiative

The assistant can change these fields on an existing initiative:

• Name, Description and External ID
• Start Date and End Date
• Owner — only to someone who can own initiatives there.
• Overall Status, Schedule Status, Financial Status, Issue Status and Risk Status — only where the initiative's classification uses that status.
• Completed
• Custom fields — only fields the initiative's classification uses. Calculated Fields can't be set.

Only the fields asked for are changed. Everything else on the initiative stays as it was. Where an owner, status or custom field value is rejected, nothing in that request is changed, including the other fields in it.

The assistant can't change an initiative's classification, its Confidential setting, the initiative it sits under, or its current stage. To change those, use Amplify directly.

What the assistant reports back

After each create or update, Amplify gives the assistant the fields that were set, with the values Amplify now holds, and a link to the initiative. The assistant is asked to show this to you. Where several initiatives are created or updated in one request, each is reported separately.

Where a change is refused, the assistant is told why, and that nothing was changed. Where the connection to Amplify is interrupted during an update, Amplify checks the initiative, and the assistant reports whether the change was applied, or that this isn't known yet. Where it isn't known yet, check the initiative before asking again. Where it is interrupted during a create, it isn't known whether the initiative was created. Check Amplify before asking again, so you don't end up with two.

Hourly limits

Each person's assistant can create and update only a set number of initiatives an hour. By default, that's 60 initiatives created and 180 updated. Creates and updates are counted separately, over a rolling hour, across every assistant that person has connected. Changes made directly in Amplify are not counted. To have different limits for your organization, speak to your Customer Success Manager.

Where the limit is reached, the change is not made. The assistant is told the limit and when the next change can be made, as a time in UTC. Until then, make the change in Amplify directly.

What it can't do

• It can only change initiatives. Where write access is turned on, a connected assistant can create and update initiatives, but can't delete or archive anything, approve stage gates, or create or change benefits, costs, or any other item. Where write access isn't turned on, MCP access is read-only.
• It only sees what you can see. Each person connects with their own Amplify account, and the assistant can only read the data that person's Amplify permissions allow, and only change what they could change themselves. Connecting doesn't give anyone access to anything new.
• It doesn't cover everything in Amplify. Status reports, documents, resources, timesheets, and scenarios aren't included. For approvals waiting on you, use your Personal Dashboard.
• It isn't Ask Amplify. MCP gives your assistant access to your data, but not to Ask Amplify's agents, Crystal and Anthony, or the AI features built into Amplify, such as generating status reports. For those, see AI in Amplify.

How it works

1. An administrator in your organization sets up the connection once, in Amplify and in your AI assistant.
2. Each person connects the assistant to Amplify once, by signing in to Amplify and clicking Allow to grant the access shown.
3. When someone asks the assistant about their Amplify data, or to create or update an initiative, it reads the data or makes the change in Amplify, as that person, and reports back.

What's needed to set it up

Setting up MCP access needs:

• MCP access turned on for your organization — by your Customer Success Manager. MCP access is only available where Amplify AI is also turned on. Until both are, the AI Assistant (MCP) OAuth section isn't shown under Administration > Authentication. Where Amplify AI is turned off, connected assistants can't read or change anything in Amplify, and new connections are refused.
• Write access turned on for your organization — only where assistants are to create and update initiatives. Speak to your Customer Success Manager.
• An Amplify administrator — to copy the connection details from the AI Assistant (MCP) OAuth section, such as the MCP Server URL, and to add your assistant's sign-in address to its Redirect Whitelist.
• An administrator for your AI assistant — to add Amplify as a connector, such as an Owner in Claude, or a Global or AI Administrator in Microsoft 365.
• A plan or license for your assistant — that supports custom connectors, such as a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license for each person.
• An Amplify account for each person — who'll connect.

For the steps for each assistant, see:

• Configuring MCP Access for Claude
• Configuring MCP Access for Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Configuring MCP Access for Microsoft Copilot Studio Agents

Your data

Once your assistant reads data from Amplify, that data is handled by the assistant under your organization's agreement with its provider — including where it's processed, and whether it's used for training. Check those terms before connecting it. For how Amplify's own AI handles your data, see AI Data and Privacy.

For Amplify's own AI features, see AI in Amplify.