Tread Connection docs

Updated October 9, 2026

Tread Connection connects your AI assistant to JobTread. It follows the standard remote MCP protocol, so assistants that support remote MCP connectors can use it. We have tested it with Claude and with OpenAI models. Members ask about their jobs, schedule and daily logs in plain language, and get JobTread how-to answers grounded in JobTread's public Help Center, with six trade brains. It is a remote MCP server at https://treadconnection.ai/mcp.

What you need
Connect it to Claude
Connect it to ChatGPT
Other MCP clients
Connect your JobTread account
Community sign-in
Tools
Photos to posts
Where the JobTread knowledge comes from
What each person can see
Sign-in and security (for IT admins)
Limits
Billing and cancelling
For reviewers and automated testers
Troubleshooting
Support

What you need

A Tread Connection membership. See plans.
A JobTread account. For job data, someone with admin rights in your JobTread organization connects it once (see below). The knowledge base works without it.
An AI assistant that supports remote MCP connectors. Setup steps are below for Claude (desktop app or claude.ai) and ChatGPT, and for other clients.

Connect it to Claude

In Claude, go to Settings > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Tread Connection, and enter https://treadconnection.ai/mcp.
Claude opens the Tread Connection sign-in page. Enter the email on your Tread Connection membership and we email you a 6-digit code. Codes expire after 10 minutes.
If you have a Tread Connection API key instead, open Use an API key instead and paste it.
Approve, and you are sent back to Claude with the tools ready.

To disconnect, remove or disconnect Tread Connection in Claude's connector settings and Claude stops using it. To cut access off on our side right away, regenerate your API key at treadconnection.ai/my/access. That ends every assistant connection made with the old key at once. Your JobTread connection belongs to your Tread Connection account, not to one assistant. To remove it, open treadconnection.ai/my/team and choose Stop managing this org, or email us. You can also delete the grant in JobTread.

Connect it to ChatGPT

ChatGPT connects to Tread Connection as a custom connector. We are not listed in any ChatGPT app directory. We have confirmed that an OpenAI model can call Tread Connection tools (we ran it through OpenAI's Codex tool), and a ChatGPT custom connector has signed in to our server. We have not tested every ChatGPT plan or every tool in ChatGPT itself. OpenAI changes these screens, so if a label below differs from what you see, follow the label on your screen.

Use ChatGPT on the web. Developer mode is not available in the mobile app.
Turn on Developer mode. On an individual plan it is under Settings > Apps & Connectors > Advanced settings. On a Business, Enterprise or Edu plan, a workspace admin has to turn it on first.
Create a custom connector (Create or Add custom connector). Name it Tread Connection, give it a short description, and enter https://treadconnection.ai/mcp.
Choose OAuth for authentication. ChatGPT does not accept API keys for custom connectors.
ChatGPT opens the Tread Connection sign-in page. Enter the email on your membership and the 6-digit code we email you, then approve.
In a new chat, pick the connector from the tools menu and ask something like "use my_account".

Which tools ChatGPT lets you use depends on your OpenAI plan, not on us. OpenAI lists full connector access, including tools that write, as a beta on Business, Enterprise and Edu plans. On Pro, developer mode is limited, so tools that write or take backups may be blocked. We could not test those plan limits. A free Tread Connection account cannot use the connector in any assistant.

Other MCP clients

Point any client that supports remote MCP over Streamable HTTP at https://treadconnection.ai/mcp. Clients that support OAuth discover everything from the metadata below and register themselves. Clients that don't can send a Tread Connection API key as Authorization: Bearer <key>. We have tested Codex running OpenAI models this way. Clients such as Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and Gemini CLI should work but we have not tested them.

Running scheduled agents in n8n? See Tread Connection in n8n Agents for a ready-made workflow.

Connect your JobTread account

This is done once per JobTread organization, by someone with admin rights in it.

Open JobTread > Settings > Integrations > API > Grants.
On your organization's section (not "All Organizations"), click + Grant.
Name it Tread Connection, save, and copy the key. JobTread only shows it once.
Sign in at treadconnection.ai/my/team/connect and paste the key. We check it with a read-only query, show you which organization it belongs to, and connect only after you confirm.

Nothing is written to your JobTread account during this step. After you confirm, we take a first read-only backup of your JobTread configuration. JobTread expires a grant key after 90 days without use, so paste a new one if your tools stop working.

The Tread Connection community (community.treadconnection.ai) and treadconnection.ai use separate sign-ins and send separate codes. Use the same email on both. A paid plan comes only from a Circle purchase or a comp from us.

Tools

Members on a paid plan see these 29+ tools. Employees you invite see the same tools except the seven skill tools. Customers and vendors you invite see the knowledge base tools, and job tools only if you turn them on. A paid account that runs a JobTread organization also gets the 22+ admin tools listed below. We add tools over time. One tool in this list can change something in JobTread: approve_skill_card, and only for a card you approve. Tools that take a job accept either the job number shown in my_jobs (for example 101) or the JobTread job ID.

Tool	What it does	Type
`my_jobs`	Lists your JobTread jobs, active by default, with customer and location.	read
`check_budget_formulas`	Read-only check of one job's budget. Lists lines whose quantity formula gives a different number than the saved quantity, with the budget total as the API reports it and as the screen shows it.	read
`job_overview`	One summary of a job: basics, financial summary, open customer invoices, change orders, task progress and recent daily logs.	read
`job_context`	A snapshot of one job as your JobTread role sees it.	read
`job_snapshot`	Saves a timestamped copy of a job budget in Tread Connection, before anything edits it. Reads JobTread only.	read
`job_diff`	Compares a saved budget copy to the current budget and says what lines were added, removed or changed and how the totals moved.	read
`my_tasks`	Your scheduled tasks and to-dos, with the job each belongs to.	read
`my_dailylogs`	Recent daily logs you can see.	read
`job_dailylogs`	Recent daily logs for one job.	read
`photos_to_posts`	Lists a job's photos and walks your assistant through turning them into social posts. See Photos to posts.	read
`view_job_photo`	Shows your assistant up to 4 photos from a job at a time, each with a public link to use when posting.	read
`load_agent`	Searches the JobTread knowledge base and returns matching passages, each labeled with its source (see where the knowledge comes from).	read
`jobtread_help`	Answers a JobTread how-to or setup question with short passages, JobTread's public Help Center first, each linked to its source (see where the knowledge comes from).	read
`browse_agents`	Lists the AI agents available to members, such as JobTread Expert.	read
`my_agents`	Shows the agents you have and the trade specializations you can choose.	read
`my_account`	Shows your plan and usage.	read
`set_brain`	Saves your trade specialization (commercial GC, cost-plus, custom home builder, pool builder, residential remodeler or trade sub) so answers fit how your company works. Side effect: changes which trade guidance your later answers use. Run it again to change it back.	writes to Tread Connection
`request_agent`	Sends our team a request for a custom agent. Side effect: saves the request with your account email for our team to read. We follow up in Circle DMs. Nothing is charged.	writes to Tread Connection
`list_skills`	Lists the skills in our catalog: what each one does, its settings, when it runs, and whether your plan includes it.	read
`preview_skill`	Runs a skill as a test over your recent JobTread data (14 days unless you ask for another window, up to 31) and lists what it would have done. Nothing is written to JobTread or sent.	read
`install_skill`	Turns a skill on for your organization, after you have seen its preview and said yes. Side effect: saves the skill, its settings and its schedule in Tread Connection.	writes to Tread Connection
`my_skills`	Shows your skills, their recent runs, anything that needs your attention, and cards waiting for your approval.	read
`approve_skill_card`	Approves one card. The skill then does exactly what the card shows, after checking the card has not changed and the JobTread record still matches. Each card runs at most once. Side effect: can write to JobTread or send a message, as the card says.	writes to JobTread
`reject_skill_card`	Turns down one card. Nothing is written or sent.	writes to Tread Connection
`pause_skill`	Pauses a skill, or turns a paused one back on.	writes to Tread Connection

Extra tools for organization admins

Paid accounts also get 22+ admin tools to audit your JobTread setup, back up and compare configuration, and see open customer invoices and vendor bills. They work once your JobTread organization is connected. Four of the admin tools can write to JobTread, and each is built to be safe to try:

apply_audit_fix and bulk_apply_audit_fix apply a short fixed list of configuration fixes (a missing sales tax rate, a time entry cost item, placeholder workflow names, missing job custom fields). Both preview the change by default and only write when the admin asks for it. A backup is taken first.
restore_backup recreates configuration items that are missing from the organization. It previews by default, never overwrites or deletes existing items, and only writes when the admin asks for it.
change_order_box adds a contract before and after box to a draft change order's footer, built from the job's approved customer orders. It previews by default, writes only to drafts and only when the admin asks for it, never sends the document, and can take the box back out.

Every tool carries MCP read-only and destructive hints, so your assistant can ask you before running one that writes.

Skills

A skill is a fixed recipe from our reviewed catalog. Tread Connection runs it on a schedule on our server, with your own JobTread user's access, so it sees only what you can see in JobTread. Anything that would write to JobTread or send a message becomes a card that waits for your approval, and each card runs at most once. A skill that fails three runs in a row pauses itself and shows up in my_skills. Skills need your JobTread user linked to Tread Connection on your Team page.

Errors

A tool that can't answer returns a plain-language message instead of failing silently. The ones you may see: no JobTread account connected yet, a job your JobTread role can't see (it names the job and suggests my_jobs), a missing required input (the message names the field), JobTread errors passed through with the organization they came from, and the rate-limit message, which says when the limit resets. Sign-in problems come back from /mcp as a 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header that points to the OAuth metadata.

Photos to posts (beta)

Turn a finished job's photos into a week or month of social posts. Your assistant looks at every photo, sorts before, progress and after, pairs before and after shots only when they show the same spot, writes a caption for each platform from what is actually in the photos, and shows you the plan before anything is scheduled.

What you need

Your AI assistant with Tread Connection connected (see above).
The job's photos uploaded to the job in JobTread (the job's Files). Phone photos in JPEG or PNG work. HEIC files are skipped.
A scheduler to post from. Zernio is the most direct: add its connector in your assistant (https://mcp.zernio.com/mcp) and it creates the posts as drafts for you to approve. It is free for your first two accounts, for example your Facebook page and Instagram. Check zernio.com for current limits. Metricool and GoHighLevel work through a CSV your assistant writes for you, and Buffer or Meta Business Suite by copy and paste.

How to run it

Ask your assistant: "Make social posts from job [name or number] with photos_to_posts."
Your assistant looks at each photo and notes what it shows. Tell it anything it can't see, like the town, the customer's OK to share, or what the job was.
Review the plan it shows you (which photos, which platform, the caption) and ask for changes.
Say go. Your assistant creates drafts in your scheduler, or hands you the CSV. Nothing publishes until you approve it there.

Photos come from the job the way your JobTread role sees it. The post links point to JobTread's own image server, so the scheduler can fetch them without you downloading anything.

Where the JobTread knowledge comes from

jobtread_help and load_agent answer from three kinds of material:

Articles from JobTread's public Help Center. Answers quote short passages and link to the original article.
Notes we wrote from JobTread's public training videos.
Guides Tread Connection wrote.

Every passage names its source. When a Help Center passage and one of our notes disagree, the tool tells your assistant to go with the Help Center. For questions clearly outside JobTread, such as tax, legal or insurance advice, the tool is built to decline instead of returning passages. For everything else, it returns the closest passages and tells your assistant to answer only from them and to say plainly when they don't cover the question. We check the Help Center for changes every 6 hours and the video library once a day.

Tread Connection is an independent product of Rising Creek Construction LLC. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by JobTread, and JobTread's names and content belong to JobTread. If JobTread asks us to change or remove any of its material, we will. Rights holders can reach us at jakemauldin@risingcreek.ai.

What each person can see

A JobTread grant key covers the whole organization, so Tread Connection limits results by each person's JobTread role when it runs a query:

Owners and admins see the full organization.
Designed so that project managers see the jobs they are assigned to, vendors see their own work, and customers see their own job and only daily logs marked visible to them.

No member can reach another organization's data.

Sign-in and security (for IT admins)

Protocol. MCP over Streamable HTTP at https://treadconnection.ai/mcp. Every tool requires a signed-in member.
Authorization. OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow with PKCE (S256) and dynamic client registration. Metadata: /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp.
Clients. Clients register at /register and must list their redirect URIs (https, or http on localhost). Codes are only sent to a registered redirect URI, are single-use, expire after 10 minutes, and are bound to the client they were issued to. Registered clients must use PKCE.
Tokens. Access tokens last up to 30 days and refresh tokens up to one year, and refresh tokens rotate on each use. A connection nobody uses expires on its own. Clients can revoke a token at /oauth/revoke (RFC 7009), which ends that connection immediately. We can also disable a member's key, which blocks every request made with it, promptly after a request.
Stored credentials. Tread Connection API keys, OAuth access and refresh tokens, and web sign-in sessions are stored only as SHA-256 hashes. Your JobTread grant key is the exception. We need it to run your tools, so it is stored in our database and in nightly database backups kept for 30 days. Choosing Stop managing this org at treadconnection.ai/my/team removes it from our database, and deleting the grant in JobTread makes every copy useless. Our web server logs redact keys and tokens from every request. A key is shown once, when it's created, and can't be looked up later: a lost key is replaced, not recovered. Send a key in the Authorization: Bearer header, not in a URL.
Sign-in methods. A one-time code sent to the member's email, or a personal API key. Automated testers should use Use an API key instead on the sign-in page, which needs no email.
JobTread access. Uses the grant key your organization created. We use it to run the tools your members call, and to look up your JobTread team when you use the team pages.
Transport. HTTPS only, with HSTS.
Data. What we store and for how long is in the privacy policy. Terms are here.

Limits

Every authenticated request to /mcp gets X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset headers back, including the 429 you get when you're over the limit. A request without a valid key or token gets a 401 with no rate-limit headers, because there's no account to count it against. The my_account tool shows the same limits. Help, agent and account tools don't count toward the hourly limit.
Requests per hour depend on your plan: 60 for teammates invited by a contractor and 100 on Member. Free doesn't include MCP/AI tool access, so it has no rate limit here. See pricing. When you hit the limit, the server says how long until it resets.
One account works on all your devices — there's no device limit. We count apps and networks only to spot a key shared across a company, and we'll reach out if we see that. Team members should get their own invite instead of sharing a key.

Billing and cancelling

You cancel yourself, any time, with no email. Cancel from your billing page in the Tread Connection community. You keep access until the end of the period you already paid for. After that your account moves to the free plan, and your data stays.

Paid plans are refundable in full within 7 days of your first payment. This covers the first payment only. To ask for the refund, email jakemauldin@risingcreek.ai within those 7 days.

For reviewers and automated testers

Directory and store reviewers get an API key tied to Summit Ridge Builders (Demo), a fictional company with sample jobs, tasks and daily logs. It sees the 29 member tools. The demo company has no skills installed, so none of them changes anything there, and it can't reach any real company's data. The key is a test credential, not a production one, and it has member permissions only.

Add https://treadconnection.ai/mcp as a connector.
On the Tread Connection sign-in page, click Use an API key instead (it is collapsed under the email field), paste the key and approve. Clients without OAuth can send the key as Authorization: Bearer <key> instead.
Run my_account. It should show the reviewer account on the Member plan.

Prompts that exercise the tools against the demo company:

"What jobs are active?" (my_jobs, five active jobs including 101)
"Give me the overview for job 101." (job_overview, Prairie Ridge Corporate Center)
"Show the daily logs for job 101." (job_dailylogs) and "Show recent daily logs." (my_dailylogs)
"What tasks are on the schedule, and which are overdue?" (my_tasks)
"Turn the photos on job 103 into posts." (photos_to_posts, view_job_photo)
"How do I write a formula in a JobTread budget line?" (jobtread_help, load_agent)
"What agents can I use, and which trade specializations are there?" (browse_agents, my_agents), then "Set my trade to pool builder." (set_brain)

Job 103, The Hollis Residence, has eight photos, so the photo tools work end to end: photos_to_posts lists them and view_job_photo shows each one. The other demo jobs have no photos and photos_to_posts says so. The images are public-domain U.S. National Park Service photos of a stone house restoration, standing in for a job's photos (credits in the repository under mcp-server/demo/photos/CREDITS.md). They are served from this server, so the post links work in any scheduler. No region or account limits apply. There is no checkout or payment inside the connector.

It allows 1,000 requests an hour and no device limit. You can check both yourself: every authenticated /mcp response carries the rate-limit headers, and the my_account tool reports both.
It stays active through the review. If it ever stops working, email jakemauldin@risingcreek.ai and we'll respond within one business day.

Troubleshooting

"No JobTread account connected." Your organization hasn't connected JobTread yet. See Connect your JobTread account.
The sign-in code didn't arrive. Check spam and use the exact email on your paid membership. Codes expire after 10 minutes, so request a new one if it's late.
"Rate limit" message. Wait for the time it shows, then try again.
"API key suspended." That only happens if we disable a key by hand. Email us and we'll sort it out.
A job doesn't show up. Your JobTread role may not include it. Ask your JobTread admin.

Support

Email jakemauldin@risingcreek.ai, or post in the Tread Connection community. Tread Connection is a product of Rising Creek Construction LLC and is not affiliated with JobTread.