What Is an MCP Server?

A simple explanation of what the findIQ MCP server does and how AI systems use findIQ.

Written By Tommy Giesbrecht

Last updated About 2 months ago

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that gives AI systems structured access to external software like findIQ.

Think of it like this: a human uses findIQ through the findIQ interface, clicking through machines, templates, diagnostics, and service reports. An AI system uses findIQ the same way, just not through a screen and mouse, but through the findIQ MCP server.

In short:

  • Human → findIQ interface

  • AI system (e.g. Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, or Quinn) → findIQ MCP server

The MCP server is the "front door" for AI assistants into our system. Through it, an AI can do exactly what's possible through our regular interface (the API): not just read data (e.g. "Which machines does customer X have?"), but also write or change data (e.g. create a new machine or update a service case). There's no limitation to read-only lookups. In principle, anything the API can do, the MCP server can do too.

🔒 Permissions: For this to work, the user has to log in normally inside the chat with the AI system. The AI system will prompt for a login using the usual findIQ credentials. This means the AI system always has exactly the same permissions as that user, no more and no less.

ℹ️ Important: The MCP server itself is not the AI, it's just the interface in between. The actual AI is a separate system that connects to the MCP server, for example Microsoft Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, and others.

💡 Two options:

  1. Either you use the MCP server with an AI system of your choice (e.g. Copilot, Claude, or ChatGPT). In that case, you have to take care of the AI system yourself: which provider, which model, and what costs arise, for example pay-as-you-go or a license. You decide and pay for that yourself.

  2. Or you simply use our own AI system, Quinn, in which case we take care of all of that for you, including choosing the right LLM provider.

Production endpoint: https://findiq-mcp-prod.azurewebsites.net/mcp

Here's how to set up the findIQ MCP server in common environments: