MCP

Use Conductor’s MCP server to let you and your co-workers interact with QuickBooks Desktop through Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools. Ask questions about your QuickBooks Desktop data in plain English, and the agent searches your company file and finds the answer: overdue invoices, a vendor’s payment history, last month’s sales. It is safe: the agent will not change your QuickBooks data unless you ask it to.

Setup

You need two things: a Conductor secret key (get one here) and at least one QuickBooks Desktop connection, with QuickBooks running on that computer. In every example below, replace sk_conductor_... with your actual secret key.

claude mcp add --transport http conductor https://mcp.conductor.is/ --header "Authorization: Bearer sk_conductor_..."

Add --scope user to make it available in all your projects.

Claude Desktop only supports local servers, so use our npm package. It needs two free tools: Node.js and Deno. Install Node.js first, then open a terminal (on macOS: Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and run npm install -g deno.Open Settings > Developer > Edit Config to edit the config file (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json; Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json) and add:

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "conductor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "conductor-node-mcp"],
      "env": { "CONDUCTOR_SECRET_KEY": "sk_conductor_..." }
    }
  }
}

If the file already has an mcpServers section, add the conductor entry inside it instead of pasting the whole block. Restart Claude Desktop to load it.claude.ai in the browser cannot connect: custom connectors have no custom-header field, so there is no way to send the key.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "conductor": {
      "url": "https://mcp.conductor.is/",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer sk_conductor_..." }
    }
  }
}

Use .cursor/mcp.json inside a project to scope it to that project.

Run MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette (or use .vscode/mcp.json in a workspace). Note the top-level key is servers:

mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "conductor": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.conductor.is/",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer sk_conductor_..." }
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.conductor]
url = "https://mcp.conductor.is/"
bearer_token_env_var = "CONDUCTOR_SECRET_KEY"

Set CONDUCTOR_SECRET_KEY to your raw sk_conductor_... key; Codex adds the Bearer prefix.

Any client that supports HTTP servers with custom headers works:

{
  "url": "https://mcp.conductor.is/",
  "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer sk_conductor_..." }
}

ChatGPT on the web accepts only OAuth connectors, so it cannot add the hosted server; use Codex CLI instead.If your client only supports local (stdio) servers, run npx -y conductor-node-mcp with the CONDUCTOR_SECRET_KEY environment variable set. It requires Deno on your PATH (or npm install -g deno).

Verify it works

Ask the agent to “list my QuickBooks Desktop connections and show the 5 most recent invoices”. If it returns real data from your company file, you are set up. Do not trust your client’s “connected” indicator alone: the key is only checked when the agent actually requests data. If it errors, see Troubleshooting below.

Troubleshooting

It connects, but says the API key is missing or invalid

If you see Failed to initialize client: The CONDUCTOR_SECRET_KEY environment variable is missing or empty, your key never reached the server (wrong header name, stripped header, or missing env variable). If you see a 401 with "code":"API_KEY_INVALID", the error echoes the key masked (sk_conductor_...last4) so you can see which key your client actually sent.

Setup is correct, but requests to QuickBooks still fail

QuickBooks Desktop must be running on the connected computer for data calls to succeed. MCP is independent of your Web Connector link and does not affect it.

Can my co-workers use the same key on other computers?

Yes. The same key and URL work from any number of machines and AI clients. Pricing is per QuickBooks company file, not per connection or seat.

I see SEO or marketing tools, not QuickBooks (wrong Conductor)

An unrelated SEO company at conductor.com runs its own MCP server, and AI tools sometimes find it instead of ours. If you see SEO tools like ai_brand_insights or keyword_insights, or “couldn’t identify the caller” errors, you connected to that server. Remove it and use https://mcp.conductor.is/; ours is conductor.is and exposes only execute and search_docs.

Running the local server fails with a Deno error

The local package needs Deno. Install it from deno.land or run npm install -g deno. The hosted server needs no install.

Getting Started

Usage

QuickBooks Desktop

Setup

Verify it works

Troubleshooting

​Setup

​Verify it works

​Troubleshooting

Setup

Verify it works

Troubleshooting