Custom tools
AvailableConnect your own MCP server, webhooks or data API keys so your AI employee can use your tools.
Connect Custom toolsWhat your AI employee can do here
Available now
Run a read-only tool on your MCP server
Read only, no approval needed. Runs right away when your server marks the tool read-only. PW trusts that label because you chose the server.
Run a tool that changes something
Waits for your approval until you trust the employee. You ask in Chat. It waits in Approvals until you promote the employee to full autonomy, and it is off until you turn the permission on.
Start a task when your system sends an event
Read only, no approval needed.
Coming
Connect a server that asks you to sign in
Read only, no approval needed. Today PW connects with a token or header you paste.
Send an event to your system
Waits for your approval until you trust the employee.
Read data from your SEO, places or legislative provider
Read only, no approval needed. The key can be saved today; skills that read it are still being ported.
How to connect
- Open Workspace → Connections.
- Choose Custom MCP server, Webhooks, or a data provider.
- Paste your server URL, webhook destination or API key.
- Choose what each AI employee may do with it.
Approvals and trust
Reading never needs your approval. Anything your AI employee writes or sends lands in Needs review first, and you approve it there. As you approve more of an employee's work you can trust it with a kind of work, and from then on that work runs on its own. Some actions, like public posts, always wait for you.
How employees earn trustLimits
- Your MCP server must be reachable from the public internet. PW refuses private and local addresses.
- Use an https:// address. PW also accepts http://, but then your token travels unencrypted.
- PW signs in with a token or header you paste. Servers that need you to sign in through a browser can't be connected yet.
- PW keeps the tool list from when you connected. Connect the same address again to pick up new tools.
- PW speaks MCP version 2025-06-18. A server that only accepts the newest version (2026-07-28) may refuse it.
- Each tool call times out after 10 seconds, and answers over 1 MB are refused.
Questions
What can my AI employee do with my MCP server?
In Chat it can run any tool your server marks as read-only. When you ask for something that changes data, it queues the tool call as a task.
Will it change things without asking me?
Not by default. Tools that change something are off until you turn that permission on for an employee, and then each call waits in Approvals until you promote the employee to full autonomy.
How does PW decide a tool is read-only?
Your server labels each tool. PW runs tools labelled read-only without approval, because you chose to connect that server. Only connect servers you trust to label tools honestly.
Does PW see my API key after I save it?
It is encrypted on save and only decrypted server-side when an allowed action runs.
What does PW keep from my server?
The address, the name you gave it, the tool list and your encrypted token. Results of tools run in Chat are saved in that employee's chat history and sent to the AI model your workspace uses.
What happens if I disconnect?
PW deletes the stored token and switches off both permissions. Results already in chat history stay there.
Why did connecting fail?
Usually the address is not reachable from the internet, the token is wrong or expired, the server needs a browser sign-in, or it returned no tools.
Security and disconnecting
- What PW keeps
- Your server URL or webhook destination, the signing secret or API key you pasted, the permissions you granted, and your MCP server's tool list. Results of MCP tools run in Chat are also kept in your employee's chat history.
- Encryption
- Secrets are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they are stored.
- Disconnecting
- Open Connections, choose the connection and press Disconnect.
- Deletion
- Disconnecting deletes the stored secret and switches off every permission for that connection.