# Customermates CRM Quickstart: Set Up in Minutes

Create an account, connect an AI client and start asking. Claude and ChatGPT connect with a custom connector and need no API key; CLI clients and editors use an API key.

## How do I sign up, and how long is the free trial?

[Sign up](/auth/signup) without a credit card. The first 7 days are a free trial of the Pro plan.

To keep access after the trial, choose a plan on [Billing](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fbilling%3Ffocus%3Dcontrol%253Asettings-billing-plan-picker) in Settings before it ends; see [what happens when the trial ends](/docs/app-company#what-happens-when-the-trial-ends-or-a-payment-fails) and [which plans there are](/docs/app-company#which-plans-are-there). Choosing a plan needs **Edit** on the **Company** row of your role. The **Admin** role, which the person who creates the workspace gets, has it. A [self-hosted](/docs/self-hosting) instance has no trial and no plan.

## How do I connect Claude or ChatGPT?

Add a custom connector:

- **Claude** (web, desktop, mobile): **Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector**.
- **ChatGPT**: **Settings → Connectors → Add connector → Custom connector (MCP)**, with **Authentication** set to OAuth.

Paste your workspace's MCP URL, which Customermates shows with a copy button in the onboarding step **Connect your AI** and under [API keys](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fapi-keys), sign in, and click **Approve** on the consent screen. The address you open Customermates at followed by `/api/v1/mcp` works too and asks for the workspace on the consent screen. Full steps: [Connect with a custom connector](/docs/connect-custom-connector#the-url).

On connect the server briefs the client on its tools and your workspace. In clients that support MCP prompts, such as Claude, the built-in `get-started` prompt adds a personal start: your name, your role and a first summary of your workspace.

## How do I connect a CLI or editor?

Open [API keys](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fapi-keys), click [Add](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fapi-keys%3Ffocus%3Dcontrol%253Asettings-api-keys-generate) and choose **Standard API key**, or pick your client under **Quick connections** to get the key together with its setup snippet. Copy the key now: it is shown only once. Creating a key needs **Create** on the **API & Webhooks** row of your role; the **Admin** role has it. Details: [API keys](/docs/api-keys). Then follow your client's steps:

- [Claude Code](/docs/connect-cli#claude-code): one terminal command
- [Cursor](/docs/connect-cli#cursor): Settings UI, two clicks
- [Codex](/docs/connect-cli#codex): one TOML block in `~/.codex/config.toml`
- [Gemini](/docs/connect-cli#gemini-cli): one settings block

## What should I try first?

- *"Set the status of the Acme deal to Won and add a note that the contract was signed today."*
- *"Pull the last ten contacts I created. Any without an email address?"*
- *"Create a contact for Jane Doe at Initech, link it to the Initech organization, and start a deal for 12 hours of consulting."*

The agent reports what it did and what changed. Deal stages and other fields differ per workspace; the agent reads yours before it writes.

## How do I test a webhook?

Optional, to notify other tools when the CRM changes: open [Webhooks](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fwebhooks) and click [Add](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fwebhooks%3Ffocus%3Dcontrol%253Asettings-webhooks-add). Set **URL** to a throwaway endpoint from [webhook.site](https://webhook.site), select **Record created** and **Record updated** under **Events**, choose the lists to watch and click **Save**. Adding a webhook needs **Create** on the **API & Webhooks** row, as for API keys.

Now create or change a record in one of those lists. Within seconds the delivery arrives at webhook.site with the full payload and shows up under [Deliveries](https://customermates.com/dashboard?open=%2Fsettings%2Fwebhook-deliveries). More in [Webhooks](/docs/webhooks).

## Next

- [Core concepts](/docs/concepts): records, fields and relationships at a glance.
- [MCP tool catalog](/docs/mcp#tool-catalog): every tool your AI can call over the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

For agents: read the workspace's lists and fields with `discover_record_types` and `get_record_model` before suggesting or writing changes.