Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about Context Repo — accounts, prompts, documents, MCP, API, and integrations.

Quick answers to the questions we hear most often. For deeper detail, follow the links to the relevant documentation pages.

Every account starts with a 7-day free trial (on Pro or Pro Max) that includes the 29 hosted MCP tools, the Chrome Extension, version history, and document processing for 75+ file formats. After the trial, a paid plan (Pro, Pro Max, or Ultimate) keeps that access, with plan-specific storage and usage limits. See Plans & Billing for a full comparison.

What do paid plans add?

Paid plans unlock the Dashboard for managing your workspace visually, plus Deep Search (hierarchical vector search inside documents), and increased storage capacity. Visit the pricing page for current plan details.

Prompts

What are variables and how do I use them?

You can write placeholders such as ${variableName} in prompt content, and the REST API can store variable metadata with string, number, or boolean types. Context Repo stores both verbatim; it does not detect placeholders, create fill-in fields, or substitute values. The client that retrieves the prompt handles any replacement. Learn more in the Prompts guide.

Does Context Repo track prompt changes?

Yes. Creation records version 0. Updates with non-empty prompt content, parameters, or variable metadata create another version; title, description, and tags-only updates do not. Restoring an earlier snapshot creates a new version instead of deleting later history. See Prompts — Version History for details.

Open Share on a prompt and choose Make public to create a read-only link pinned to its current version. Anyone with the link can view that snapshot. Later edits stay private until you update the shared link, and Stop sharing revokes it.

Documents

What file formats can I upload?

Context Repo supports 75+ file formats including PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoints, images (with OCR), plain text, markdown, HTML, CSV, and many more. See the Documents guide for the full list.

Can I scrape web pages as documents?

Yes. Enter a URL and Context Repo extracts the page content for you. You can configure options like extracting only the main content, including a screenshot, and setting a wait time for pages that load dynamically. Learn more in Documents — Web Scraping.

How does Context Repo prevent document edits from overwriting each other?

Each completed document has a canonical revision. MCP update_document and restore_document_version use the required expectedRevision from the latest read or successful acknowledgement and return a conflict instead of overwriting a newer change. Raw REST clients can also use expectedRevision or If-Match. REST managed editing adds an active fenced lease. The dashboard keeps your local draft when either check fails.

MCP Server

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources. Context Repo's hosted MCP Server registers 29 tools for prompts, documents, collections, search, retrieval, and cited reasoning. The inventory includes the OpenAI Apps SDK Company Knowledge tools search and fetch. Learn more in the MCP overview.

What AI tools work with Context Repo?

Context Repo has documented setup paths for Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, VS Code, Windsurf, Factory, and Amp. The broader MCP ecosystem includes 90+ clients, but each client must support authenticated Streamable HTTP or be able to launch the stdio bridge. Check the setup guides for popular clients or use the generic setup guide to check those requirements.

How do I connect Context Repo to my AI assistant?

Each client has its own setup process. For Cursor, there's a one-click deep link. For Claude Desktop, you add a JSON config file. For other clients, see the setup guides for detailed instructions.

What can I do with the 29 hosted MCP tools?

The tools are organized into 8 categories: User Info, Prompts (create, read, update, delete, version), Documents (create, read, update, delete, version), Collections (create, read, update, delete, manage items), Search (find items across your workspace), Deep Search (explore document content chunk by chunk), Reasoning (synthesized, cited answers across your documents), and Company Knowledge compatibility (search and fetch). See the Tools Reference for full parameter details.

When should I use Reasoning instead of Deep Search?

Use Deep Search when you want ranked passages to inspect and navigate. Use Reasoning when you want one best-effort cited answer that reports limitations it notices. Its gaps list is non-exhaustive; an empty list doesn't prove complete coverage. Disagreements appear as ordinary cited statements in the answer. Reasoning is read-only and works on document content, not prompts. See the Reasoning guide for examples.

API

How do I authenticate API requests?

The API supports two authentication methods: Bearer JWT (the session token issued to your signed-in browser) and API-Key (a key generated from Dashboard > Settings). Both use the Authorization header. See Authentication for setup details.

Where do I get an API key?

Go to Dashboard > Settings > API Keys and click New API Key. Choose a name, select permission scopes, and optionally set an expiration date. The full key is shown once — copy it immediately. See Settings for details.

What permission scopes are available for API keys?

Four scopes are available — one read and one write per resource: prompts.read, prompts.write, documents.read, and documents.write. The .write scopes already include the matching .read access on the same resource. The dashboard dialog presents this as None / Read / Write radio options for Prompts and Documents & Collections. See Settings — Permission Scopes for details.

What endpoints are available?

The REST API includes endpoints for prompts, documents, collections, search, progressive disclosure, and reasoning. Every endpoint is documented with methods, paths, parameters, and examples in the Endpoints reference.

Integrations

What does the Chrome Extension do?

The Chrome Extension uses a documents.write API key and offers three paths: Save this chat for the visible ChatGPT or Claude conversation, Capture this page for a public HTTP(S) URL processed through Firecrawl, and Pick element for selected content on a supported page. Direct reads can retrieve a document after the write succeeds. Semantic and deep-search availability follows asynchronous indexing.

How does the ChatGPT App work?

The ChatGPT App connects to your Context Repo account through OAuth and the same 29-tool hosted MCP server used by other clients. The inventory includes the OpenAI Apps SDK Company Knowledge tools search and fetch.

How do I connect Context Repo to Grok?

Create a custom connector in Grok named Context Repo and set its server URL to https://contextrepo.com/grok-mcp. Grok will open Context Repo's OAuth sign-in flow automatically. You don't need an API key or client secret. Follow the Grok integration guide for the complete setup and verification steps.

How do I connect Context Repo to Grok Bot?

Grok Bot is the desktop and iOS teammate app, not Grok chat on grok.com. In a Bot conversation, send Add this MCP server: https://contextrepo.com/grok-mcp. Grok Bot will confirm the details and open Context Repo's OAuth sign-in flow. You don't need an API key or client secret, and you don't add this from Settings → Plugins. Follow the Grok Bot integration guide for the complete setup and verification steps.