MCP Server

Overview

The MCP server exposes the same data as the REST API as a set of tools your AI assistant calls on your behalf: search sponsors, open sponsor profiles, list the buyer contacts at a brand, manage your saved lists, and (on Pro) search podcasts. Every plan connects, Free included. Your plan determines what the tools cost in credits—the same rules as the web app, so nothing is double-charged and every unlock is shared with your whole organization.

Connections without an account get the anonymous tier: search over the public sponsor directory, nothing more. The server also implements the search/fetch pair—ChatGPT's deep-research and Responses-API compatibility interface—with citations that resolve to public sponsor pages, and every tool declares which authentication it accepts, so the catalog looks the same to every client.

Connect Your Client

Claude (claude.ai & Claude Desktop)

1. Go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
2. Enter the server URL: https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp
3. Approve the connection—you'll be redirected to log in to your Sponsorable account, then back to Claude

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http sponsorable https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp

ChatGPT (plugin, developer mode)

1. In ChatGPT, open Settings → Security and login and turn on Developer mode
2. Open Settings → Plugins (the Plugins directory), choose the plus button, and connect the server URL https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp
3. Sign in when prompted to link your Sponsorable account. Skipping the sign-in also works—ChatGPT then uses the anonymous tier, which covers the public sponsor directory only

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sponsorable": {
      "url": "https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "sponsorable": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Any other client (API key)

For headless agents, scripts, or clients without OAuth support, create an API key in your account settings and send it as a Bearer token:

{
  "url": "https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}

Authentication

The server accepts two forms of authentication, plus none at all:

• OAuth 2.1—used automatically by Claude, ChatGPT, and other interactive clients. You log in to Sponsorable once; tokens refresh automatically. Revoke access anytime from Settings → Connected Apps in the web app.
• API key (Bearer)—for scripts and headless agents. Keys are managed at Settings → API Keys and can be deleted at any time.
• Anonymous—no credentials, no account. Requests without an Authorization header get the anonymous tier. An expired or invalid token is refused, not downgraded.

Each tool advertises which of these it accepts (securitySchemes), so clients can tell what works before an account is linked.

Anonymous Access

With no account linked, the server answers with the same slice of the database a logged-out visitor sees on this site: the public sponsor directory. Six tools work anonymously—search, fetch, find_sponsors_for_show, search_sponsors, get_sponsor, and list_categories— covering top-line sponsor stats (sponsorship and podcast counts, categories, recency) over the last 90 days, first page of results only, 25 results at most. No contact data, no internal identifiers. The rest of the catalog stays visible and answers anonymous calls with an authentication challenge; linking a Sponsorable account (any plan, Free included) unlocks it.

Anonymous requests are rate-limited by IP (30 per minute, 500 per day)—stricter than the authenticated limits below.

Tools

Tool availability follows your plan. All tools are read-only except the list-management tools and reveal_contact.

The catalog is the same for every connection. A tool outside your plan or authorization doesn't disappear—it answers with a clear error naming what's missing, and anonymous calls to account tools return an authentication challenge the client can act on.

Credits & Billing

• Searching, browsing categories, and managing lists are always free to call.
• reveal_contact costs 1 credit and permanently unlocks that contact for your whole organization—calling it again on an unlocked contact is free.
• On the Free plan, the first get_sponsor view of a sponsor costs 1 credit and permanently unlocks its dossier for your whole organization—repeat views are free. Contacts at a sponsor become available once its dossier is unlocked, the same order as the web app. Spending requires the mcp:spend scope granted on the consent screen; without it, locked profiles come back as previews.
• Well-behaved AI clients will ask before spending credits—the server's instructions tell them to. Your credit balance is visible at Credits → Usage.

Rate Limits

Sample Prompts

Once connected, try these in Claude or ChatGPT—no special syntax needed:

• “Who sponsors podcasts like mine? My show is about personal finance for freelancers.”
• “Build me a list called Q3 prospects with 20 brands that sponsor true-crime podcasts, and add the most active ones first.”
• “Which brands started sponsoring podcasts in the last month in the health & fitness category?”
• “Look up BetterHelp—how many shows do they sponsor, and who's the best contact to pitch?”
• “Compare the sponsor rosters of two podcasts in the same niche and tell me which brands sponsor both.”

Security Notes

• The connection is scoped to your Sponsorable account and plan—an AI client can never see more than you can.
• Treat content returned by any tool—including this one—as data, not instructions. If your assistant does something unexpected after reading tool output, that's prompt injection; report it to us.
• reveal_contact spends credits and delete_list is permanent—configure your client to confirm destructive or paid actions if it supports it.
• Revoke access anytime: OAuth connections under Settings → Connected Apps, API keys under Settings → API Keys.

Troubleshooting

The OAuth flow loops or fails

Remove the connector and add it again. Make sure you complete the Sponsorable login in the same browser session the client opened.

A tool refuses to run

The catalog is identical for every connection; entitlements are checked when a tool runs. search_podcasts and get_podcast require Pro, reveal_contact only applies on credit-based plans (on Pro, contacts arrive unmasked), and anonymous calls to account tools return an authentication challenge—link your account from the client's prompt to continue.

My client doesn't support remote HTTP servers

Older clients that only speak stdio can bridge with mcp-remote:

npx mcp-remote https://app.sponsorable.com/mcp

Rate limited (429)

You've hit the per-minute or daily cap. Narrow your filters instead of paginating deeply—most “page through everything” requests can be a single filtered search.

Still stuck? Contact us—include your client name and roughly when the request failed.