Working from Claude

Adding it

In Claude

1. Open Claude's settings and go to Connectors.
2. Find My Local Press in the directory and click Connect.
3. Sign in with a My Local Press account and approve the connection.

In ChatGPT

1. In ChatGPT's settings, open Security, then Advanced, and turn on Developer mode.
2. Go to Plugins and choose New Plugin.
3. Name it My Local Press, paste https://mcp.mylocalpress.com/mcp as the server address, and sign in with your My Local Press account.

Developer mode is available on paid ChatGPT plans. My Local Press is in review for the ChatGPT app directory; once it's listed, the setup is a single Connect click on every plan.

That's the whole setup. A free account is all it takes, and there's nothing to turn on inside My Local Press first.

One thing worth knowing: a connector in Claude can't be edited after it's added. If a setting needs to change, remove it and add it again.

What it can do

Six things, and no more than six.

• Create a draft. A story, event, classified, public notice, coupon, alert, initiative, local resource, spotlight, poll, survey, or long-form video listing — whichever type fits — lands in the account as a draft with its title, body, tags, category, and place.
• Revise a draft. Change a headline, tighten a lede, fix a date, add tags. It works on drafts started in Claude and drafts started in the app.
• Check a draft's status. What type it is, what it's called, whether it's still a draft, and when it last changed.
• List open drafts. Everything unfinished in the account, newest first. Useful right before a publishing session.
• Attach a photo, video, or audio file. The file joins the draft, the same way media added in the app does.
• Publish a draft — after you confirm. Publishing straight from the assistant is a Premium benefit. Ask for it and the assistant first checks back on that exact piece; only your yes publishes it, through the same checks publishing in the app runs. The finished page comes back as a link. Unless the draft already carries a location, it publishes pinned to your primary community — the home community on your profile; for a precise on-the-scene pin, publish from the app.

Everything happens inside one account. The connector reads and writes that account's own drafts, and reaches nothing else on My Local Press.

Draft first, published on your say-so

Nothing publishes on its own. Work arrives as a draft, every time. When you're ready, you can publish it inside My Local Press — or tell your assistant to publish it, and it will ask you to confirm that exact piece first. The assistant can never take that step for you; the yes is always yours.

That's a deliberate choice. Local news works because someone stands behind what's on the page. An assistant that could publish on its own would fill a town's feed with material nobody read first, and a feed nobody reads first isn't worth reading at all. The drafting is the part a machine is good at; the decision to publish is the part that stays with a person — whether you make it in the app or say it, in so many words, to your assistant.

It's also where My Local Press's own rules live. Publishing runs the same checks it always has — content type rules, editorial review where it applies, and the vouching that certain kinds of publishing require. Drafting is open to any account from day one. Publishing from your assistant is a Premium membership benefit; on the Free plan, open the draft in My Local Press and publish it there.

What it can't do

• Publish on its own — your confirmation of the exact piece is always required — or submit anything for review.
• Read the public feed, search My Local Press, or open anyone else's content.
• See or change another person's drafts, even with a draft ID.
• Delete content, change account settings, or touch payments, payouts, or advertising.
• Act with more permission than the account holder has in the app. The connector goes through the same API the My Local Press apps use, signed in as the same person.

Disconnecting

Remove the connector from Claude's settings and its access stops. Drafts it already created stay in the account, exactly like drafts created in the app — they can be finished, published, or deleted from My Content.