# Quickstart

> Verify your key, connect a client, and make your first assistant-driven Orangescrum call.

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/llms.txt).

Source: https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/mcp/quickstart

---
About five minutes, assuming you already have a partner API key.

**Verify the server sees your key**

    Run this from the machine that will host your AI client. A successful
    response lists all 15 tool names.

```bash
curl -sS -X POST https://v4-api.orangescrum.com/mcp/partner \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-API-KEY: YOUR_KEY' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list","id":1}'
```

    A `401` means the key is wrong, missing or expired. Nothing else will work
    until this call succeeds, so fix it here rather than in a client config.

**Add the server to your client**

    Drop the snippet for your client into its config file. Claude Desktop needs
    Node.js installed, because it bridges to the remote server through
    `npx mcp-remote`; the others speak remote MCP natively.

    See [Client setup](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/mcp/clients) for all four, or use the Claude
    Desktop one below to get going:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "orangescrum": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote@latest",
        "https://v4-api.orangescrum.com/mcp/partner",
        "--header",
        "X-API-KEY:YOUR_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

**Restart the assistant**

    MCP configs are read at startup. Fully quit and relaunch — reloading the
    window is not enough for most clients.

**Confirm the tools appeared**

    Ask the assistant what Orangescrum tools it has. It should list tools for
    projects, tasks, timelogs and users. If it says it has none, jump to
    [Troubleshooting](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/mcp/troubleshooting).

**Try a real request**

    Start with a read so you can see the shape of the data before anything
    writes:

    > List my Orangescrum projects and tell me which ones have tasks due this week.

    Then try a write once you are comfortable:

    > Create a task in Website Redesign called "Audit meta descriptions", assign
    > it to me, and set the due date to next Friday.

## Useful first prompts

- **Morning triage**: "What's overdue across my projects, grouped by assignee?"

- **Standup notes**: "Run the daily_standup prompt for the Website Redesign project."

- **Time reconstruction**: "Log 2 hours against OS-431 for yesterday with the note 'schema migration'."

- **Sprint sanity check**: "Which tasks in this sprint have no assignee or no estimate?"

> **Check writes before you trust them**
>
> Assistants can misread which project or task you meant, especially when names
> are similar. For the first few sessions, confirm each write in Orangescrum
> before moving on — and keep the key read-only until you have.

## Where next

- [Tools reference](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/mcp/tools): What each of the 15 tools does and what it needs.

- [Troubleshooting](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/mcp/troubleshooting): Tools not showing up, 401s, and Node.js issues.