Connect AI Assistants to DailyStory with MCP
DailyStory supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), so AI assistants such as Claude can work directly with your DailyStory account. Instead of copying data between DailyStory and a chat window, you ask the assistant a question in plain language and it looks up the answer in DailyStory for you. With your permission, an assistant can also create, copy and edit emails and text messages, send you tests, and schedule them to send once you have confirmed exactly what will go out.
Available to every accountEvery DailyStory account can connect AI assistants; free trial accounts can connect once the account is verified. Account administrators can turn AI assistant connections off for the whole account; see Turning AI assistant connections on and off.
What is MCP?
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to the applications you already use. An application publishes an MCP server describing what an assistant may do, such as search contacts or read campaign results, and any assistant that supports MCP can connect to it. Claude, ChatGPT and many code editors support MCP.
Because the assistant reads from DailyStory at the moment you ask, its answers reflect your account as it is today rather than what you pasted into the chat.
What you can ask
You don't need to know the tool names below; the assistant picks the right ones. Questions like these work well:
- "How did our September newsletter perform? Which links got clicked?"
- "How many of our contacts are in Texas?"
- "Which segments mention 10DLC, and how many of their members can we text?"
- "List the emails in our spring campaign and compare their open rates."
- "How did last week's flash sale text perform? How many people opted out?"
- "What is scheduled to send this week?"
- "Write a November promotion email for our fall sale, using our brand colors."
- "In the October newsletter, change the call-to-action button to 'Read the update' and link it to our blog."
- "Add social media icons to the bottom of our welcome email, without X."
- "Make a copy of the October newsletter called 'October newsletter test'."
- "Send me a test of the October newsletter."
- "Write a text message for our Saturday open house and send me a test."
- "Schedule the October newsletter for Tuesday at 9am to the Newsletter Subscribers segment, excluding Opted Out Subscribers, with send time optimization."
- "Schedule the open house text for Friday at 10am to the VIP Customers segment."
An assistant can look things up and report on them with read permissions alone. With the authoring permissions it can also create, copy and edit emails and text messages and send tests of them, and with the scheduling permissions it can schedule them to send and cancel scheduled sends; see Creating and editing emails, Scheduling emails, Creating and editing text messages and Scheduling text messages. It cannot delete anything, and it cannot change contacts, segments or campaigns.
You confirm every sendAn assistant never sends an email or text message to your contacts immediately, and never activates anything. Test emails and test texts go only to you, or to the addresses and numbers you confirm. An assistant can schedule a send only if you grant the scheduling permission for that channel, and only after it has shown you exactly what will be sent, to whom and when, and you have confirmed.
Permissions you grant
When you connect an assistant, DailyStory shows which of these permissions it is asking for. Each one unlocks a group of tools; an assistant only sees the tools for the permissions you approved.
| Permission (as shown when you connect) | Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Search your contacts and read their details | Contact tools |
| Read your segments, the queries behind them and their size | Segment tools |
| Read your emails and their content | Email tools |
| Create emails, edit their content and send test emails. This does not send or schedule email to your contacts | Email authoring tools |
| Schedule your emails to send to your contacts, and cancel scheduled sends | Email scheduling tools |
| Read open, click and delivery statistics for your emails | Email report tools |
| Read your text messages and their content | Text message tools |
| Create text messages, edit their content and send test texts. This does not send or schedule text messages to your contacts | Text message authoring tools |
| Schedule your text messages to send to your contacts, and cancel scheduled sends | Text message scheduling tools |
| Read delivery, click and opt-out statistics for your text messages | Text message report tools |
| Read your campaigns, their settings and their performance | Campaign tools, including what is scheduled to send |
Tool reference
These are the tools DailyStory's MCP server provides. Lists return 10 results at a time and can be narrowed by name; contact searches return up to 100 at a time.
Getting started
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_whoami | Names the DailyStory account the assistant is connected to and the user who connected it, and lists what this connection may do. |
get_instructions | Explains how to use the tools, including contact search syntax and your account's searchable custom fields. |
Contacts
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
search_contacts | Searches your active contacts by name, email, company, location and more, and returns a page of matches. |
count_contacts | Counts the contacts matching a search without listing them. Best for "how many" questions. |
get_contact | Returns one contact's details, including opt-outs, do-not-contact status and the segments they belong to. |
get_contact_segments | Returns the segments one contact belongs to. |
Segments
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
list_segments | Lists your segments with their size, most recently changed first. Can be narrowed by name or description. |
get_segment | Returns one segment's definition and size, and how many members can be reached by email, SMS and push. |
Emails
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
list_emails | Lists your emails with sent, delivered, opened, clicked and opt-out counts. Can be narrowed by name, subject or campaign. |
get_email | Returns one email's subject, sender, tracking settings and performance, and how its content can be edited. |
get_email_design | Returns the design of an email created by an assistant or with Build Emails with Claude, so it can be changed. |
get_email_blocks | Lists the headings, text, buttons, images and layout of an email saved in the Email Designer. |
get_email_block | Returns one part of a designer email in full. |
get_brand_kit | Returns your Brand Kit's fonts, colors and logo, so new emails match your other marketing. |
Email authoring
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_email_design_guide | Explains how DailyStory emails are built, so the assistant writes emails that open in the Email Designer. |
validate_email_design | Checks a draft email and lists every problem, without saving anything. |
create_email | Creates a new email in the campaign you choose. |
copy_email | Creates an exact copy of an existing email, in the campaign you choose. |
update_email_design | Replaces the design of an email created by an assistant or with Build Emails with Claude. |
update_email_blocks | Changes an email saved in the Email Designer: rewrites text, links and images, adds new widgets, or removes parts of it. |
send_test_email | Sends a test of an email to you, or to the addresses you confirm (up to 20). |
Email scheduling
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
preview_email_schedule | Checks a send and counts its recipients without scheduling anything, so the assistant can show you exactly what will be sent. |
schedule_email | Schedules the send you were shown, after you confirm it. |
cancel_email_schedule | Cancels a scheduled email that has not started sending. |
Email reports
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_email_report | One sent email's report: delivery, open, click, click-to-open, bounce and opt-out rates, conversions, the most clicked links, and activity by day. Can be limited to a date range. |
get_email_summary | Your account's email totals and rates over a date range, across all emails. Defaults to the last 30 days. |
Open, click and opt-out rates are percentages of delivered email; delivery and bounce rates are percentages of sent email.
Text messages
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
list_sms | Lists your text messages with sent, delivered, failed, clicked, replied and opt-out counts. Can be narrowed by name, message text or campaign. |
get_sms | Returns one text message's full text, image, click tracking and other settings, how many segments and credits each send uses, and its performance. |
Text message authoring
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
check_sms | Checks a draft without saving anything: its length, segments and credits, and the same deliverability score the text message editor shows. |
create_sms | Creates a new text message in the campaign you choose. |
copy_sms | Creates a copy of an existing text message, in the campaign you choose. |
update_sms | Changes a text message's text, name, image or click tracking, and reports the text it replaced. |
send_test_sms | Sends a test of a text message to your mobile number, or to the numbers you confirm (up to 5). |
Text message scheduling
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
preview_sms_schedule | Checks a send, counts its recipients and the credits it will use, without scheduling anything, so the assistant can show you exactly what will be sent. |
schedule_sms | Schedules the send you were shown, after you confirm it. |
cancel_sms_schedule | Cancels a scheduled text message that has not started sending. |
Text message reports
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_sms_report | One sent text message's report: delivery, failure, click, reply and opt-out rates, conversions, and activity by day. Can be limited to a date range. |
get_sms_summary | Your account's text message totals and rates over a date range, across all text messages, and the segments (credits) used. Defaults to the last 30 days. |
Click, reply and opt-out rates are percentages of delivered text messages; delivery and failure rates are percentages of sent text messages.
Campaigns
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
list_campaigns | Lists your campaigns, most recently updated first. Can be narrowed by name or description. |
get_campaign | Returns one campaign's setup, schedule, cost and the segments it targets. |
get_campaign_stats | Returns one campaign's summary statistics, the same numbers as the campaign dashboard. |
list_scheduled_sends | Lists the emails, text messages and push notifications scheduled to send between two dates, in your account's timezone. Defaults to today. |
Creating and editing emails
New emails are built the same way as with Build Emails with Claude, so every heading, paragraph, button and image is a regular Email Designer widget. What an assistant can change in an existing email depends on how the email was last saved:
| How the email was last saved | What an assistant can change |
|---|---|
| Created by an assistant or with Build Emails with Claude, and not saved in the Email Designer since | Anything. The assistant rewrites the email's design as a whole. |
| Saved in the Email Designer | The text, links and images of any part of the email. It can also add widgets, such as text, buttons, images, dividers and social icons, next to an existing part, and remove parts. |
| Written in the HTML editor | Nothing. The assistant can only replace the whole email, and only when you ask it to. |
- The assistant asks which campaign to add a new or copied email to. It never chooses one for you.
- A test email goes to you by default. The assistant tells you who a test will go to and lets you add or remove addresses before it sends. Personalization is filled in from sample data, or from the recipient's own contact record.
- Every change is saved as a new version of the email, so you can return to an earlier version from the email's revision history.
- Emails an assistant creates or copies, and every test it sends, are recorded in the Audit Log.
- A widget an assistant adds to a designer email appears as a normal widget the next time the email is opened in the Email Designer. Until then, the assistant can remove it but not reword it.
- A copied email shares any poll with the original, so votes from both emails count together.
Scheduling emails
Scheduling works the same way as scheduling an email in DailyStory: the email is sent to contacts in its campaign, to the segments you name or to everyone in the campaign, minus any segments you exclude. A send an assistant schedules appears in your calendar, and you can change or delete it in DailyStory like any other.
- You ask the assistant to schedule an email, saying when and to whom.
- The assistant checks the send and shows you a summary: the email, the send time in your account's timezone, the segments included and excluded, how many contacts can receive it, and whether send time optimization is on, with any warnings.
- Only after you confirm does the assistant schedule it, exactly as shown. If you change anything, it checks the send again and shows you a new summary.
- The email and its campaign must be active, and your sending domain must be verified.
- A send can be scheduled up to 90 days ahead, and at least 5 minutes from now.
- With send time optimization, each contact receives the email at the hour they are most likely to engage, later the same day between 8am and 7pm in your account's timezone.
- To reschedule a send, the assistant cancels it and schedules it again. A send can no longer be cancelled once it has started sending.
- Every scheduled and cancelled send is recorded in the Audit Log.
Creating and editing text messages
An assistant writes a text message the way you would in the text message editor: plain text with optional personalization and an image (MMS). It checks every draft the same way the editor does, for length, the segments and credits each send uses, and deliverability.
- The assistant asks which campaign to add a new or copied text message to. It never chooses one for you.
- It shows you the exact text before saving. Text messages have no revision history, so when an assistant changes one it keeps the text it replaced and can give it back to you.
- A test text goes to the mobile number on your DailyStory login by default. The assistant tells you which numbers a test will go to and lets you add or remove numbers, up to 5. Each test uses text message credits like any other send.
- The deliverability check is the same one the text message editor runs. Content it identifies as illegal turns off text messaging for your account, just as it does in the editor.
- Text messages an assistant creates, changes or copies, and every test it sends, are recorded in the Audit Log.
Scheduling text messages
Scheduling a text message works the same way as scheduling an email. Before you confirm, the assistant shows you the full text of the message, the send time in your account's timezone, the segments included and excluded, how many contacts can receive it, and the credits the send will use, with any warnings. If the message is changed after you have seen it, the assistant has to show you the new text before it can schedule.
- The text message and its campaign must be active, and text messaging must be set up for your account, including 10DLC registration.
- A text message can be scheduled between 5:00 AM and 10:30 PM in your account's timezone, up to 90 days ahead and at least 5 minutes from now.
- Send time optimization works for text messages as it does for emails.
- If your account does not have enough text message credits left for the send and auto-billing is off, the assistant warns you before you confirm: only as many contacts as your remaining credits cover will receive it.
- To reschedule a send, the assistant cancels it and schedules it again. A send can no longer be cancelled once it has started sending. Every scheduled and cancelled send is recorded in the Audit Log.
Searching contacts
Assistants search contacts with the same search DailyStory uses on the Contacts screen. They can search by first and last name, email, mobile number, company, job title, city, state, postal code and country, by your text and pick-list custom fields, and by membership of a segment, tag or campaign.
Dates (such as when a contact was created or last seen), numbers, and opt-out status cannot be searched directly. To answer questions like those, create a segment that captures the condition; the assistant can then count and search its members, and see how many can be reached on each channel.
Security and permissions
- You connect an assistant by signing in to DailyStory and approving exactly what it may access. DailyStory API keys cannot be used.
- An assistant can never do more than the DailyStory user who connected it is allowed to do. If that user's permissions change, the assistant's access changes with them. Creating and editing emails or text messages requires a user who can manage content; scheduling email requires a user who can send email, and scheduling text messages a user who can send text messages.
- The scheduling permissions are separate from the authoring permissions, so you can let an assistant edit emails or text messages without letting it schedule them. Permission to schedule email does not let an assistant schedule text messages, or the other way round.
- The user who connects an assistant, and their DailyStory account, must be verified. On a free trial, assistants can connect once account verification is complete.
- Account administrators can turn off AI assistant connections for the whole account at any time.
- A connection that goes unused for 30 days expires, and the assistant has to ask you again.
Manage connected apps
To see the assistants you have connected, go to Settings > Personal Settings > Connected Apps. Each connection shows the app, what it can access, when it was connected and when it was last used. Click Revoke to disconnect an app immediately; to use it again, connect it again from the app.
Administrators can see and revoke every user's connections under Settings > Login and Permissions > Connected Apps. Revocations are recorded in the Audit Log.
Turning AI assistant connections on and off
AI assistant connections are on for every DailyStory account. On a free trial, they become available once the account is verified. The user connecting an assistant must also have verified their own DailyStory login.
| Who | What they can do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Any user | Connect an assistant, and revoke the connections they made. | Settings > Personal Settings > Connected Apps |
| Account administrators | Turn AI assistant connections off, or back on, for everyone in the account. See and revoke any user's connections. | Settings > Login and Permissions > Connected Apps, using the Allow AI assistant connections (MCP) switch |
| DailyStory | Turn AI assistant connections off for an account, for example at the account's request. Only DailyStory can turn them back on. | Contact DailyStory support |
When AI assistant connections are turned off:
- Every assistant connected to the account stops working on its next request, and tells the person using it why.
- Connections are kept, not revoked. Turning the switch back on restores them without anyone having to connect again. To remove a connection for good, revoke it.
- If DailyStory has turned connections off for the account, Connected Apps says so in place of the switch, and the account's administrators cannot turn them back on.
- Changes to the account's switch are recorded in the Audit Log.