vendorm8
How-To· 6 min read

Connect Your AI Assistant to Your Vendor Data

Your vendor and contract data is most useful when you can ask questions of it in plain language. Vendorm8 ships a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so you can point Claude — or any MCP-capable assistant — straight at your organization and let it read, summarize, and even update your records. Here is how it works.

Connect in one command

Generate an API key in Settings → API and add Vendorm8 to your assistant. Read-only by default; read-write when you choose.

Try Vendorm8 Free — 14 Days

What is the Model Context Protocol?

MCP is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to the tools and data they need to be useful. Instead of copy-pasting spreadsheets into a chat window, an MCP server exposes a set of well-described actions — “list contracts”, “get vendor”, “create contract” — that the assistant can call on your behalf. Vendorm8's MCP server maps those actions directly onto your live vendor and contract records, scoped to your organization.

What you can ask

Once connected, your assistant can answer real operational questions and take actions without you touching the app:

"Which contracts renew in the next quarter, and which are on auto-renew?"
"What is our annualized spend, broken down by category?"
"Who owns the relationship with Acme, and when does their contract end?"
"Add Acme Corp as a new vendor in the Software category." (with a write-scoped key)
"Update the Figma contract's end date to next March." (with a write-scoped key)

How to connect (about two minutes)

  1. In Vendorm8, open Settings → API and create a key. Choose read-only, or read-write if you want the assistant to make changes. The full key is shown once — copy it now.
  2. Add Vendorm8 to your assistant with the key as a bearer token.
  3. Ask your first question. That is it — there is nothing to host or deploy.

For Claude, that is a single command:

claude mcp add --transport http vendorm8 \
  https://api.vendorm8.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer vm8_your_key"

Safe by design

Giving an assistant access to business data should not mean giving up control. Vendorm8's API keys are built to be safe:

Read-only by default — write access is an explicit, separate choice per key.
The full key is shown once and stored only as a hash, never in plaintext.
Every key is scoped to a single organization — an assistant can never see another tenant's data.
Revoke any key instantly, and every action taken with a key is recorded in your audit log.

Beyond chat: the REST API

The same API keys authenticate a REST API, so you are not limited to a chat assistant. Pull your vendor list into a spreadsheet on a schedule, sync contract data into a data warehouse, or wire renewal events into your own automations. The MCP server and the API share one permission model, so a read-only key stays read-only everywhere.

Prefer your calendar? You can also subscribe to a private iCal feed of your renewal and cancel-by dates from Settings → Reminders — every deadline shows up next to your meetings.

Put your vendor data to work

Sign up for Vendorm8, add your vendors, and connect your AI assistant in minutes. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Start Free Trial — 14 Days

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