usefulapiElvanto MCP server
Look up people, groups, service rosters, songs, follow-up flows and giving in Elvanto. Hosted by usefulapi: connect it to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client.
What can I ask?
Turn on the Elvanto connector, then ask in plain words. The AI picks the tools.
- Who is rostered as a volunteer for this Sunday's service?
- Who is currently in the first-time guest follow-up flow, and at which step?
- How much giving did we receive last month?
- What small groups do we have, and when does each one meet?
What you can do with Elvanto in Claude and ChatGPT
For church staff and volunteer coordinators who run their church with Elvanto.
Review service rosters, plans and songs
The AI lists upcoming services with the volunteer roster, the order of service and songs, so you see who serves and what is planned.
Find people by name, email or flag
The AI searches people by fields such as name, email, phone, volunteer or category, and opens one person with extra fields.
See who is waiting in a follow-up flow
The AI lists people flows, their steps, and the people in one step with status, due date and assigned admin. You see who still needs a follow-up.
Look up small groups and calendar events
The AI lists small groups with meeting day, time and place, with members and leaders if you ask, and calendar events between two dates.
Add a guest to a follow-up flow or small group
The AI adds a person to the church database, then puts them into a people-flow step or a small group.
Changes dataReview giving transactions by fund
The AI lists giving transactions between two dates, for one fund or all, with donor, date, method and amounts, and sums them up. It only reads.
How do I connect Elvanto?
Before you connect
The login page asks for your Elvanto API key.
Find it in Elvanto → Settings → Account Settings → API → API Key (administrators only). The key has admin-level access to your account; it is used only to call the Elvanto API on your behalf and to derive a private account id, and is never shown to anyone.
Claude claude.ai · Desktop
- Open Customize → Connectors, then click + Add → Add custom connector.
- Enter the name Elvanto and this URL, then click Add:https://
elvanto. usefulapi. io/ mcp - Claude opens the login page: enter your Elvanto API key.
- In a chat, click + → Connectors and turn on Elvanto.
Team and Enterprise: an Owner adds the connector for the organization first.
ChatGPT chatgpt.com
- Open Plugins, click +, then Add custom MCP server.
- Enter the name Elvanto and this URL, choose OAuth as the authentication, confirm the warning and create it:https://
elvanto. usefulapi. io/ mcp - ChatGPT opens the login page: enter your Elvanto API key.
- In Plugins, install Elvanto, then choose it in a chat.
No Add custom MCP server option? It depends on your account or workspace settings: see OpenAI's guide.
Claude Code
Run this command, then run /mcp in Claude Code to log in:
Cursor
Add to Cursor or add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"elvanto": {
"url": "https://elvanto.usefulapi.io/mcp"
}
}
} VS Code
Add to VS Code or add this to .vscode/mcp.json:
{
"servers": {
"elvanto": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://elvanto.usefulapi.io/mcp"
}
}
} Codex
Run these commands. The second one opens the login page:
Other clients
Windsurf, Cline, Zed and other MCP clients: add this URL as a remote MCP server (Streamable HTTP). The client then opens the login page in your browser.
Add only the URL. Do not add an Authorization header or an API key to the client config. The server signs you in with OAuth: the login page asks for your Elvanto API key. If the config has such a header, remove it: some clients then send that header instead of the login token, and every call fails with 401.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 tool calls / month |
| Proper user | $9/mo · $90/yr | 10,000 tool calls / month |
| Pro+per user | $39/mo · $390/yr | 100,000 tool calls / month |
Each paid plan covers this Elvanto server only. Ask your AI to run elvanto_upgrade and choose Pro or Pro+, billed monthly or yearly (it returns a Stripe Checkout link). If you already have Pro, ask to change it to Pro+. The change requires your confirmation, keeps your billing interval and charges the price difference for the rest of the period immediately. Cancel any time with elvanto_cancel_subscription: your paid plan continues to the end of the paid period, with no refund for the current period, and asking to resume the same plan with elvanto_upgrade before then undoes the cancel. Or write to support@usefulapi.io.
Tools 27
Show all 27 tools (the AI picks them for you)
Read only · 18
- List people
elvanto_list_peopleList people in the church database, optionally filtered by category and by suspended / contact / archived status. Paginated (the response carries page, per_page, total). Elvanto: people/getAll. - Search people
elvanto_search_peopleFind people matching field values, e.g. {"email":"john@example.com"} or {"lastname":"Smith","volunteer":"yes"}. Searchable keys: firstname, preferred_name, lastname, email, phone, mobile, category_id, archived, contact, deceased, volunteer, gender, birthday, anniversary, marital_status, school_grade, security_code, receipt_name, giving_number, groups, date_added / date_modified / last_login (UTC, yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss; matched as on-or-after), and custom_<field id>. Use only one of archived / contact / deceased at a time. Elvanto: people/search. - Get one person
elvanto_get_personFetch one person by id, optionally with extra fields (birthday, addresses, departments, locations, family, custom fields...). Elvanto: people/getInfo. - List people categories
elvanto_list_people_categoriesList the people categories (e.g. New People, Church Members, Inactive) with their ids. Elvanto: people/categories/getAll. - List custom person fields
elvanto_list_custom_fieldsList the church's custom person fields (id, name, type and allowed values). Use the id as custom_<id> in fields / search. Elvanto: people/customFields/getAll. - List groups
elvanto_list_groupsList small groups / ministries with meeting day, time, place and frequency; add fields=["people"] to include members and leaders. Elvanto: groups/getAll. - Get one group
elvanto_get_groupFetch one group by id, optionally with its members (fields=["people"]). Elvanto: groups/getInfo. - List services
elvanto_list_servicesList services (upcoming by default). Add fields such as volunteers (the roster), plans (order of service) and songs to answer 'who is serving Sunday?' or 'what are we singing?'. Elvanto: services/getAll. - Get one service
elvanto_get_serviceFetch one service by id with optional detail: service/rehearsal times, plan (order of service), volunteers roster, songs, files, notes. Elvanto: services/getInfo. - List songs
elvanto_list_songsList or search the song library by title, artist or lyrics (with CCLI number, categories and locations). Elvanto: songs/getAll. - List a song's arrangements
elvanto_list_song_arrangementsList the arrangements of one song — sequence, BPM, keys, lyrics and chord chart (optionally transposed). Elvanto: songs/arrangements/getAll. - List calendars
elvanto_list_calendarsList the church's calendars with their ids. Elvanto: calendar/getAll. - List calendar events
elvanto_list_calendar_eventsList calendar events between two dates, optionally for specific calendars (use "services" as a calendar to include services). Elvanto: calendar/events/getAll. - List people flows
elvanto_list_people_flowsList people flows — the church's follow-up pipelines (e.g. First Time Guest Follow Up) — with their steps and admins. Elvanto: peopleFlows/getAll. - List a people flow's steps
elvanto_list_people_flow_stepsList the steps of one people flow with descriptions, instructions, due rules and admins. Elvanto: peopleFlows/steps/getAll. - List people in a flow step
elvanto_list_people_flow_step_peopleList the people currently in one people-flow step, with status, due date and assigned admin — e.g. who still needs a follow-up call. Not paginated. Elvanto: peopleFlows/steps/people. - List financial categories
elvanto_list_financial_categoriesList giving / chart-of-accounts categories (funds) with ids; status 1 = active, 0 = archived. Elvanto: financial/categories/getAll. - List giving transactions
elvanto_list_transactionsList giving transactions between two dates, optionally for one fund — donor, date, method, batch and per-fund amounts. Read-only: this server never writes financial records. Elvanto: financial/transactions/getAll.
Changes data · 5
- Create a person
elvanto_create_personAdd a new person to the church database (e.g. a first-time guest). Returns the new person id and family id. Does not create a login. Elvanto: people/create. - Update a person
elvanto_update_personEdit an existing person's details — name, contact info, category, flags, family, or extra fields. Only the fields you pass change. Cannot touch username, password or login status. Elvanto: people/edit. - Add a person to a group
elvanto_add_person_to_groupAdd a person to a group, optionally as Leader or Assistant Leader. Undoable by removing them from the group in Elvanto. Elvanto: groups/addPerson. - Add a person to a people-flow step
elvanto_add_person_to_flow_stepPut a person into a people-flow step (e.g. start a new guest's follow-up), optionally assigning a step admin. Elvanto: peopleFlows/steps/addPerson. - Create a calendar event
elvanto_create_calendar_eventCreate an event on a calendar, optionally repeating. Times are 24-hour GMT. Use status "draft" to stage it unpublished. Elvanto: calendar/events/create.
Your usefulapi plan · 4
- Usage status (free-tier meter)
elvanto_usage_statusReport the caller's current usage: the plan, calls used this month, the limit of the plan (the free monthly cap or the Pro fair use limit), remaining, and whether the limit is reached. Read-only; does not count against the meter. - Request a missing feature
elvanto_request_featureTell usefulapi that the user needs something the Elvanto tools cannot do yet (a missing tool, field or filter). Call it only when the user asks for something none of the tools can do, and tell the user that you send the request. Do not call it for errors or for normal requests. Do not include personal data, credentials or customer records. Stored with the product name and the client type (for example Claude or Cursor), without the user's account. At most 5 requests per day. Does not count against the meter. - Upgrade to Pro or Pro+
elvanto_upgradeGet a paid plan for Elvanto (the free tier caps monthly usage). Pro: 10,000 tool calls a month, for normal use — plan "monthly" ($9/month) or "yearly" ($90/year, 2 months free). Pro+: 100,000 tool calls a month, for automations and heavy use — plan "plus" ($39/month) or "plus_yearly" ($390/year). Without a plan it returns both Pro and Pro+, each with a payment link, for the user to choose; with a plan, one link. An existing Pro subscription changes to Pro+ in place: call without confirm first, as the reply states the exact charge for this account (the price difference for the rest of the period, or in a free Pro trial the full Pro+ price, as the trial ends); then call with confirm: true. Cancel any time: the plan then runs to the end of the paid period, so it also suits a one-time job. A link opens Stripe Checkout in the browser; after payment the account upgrades automatically. Does not count against the meter. - Cancel the Pro subscription
elvanto_cancel_subscriptionCancel the caller's Elvanto Pro subscription at the end of the paid period (no refund for the current period; Pro continues until then, then the free tier applies). Requires confirm: true. Run elvanto_upgrade later to undo the cancel before the period ends. Does not count against the meter.
FAQ
What can I do with Elvanto in Claude or ChatGPT?
Review service rosters, plans and songs. Find people by name, email or flag. See who is waiting in a follow-up flow. Look up small groups and calendar events. Add a guest to a follow-up flow or small group. Review giving transactions by fund. See what you can do for the details.
Is this an official Elvanto product?
No. usefulapi is an independent service. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Elvanto. The server calls the Elvanto API with your own Elvanto access, so it sees only the data that your account can see.
Can I connect Elvanto to Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. In Claude, add this server's URL as a custom connector. In ChatGPT, add it as a custom MCP server in Plugins. Then log in once. Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code and Codex work too. See the setup steps.
What do I need to connect?
The login page asks for your Elvanto API key. See Before you connect for where to find it.
Do I put my Elvanto key or an Authorization header in the client config?
No. Add only the URL. Do not add an Authorization header or an API key to the client config. The server signs you in with OAuth: the login page asks for your Elvanto API key. If the config has such a header, remove it: some clients then send that header instead of the login token, and every call fails with 401.
How do you keep my Elvanto credentials?
The login stores them encrypted in the authorization grant of your connection. The server uses them to call the Elvanto API for you and to derive a private account id for usage metering. usefulapi does not show them on any page or in any reply. To stop all access, remove the connector and change or delete these credentials in Elvanto.
Can the AI change my Elvanto data?
Yes, if you approve it. 5 of the 23 Elvanto tools can create or change data. The other 18 are marked read-only. Most MCP clients ask you to approve a tool call before it runs.
What does it cost?
The Free plan gives 50 tool calls / month. Pro costs $9/mo or $90/yr, with 10,000 tool calls / month. Pro+ costs $39/mo or $390/yr, with 100,000 tool calls / month. Each subscription covers this Elvanto server only. Cancel any time: your paid plan then runs to the end of the paid period. Run elvanto_usage_status to see how many calls you used.
How do I subscribe or cancel?
Ask the AI to run elvanto_upgrade and choose Pro or Pro+, billed monthly or yearly: it returns a Stripe Checkout link. If you already have Pro, ask to change it to Pro+. After you confirm, your existing subscription changes in place, keeps its billing interval and charges the price difference for the rest of the period immediately. To cancel, run elvanto_cancel_subscription. Your paid plan continues to the end of the paid period.
What if a Elvanto tool that I need is missing?
Tell the AI what you wanted to do. It can send the request with elvanto_request_feature. We store the text with the server name, the type of AI client and the tool you tried, not with your account, and read every request when we plan new tools. You can send up to 5 requests per day.
Which AI clients can I use?
Any client that supports remote MCP servers (Streamable HTTP) with OAuth login: Claude (web and desktop), Claude Code, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and others.
This is a Model Context Protocol endpoint — meant to be connected from an AI client, not opened in a browser. An invalid_token response at the URL is the auth gate working as designed; clients authenticate automatically.
Need a tool this server does not have, or a connection to another system? We build custom integrations and MCP servers.