Connecting Your First MCP Client

The point of a second brain is that you stop being the copy-paste layer between your notes and your AI. In this lesson you make one connection, and after it your assistant can answer from what you actually saved instead of what it read on the internet.

Before you start

You need something in the corpus. If your library is empty, save two or three pages with the Glassy Capture extension, or write a note about a decision you made this week — anything you would plausibly ask about later.

Step 1: Generate a key

1. Open Settings → Connections & data → AI tools (MCP).
2. Click Generate MCP Key.
3. Copy it now — it is shown once and never again.

The key looks like gky_mcp_1a2b3c4d.... Treat it like a password: it can read and write your library.

Step 2: Paste the snippet

Glassy shows a copy-paste snippet with the live server URL already filled in. For Claude Desktop, add it to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glassy": {
      "url": "https://app.glassy.fyi/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer gky_mcp_YOUR_KEY_HERE" }
    }
  }
}

On a self-hosted appliance the URL is the address of that machine — http://localhost:3000/mcp locally, or your LAN address from another device. Restart the client after saving.

Step 3: Ask something only your corpus knows

This is the moment the feature stops being abstract. Ask a question the model cannot answer from training data:

“What did I save about pricing experiments, and which of those notes contradict each other?”

A working answer cites the notes it used. An answer with no citations, or one that invents titles you do not have, means the tools did not run — go to the next section.

Step 4: Know where the ceiling is

You want	Free	Pro / Clear	Self-host
MCP tools	37	37	42
Tool calls per hour	120	1,200	no budget
Key model	one per account	one per account	a named key per agent

If you are running a long agent loop and hitting 429s, that is the signal to self-host — the same software, free with your account, and the budget disappears.

What’s next?

Now that a client is connected, the next lesson turns it into a habit: the five questions worth asking, and how to scope them so the answers stay small enough to trust.