Business Advisor connection guide

Choose a connection that works with your AI client. Find the setup for your assistant, start with one business problem, and prepare an enquiry when you are ready.

Getting started

Bring one business problem.

Start with a task you know well: preparing quotes, following up with customers, or putting a weekly report together. Tell the advisor what happens today and what you would like to improve.

Connect the advisor. Then start a conversation.

In ChatGPT or Codex, choose the Brownsmith Business Advisor connection and sign in when prompted. Once it is enabled, describe your business or workflow in your own words. You do not need to know the tool names.

Need help getting connected? Get in touch with Brownsmith and tell us which assistant you use.

ChatGPT and Codex

Use the advisor in your conversation.

Enable the Brownsmith Business Advisor connection.
Describe the problem, the people involved, and the tools you already use.
Ask for a practical first improvement or a brief you can discuss with Brownsmith.

Connection settings depend on your account and workspace. Your administrator can help if connections are managed for your team.

OpenAI connection guide

Claude Desktop

Run the advisor on your computer.

Use the local setup below to add the advisor to Claude Desktop. After restarting Claude, start a conversation and ask it to review a business process.

For other Claude connection options, see the Claude connector guide.

Local setup for Claude Desktop and agent harnesses

Build the server.

From the advisor project folder, run:

npm install
npm run build

Add the example to your MCP client's configuration. Replace the path with the location of your built dist/stdio.js file. In Claude Desktop, the file is called claude_desktop_config.json; on Windows, it is in %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart the client after saving.

Example configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brownsmith-advisor": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\bd-plugin\\dist\\stdio.js"]
    }
  }
}

If your client uses HTTP, run npm start and use http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp from the same computer.

Use it in an agent workflow.

Hermes Agent and Claude Code support MCP tools. Add the local advisor using the Node command above and follow your harness's configuration guide.

This lets an agent use Brownsmith's business-scoping tools as part of a larger task, such as preparing a workflow review or an implementation brief.

Review before sending.

When you are ready to contact Brownsmith, ask the advisor to prepare an enquiry. Check the message, add a reply address, and confirm that you want it sent. Keep that decision with a person, even when the rest of the work runs through an agent.

For developers

Use create_implementation_brief to prepare a scope, get_brownsmith_info for contact details, and find_brownsmith_service to match a problem to a service. The remaining tools cover diagnosis, workflows, customer acquisition, indicative pricing, and contact preparation and submission.