Connected chat apps (MCP)

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets a compatible chat app work with your Tendergate organization. You can ask it to find tenders, read results, add documents, create drafts and start supported AI work.

An owner or administrator must first enable access in Account settings → Connected apps. Customer MCP is separate from the reseller partner integration; use the server URL shown in your organization's settings.

Connect an app

1. Open Account settings → Connected apps. An owner or administrator enables Allow customer MCP connections under Organization policy and selects Save.
2. Copy the organization-specific server URL into your chat app's remote MCP settings. It ends in /orgs/your-organization/mcp/v1.
3. Sign in to Tendergate and review the app identity, organization and permissions.
4. If the app requests paid agent execution, enter a monthly allowance in credits. Select Allow connection.
5. Ask the app to confirm your connected organization before working with data.

Each connection uses one Tendergate account and one organization. Add a separate connection for another organization. Membership and two-factor authentication requirements still apply.

Your chat app must support a remote MCP server using Streamable HTTP and OAuth sign-in with PKCE. Use its remote-server setup, then complete the Tendergate sign-in in your browser. Check that the app discovers the actions you granted before starting work.

Choose permissions

The consent screen lists the access your app requests. The actions available in chat depend on that access and your current Tendergate role.

For read-only access, use an app configuration that requests only reading permissions. If it requests only the public catalogue, your private workspaces and documents will not be available. Adding access later requires a new consent flow; asking in chat cannot grant extra permissions.

What you can do

• Search tenders and read workspaces, bids, requirements, findings and existing comparisons.
• Create draft workspaces and bids, update supported descriptive fields, and shortlist or dismiss tenders.
• Add text or original documents to workspaces, bids or the Library, find approved Library evidence, and export saved results.
• Start bid analysis, requirement extraction, RFP quality or integrity reviews, standalone market or funding research, and tender bid preparation.
• Check status, answer a pending question and request cancellation of work started by this connection.

Requests to try

• “Show my active procurements and their latest analysis results.”
• “Create a draft procurement called Office equipment.”
• “Find current, approved ISO 9001 evidence in our Library and show its sources.”
• “Prepare an analysis of this bid and show the steps that will use credits before starting.”
• “Show the status of the analysis you started and any question I need to answer.”
• “How many credits has this connection used this month?”

This release saves drafts in Tendergate. It does not file bids on procurement portals, sign documents, award contracts, send supplier messages, delete records or buy credits. Submitted-version and finalized-document locks still apply. Composition and planning remain available through the web workflows.

Run and follow AI work

1. Ask the app to prepare a supported run. Preparation lists its prerequisites and billable steps without starting an agent.
2. Ask it to start the prepared work. Tendergate checks permissions, the current documents, your credits and spending limits.
3. Ask for status and saved results, or follow the returned link to Tendergate. Work continues in the background after you close the chat; your chat app may not notify you automatically when it finishes.
4. If the run asks a question, read it and reply through the same connection. You can also request cancellation of work started by that connection.

A preparation expires after 15 minutes. Prepare again if it expires or if its source documents change. Each connection can have at most two active operations. You can read existing web-run results with the appropriate permissions, but the chat connection cannot resume or cancel work started on the web or by another connection.

Spending allowance

The connection allowance controls new starts based on posted monthly usage. Active work can finish and take usage above the allowance. It is not a maximum final charge or a reservation of credits.

Existing Tendergate pricing and organization spending checks apply. Preparation and follow-up work belonging to an operation count toward the same connection. The calendar month resets in Europe/Riga time. Reconnecting the same account, app and organization preserves its spending history.

Adjust your allowance within the organization's maximum in Connected apps. The chat app cannot increase its allowance or permissions. Owners and administrators can set the maximum, restrict client IDs, disable access, or revoke connections.

Files and evidence

A file visible in a chat is not automatically available to Tendergate. Submit text up to 128 KiB or create an upload for an original file up to 50 MiB. Upload instructions include a browser fallback. Choose the exact original: Tendergate verifies its size and SHA-256 checksum. Upload sessions expire after 15 minutes; research references can remain staged for 24 hours before a run starts.

Uploads keep existing files. Repeating a completed upload does not add a second copy.

Library uploads

Files and text added to the Library are processed in the background, just like web uploads. Classification fills in details such as document type, issuer and validity date when they can be found. Signed EDOC and ASICE bundles are unpacked into individual files for classification; the signed original is kept.

All Library documents added through MCP, including extracted files, start as Draft, even when the connected user is an owner or Library manager. Open the Library to review processing results, correct metadata and approve the documents. Library search uses approved, current evidence; a successful upload alone does not make a document eligible for reuse.

Research references and reading originals

Research follows its existing retention rules: extracted text is retained and original files are removed after successful extraction.

Research extraction is limited to 2 MiB per reference and 8 MiB across a run's references. If a limit is exceeded, reduce the reference content and prepare a new run. Content is never silently truncated.

Stored-text reads report unavailable or incomplete extraction. Use originals to check layout, signatures and exact wording. Library passages identify their current source; a changed source requires another search. Download links expire after five minutes and stop working when the connection is revoked.

Disconnect

Reconnecting or adding permissions preserves work already in progress when its required permissions remain granted. Removing a required permission or removing your organization membership stops that work. Being invited back requires fresh consent.

Cancelling a run still charges the usage incurred before it stops, including preparation and follow-up work. Repeated cancellation does not charge the same usage again.

Select Revoke connection in Account settings → Connected apps. New requests and queued work lose access; active agent work stops when it next checks for cancellation. Work already performed may still be charged. Disconnecting cannot remove data already delivered to the chat provider or its conversation history.

Troubleshooting