Getting started with Docs MCP

This guide walks through connecting Symmetry Docs MCP to your AI assistant and confirming it works. Once connected, your AI assistant can search and cite Symmetry Docs while you work.

Prerequisites

Client Support Center credentials. The same sign-in you use to read Symmetry Docs and to track your tickets. Access to the MCP server matches your documentation access.

An MCP-capable AI app. All of the options below are free to download.

Tool	Best for	Get it
Claude Code	Terminal-comfortable users	Install guide
Claude Desktop	Easiest setup; no technical experience needed	claude.ai/download
Cursor	Users who work in or alongside code	cursor.com/downloads
VS Code	Existing VS Code users, with GitHub Copilot	code.visualstudio.com
Codex CLI	OpenAI Codex users working in a terminal	Codex docs
ChatGPT	Paid plans only, and managed workspaces need admin approval	chatgpt.com

Step 1: Add the server

The Docs MCP server address is:

https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp

The server is HTTP and access-controlled. There is no stdio option and no npm package to install, and because it is hosted there is nothing to keep updated on your side.

Add the server

claude mcp add --transport http symmetry-docs https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp

Run /mcp inside Claude Code, then select symmetry-docs from the list to start the sign-in.

Open Connectors

Go to Settings → Connectors, then choose + Add, then click Add custom connector.

Enter the server details

Name: Symmetry docs
URL: https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp

Connect

Click Continue, then on the next screen leave the radio buttons on the Detected options. Under Authentication, use the Sign in now radio button; under OAuth client, use the Register automatically radio button. Click Add.Click Connect. Claude Desktop opens a browser window for you to sign in.

Use in conversations

From within a chat, click the + button, select Connectors, and ensure the Symmetry Docs connector is toggled on.

Open MCP settings

Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and select Open MCP settings, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json directly.

Add the server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "symmetry-docs": {
      "url": "https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp"
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers configured, add symmetry-docs as a new key inside the existing mcpServers object. Don’t replace the whole file.

Save

Cursor picks up the change automatically. No restart needed.

Create the config file

Create .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace, or add to the existing file:

{
  "servers": {
    "symmetry-docs": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Reload

Reload the window so VS Code picks up the new server.

Add the server

Add it to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.symmetry-docs]
url = "https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp"

Restart Codex

Restart so the new server is loaded.

These steps were verified against the live ChatGPT interface in September 2026. OpenAI moves and renames these settings from time to time, and their own Developer mode guide can lag behind the interface, so expect some drift.

Check your plan

OpenAI documents Developer mode as available on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education accounts, on the web. On a Business or Enterprise workspace, an admin may need to allow custom MCP apps before you can add one.

Turn on Developer mode

Open Settings → Security and login and switch on Developer mode.

Add the server

Go to Plugins, click Browse plugins, then select the plus button, then click Create MCP App, then enter:

Name: Symmetry Docs
Connection (ensure the toggle to the right is set to Server URL): https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp
Authentication: OAuth

Description (optional but recommended): ChatGPT reads this when it decides whether to use the server, so it is worth setting deliberately rather than leaving brief. You can start from this:

Searches and reads Symmetry product documentation for the Symmetry
Tax Engine, Symmetry Payroll Forms, Payroll Point, Minimum Wage Finder, Calculators by Symmetry,
Symmetry I-9, and Symmetry Guides, including their release notes. Use it
for questions about Symmetry APIs, endpoints, request and response payloads,
parameters, tax IDs, setup, and product behavior, and cite the page it
returns. It reads the published documentation live, so answers reflect what
is published now. It does not run tax calculations or call product APIs.

Create the app

Click Create.

Complete the browser sign-in. The server should then be visible under Installed in Plugins. Click the plugin, then Try in chat. From then on, bring it into any conversation by mentioning it by name, for example @Symmetry Docs, or whatever name you gave it.

Each app has a details page in app settings for toggling individual tools and refreshing the app, which is how it picks up a changed description.

Using a different AI app? Add https://docs.symmetry.com/authed/mcp as a custom MCP server in its settings. Popular clients such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor can always complete the sign-in. If your client is not one of those, contact support before you start. The first tool call opens your browser and prompts you to sign in with your Client Support Center credentials. After you authenticate, the browser tab closes and your AI assistant resumes. Subsequent calls in the same session reuse the cached token. The cached token is valid for 24 hours. After that, the next tool call prompts you to sign in again.

Step 3: Confirm it works

Ask your AI assistant something that only Symmetry Docs would answer, and check that it cites a Symmetry page. Your AI assistant decides whether to show the link the server returns, so if no page appears, add “cite the page” and ask again:

Using the Symmetry docs, what are the three values signForm accepts in the SPF API, and what does each one produce?

A correct answer names PREVIEW, SIGN, and SIGN_EXTERNALLY, and explains that PREVIEW is the default.

What a working answer looks like

signForm is an attribute on the /fillPdf endpoint, and it defaults to PREVIEW, so if you are expecting a signed form you have to ask for one explicitly.

PREVIEW: an unsigned preview. The SSN (U.S.) or SIN (Canada) is masked and all form fields are flattened. Intended for letting the employee review the form before committing.
SIGN: a completed, fully executed form. The signature line carries the employee’s name plus a date and time stamp, the SSN or SIN is unmasked, and all fields are flattened. The timestamp needs a timezone, supplied as an IANA identifier such as America/Chicago. Without one, SPF signs in UTC.
SIGN_EXTERNALLY: a completed form with an unmasked SSN or SIN but no electronic signature or date, for use with an external signing tool such as DocuSign. Everything is flattened except the signature and date fields.

Two pages cover this: Interpreting SPF API responses has the authoritative breakdown plus the nonstandard signature fields (MO101 to MO103, NJ102), and Form output has the same three modes in table form with use-case guidance.

The answer as it appears in Claude Desktop, with the three signForm values and two cited Symmetry pages. — The same answer in Claude Desktop.

Then check that it can read a full page rather than working from a search snippet:

Read the whole STE licensing page and list every credential type, and which interface uses each.

Expect three credential types across five interfaces.

What a working answer looks like

Three credential types, mapped across five interfaces.

STE license file (ste-license.dat): authorizes the engine for an on-premise install, and is part of the licensed distribution. Downloaded from the Download Center as a ZIP with “License” in the name, then placed in the root of your STE directory, or supplied via the STE_LICENSE_KEY environment variable, which is checked first. The engine will not run without it.
API key: per client and product, issued by Symmetry, sent as the raw value of the Authorization header on every request. Staging and production keys are separate, and mixing environments fails.
Client Support Center credentials: user-level sign-in, where you authenticate as yourself rather than with a shared service key.

Interface	Credential
Hosted API	API key
Tax Logic API	API key, same key model as hosted
On-premise SDK	STE license file plus API key
STE MCP	Client Support Center sign-in
Tax Logic Chat	Client Support Center sign-in

On-premise installs also use an API key for the Symmetry Location Service, which handles address geocoding, set as SLS_API_KEY in ste.conf. That is a configuration detail rather than a second license, and on the hosted API it is handled for you.

The answer as it appears in Claude Desktop, with the three credential types and a table mapping them to five interfaces. — The same answer in Claude Desktop.

If no page appears even after you ask it to cite one, or it cites something that is not a Symmetry docs page, it is answering from general knowledge and the server is not connected. Check that sign-in completed, then see troubleshooting.

That’s the whole setup. Your AI assistant can now search and cite Symmetry docs in any conversation, and sample prompts has questions to try, grouped by role.

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Add the server

​Step 2: Sign in

​Step 3: Confirm it works

Prerequisites

Step 1: Add the server

Step 2: Sign in

Step 3: Confirm it works