MCP in Perfox
When a customer asks "what's my current balance?", your agent has to get the answer from somewhere real. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is how: your agent calls a tool on your server, gets the result, and uses it in its reply. Perfox shows MCP servers as Integrations.
This page is for builders who want to connect their own systems to a Perfox agent. You'll see how a call works, where integrations attach on the canvas, and what Perfox does on every call.
Two directions
This page covers the outbound direction — your agent calling tools on your server. There is also an inbound direction: any MCP-capable assistant can connect to Perfox's own Platform API over MCP to create and publish agents, upload Knowledge Base files, and manage customers and conversations. Explore those tools in the MCP Explorer.
How your agent calls your server
Perfox connects to your MCP server as a standard MCP client over HTTPS, at the single address you register. You build the server to the open MCP standard; Perfox does the rest:
| Step | When | What Perfox gets |
|---|---|---|
| Connect | When you add the server, and whenever it is re-checked | A handshake confirming your server speaks MCP. |
| Discover tools | When you add the server, and when you click Rediscover | Each tool's name, description and expected inputs. |
| Call a tool | Whenever the agent decides to use one of your tools in a conversation | The tool's result, which the agent uses in its reply. |
You never register tools by hand — Perfox reads them from your server. A clear tool description (what it does and when to use it) is what makes the agent pick the right tool.
Worked example — Asha connects Acme Diagnostics' booking system
Setup. Asha is building a patient-support agent. Acme's booking system exposes a get_report_summary tool on an MCP server at https://api.acme-diagnostics.com/mcp.
Action. In Connect → Integrations she opens Browse → Add custom server, enters the address and its API key, and clicks Add Integration. On her agent's canvas she adds an Integration sub-node to the AI Agent and picks the new server.
Result. When Priya, a patient, asks "can I get a summary of my latest blood work?", the agent calls get_report_summary and replies with a plain-language summary.
What just happened. Perfox discovered the tool when Asha added the server, attached her API key to the call, told the server which conversation and customer the call was for, and recorded the call and its result in the conversation. Acme's server needed nothing Perfox-specific.
Writing a server of your own: Building Your Own MCP Server.
What Perfox does on every call
- Only the tools you chose. The agent can call only the tools of the integrations attached to it — and, if you picked specific tools on the Integration sub-node, only those.
- Your credentials, attached at call time. The secret you entered is stored encrypted and added to each call, never shown to the agent or the customer. Change it with Edit connection and every agent uses the new one immediately — no agent edits.
- Who the call is for. Each call carries the conversation, the channel, and whatever identity the conversation holds (name, phone, email, your own customer ID), so your server can recognise the customer without asking again. See Building Your Own MCP Server.
- Timeouts and retries. Each call waits up to the connection's Timeout (30 seconds by default). Temporary failures are retried; a rejected credential is reported as an authentication error so you know to fix it.
- Oversized results handled. If a tool returns more than the AI model can read at once, the connection's Oversized results setting decides what happens — see Registering.
- Every call recorded. Each tool call and its result appear in the conversation history and in the agent's runs, so you can see exactly what was asked and what came back.
Where integrations attach on the canvas
Connect an MCP server to an AI Agent with the Integration sub-node: add it to the AI Agent's Integration port and pick one of your connected servers. Add several Integration sub-nodes to combine servers — a CRM, a billing system and your own domain server, all on one agent.
Each Integration sub-node points at one server and, optionally, a list of the tools to allow. Agents always read the tool list Perfox discovered, so when you add a tool to your server, click Rediscover on its card to make it available.
What's built in
Many everyday actions don't need an MCP server at all: answering from your documents (the Knowledge port), and sending email, SMS or WhatsApp, updating a sheet or handing off to a person (Action nodes). See What's built in.
Next steps
- Registering an MCP server — connect a catalog provider or your own server.
- Building Your Own MCP Server — the contract your server implements.
- Integration sub-node — choose which server and tools an agent gets.
- What's built in — actions that need no server.