Set up with an AI assistant

Referral Bear has a remote MCP server. It lets an AI assistant inspect your program and set up its first commission rule and website tracking. You still connect Stripe in the dashboard and test a real referral click before inviting affiliates.

Use Copy page at the top of any guide to copy its Markdown instructions, or open that page in your preferred AI assistant.

Get ready

1. Create an account and program. The program name and currency are set here.
2. Open API keys in the dashboard and create a key named AI setup. Keep the key private. Do not paste it into a chat message or your website code.
3. Connect the assistant to https://referralbear.com/api/mcp. For a sandbox program, connect to https://sandbox.referralbear.com/api/mcp instead. Keep each assistant connection in the same environment as its program.
4. When the assistant opens Referral Bear’s authorization page, review its name, return address, and requested permission. To let it change setup, the authorization page must request mcp:setup; a connection that requests no scope is read-only. Enter the key there only after checking that permission. Revoke the key in API keys to disconnect it.

For Claude Code, add this .mcp.json file at the root of your website project. Claude Code will ask you to approve the project connection; then use /mcp to sign in. The oauth.scopes setting makes the setup permission explicit:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "referral-bear": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://referralbear.com/api/mcp",
      "oauth": { "scopes": "mcp:setup" }
    }
  }
}

For Cursor, put the same server URL in your project’s .cursor/mcp.json file under mcpServers, then approve the connection and complete OAuth in the browser. Use the sandbox URL when the program is in sandbox.

For ChatGPT, an administrator can add Referral Bear as a custom app in Workspace settings → Apps → Create using that MCP URL, then connect it through the app’s OAuth flow. Check that the connection requests mcp:setup before using write actions. ChatGPT’s MCP write actions currently require a Business, Enterprise, or Edu workspace on the web. If your account does not offer custom apps with write actions, use the manual getting-started guide. See the Claude Code MCP instructions  and ChatGPT developer mode guide  for current client steps.

Answer three questions

On a new program’s Overview, fill in your website origin, commission percentage, and approval choice under Review setup with your AI assistant. Choose Copy setup prompt, then paste it into your assistant.

An origin is the scheme and hostname only, such as https://example.com. A 30% commission is passed to the MCP tool as 3000 basis points. Approve later leaves earned commissions pending. Approve automatically marks them approved when they are earned; it does not send payouts.

The assistant should first call get_setup_status. It can then call create_commission_rule if no rule exists and configure_tracking to add your website origin. Referral Bear refuses to add a second commission rule through this quick setup tool. Use Commission flows in the dashboard to edit or add more complex rules.

Finish and check

Connect Stripe in Integrations in the dashboard. Let your assistant add the Referral Bear tracking script to your website code, enable tracking, then test a real affiliate link and look for its click in Overview. If the click does not appear, check the website script and tracking settings before inviting affiliates. Check get_setup_status again and review the rule in Commission flows. Then invite affiliates.

The quick setup tool does not connect Stripe, send invitation emails, activate payouts, or publish changes to your website by itself. The copied prompt asks the assistant to inspect existing setup first and summarize what it changed afterward.