Staircase AI MCP Server
This article is intended for admins, Customer Success Managers (CSMs), and operations teams who use an AI assistant or an automation tool with Staircase AI.
Overview
As a CSM or a leader, you can ask your AI assistant questions in your own words and get answers from your Staircase AI account data, AI insights, and customer conversations, with the sources behind each answer. As an admin or operations user, you can add the same server to automation tools to bring customer intelligence into your own workflows.
The Staircase AI Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server works with any AI assistant that supports MCP, such as Claude or ChatGPT. The examples in this article use Claude with the Staircase AI connector turned on.
Limitations
- The tools read your data and do not change records in Staircase AI.
- Reports apply the same access checks as reports in Staircase AI.
- Some report types depend on what is enabled for your organization, such as expansion opportunities, the full lifecycle event report, and the product filter. Your assistant sees only the report types your organization has.
- Search results and communication lists return summaries. To get the exact words, ask your assistant to open the communication.
- Reports with long text fields return fewer rows per page.
- If a request exceeds the rate limit, the message says when you can try again.
- Some assistants ask you to approve each tool call before it runs.
Prerequisites
- An admin selects Enable MCP Server Access under Settings > Configurations > Privacy & Security and clicks Submit.
- You connect your assistant or tool to the server. For individual assistants, refer to the Connect Staircase AI to LLMs Using MCP article. For automations in tools such as n8n, Zapier, and Workato, refer to the Create Automations Using the Staircase AI MCP Server article.
Ask Your Assistant a Question
To ask your assistant a question about your accounts:
- Open your assistant and turn on the Staircase AI connector for the conversation.
- Type your question and start it with Using Staircase, or name an account. Your assistant then uses the Staircase AI tools instead of general knowledge.
- (Optional) To check the source of an answer, ask your assistant to show the email or include the transcript.
You do not call the tools yourself. Your assistant chooses them based on your question.
Use Cases
Replace the text in brackets with your own names.
Prepare for a Customer Call
Using Staircase, prep me for my call with [account name] tomorrow. Where did we leave off, what do we owe them, and what risks should I be ready for?
Your assistant finds the account, reads its stored fields, and analyzes recent communications. To see the exact words, ask it to open the key emails.
Review Renewals
List my active accounts renewing in the next 90 days with tier, revenue, health, and risk level, sorted by renewal date. Flag any with a churn risk insight.
Your assistant finds your accounts and runs an exact report. If you ask the same question next week, you get the same columns with updated data.
Find Churn Risk Early
Which accounts had a churn notification in the last 60 days? For each, show the communications behind it and summarize the reason.
Your assistant reports on lifecycle events, lists the communications behind each one, and opens the strongest ones as evidence.
Identify Expansion Opportunities
Which of my accounts are most ready to expand, and for which product? Show the top 10 by revenue with the opportunity details.
Your assistant reports on expansion readiness and expansion opportunities and cites the conversations that show interest.
Review Customer Feedback
Search Staircase for what customers said about onboarding in the last quarter. Group the feedback into themes and quote the three strongest examples, with dates.
Your assistant searches communications by meaning, groups the results, and opens the full text for the quotes.
Find What a Person Said
What did [person name] say about the renewal in calls and emails since September?
Your assistant finds the person and searches only the communications that person took part in.
Review Your Team’s Accounts
For each owner on my team, show active account count, total revenue, accounts at risk level 4 or 5, and renewals in the next 90 days.
Your assistant finds your team and runs one report grouped by owner.
Use Staircase AI Data in an Automation
In an automation tool with Staircase AI MCP credentials: Every morning, list accounts with a new churn notification in the last 24 hours, with owner and revenue, and post them to the account team’s channel.
Your automation calls the same tools that your assistant does.
Tools
You do not need these names to use the server with an assistant. You need them when you build an automation or read your assistant’s tool log.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| staircase_query | Answers an open-ended question across your Staircase AI knowledge, with supporting evidence. |
| staircase_account_lookup | Finds an account by name, with owner, revenue, renewal date, and status to tell similar names apart. |
| staircase_account_info | Returns one account’s stored fields, such as health, sentiment, renewal date, churn and expansion assessments, owner, and tier. |
| staircase_analyze_account | Reads one account’s emails, meetings, and tickets to answer a question about it. |
| staircase_semantic_search | Searches communication summaries by meaning and narrows results by account, date range, topic, communication type, or participant. |
| staircase_list_communications | Lists the communications behind lifecycle events, or all communications for up to 20 accounts in a date range. |
| staircase_fetch_evidence | Opens up to 20 communications in full, with meeting transcripts on request. |
| staircase_report_metadata | Returns your organization’s report schema, including entities, fields, and filter options. |
| staircase_run_report | Runs an exact report and returns rows as a table, in pages for large results. |
| staircase_get_recipe | Loads step-by-step guidance for common questions, such as my accounts, churn risk, expansion readiness, and what a specific person said. |
Report Types
| Report Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Accounts | Includes tier, owner, revenue, renewal date, health, sentiment, risk level (1 to 5), expansion readiness and momentum, insights, and CRM fields. |
| Lifecycle events | Includes churn notifications, highly positive messages, commercial discussions, and personnel changes, with their signals and quotes. |
| Expansion opportunities | Includes the category, confidence, momentum, and details of each detected opportunity. |
| People | Includes stakeholders and their roles, your users, and reporting lines. |
| Topics, meetings, and feedback | Includes what customers talk about, meetings, and feedback items. |
| Tiers and journeys | Includes roll-ups such as accounts and total revenue for each tier. |
Tips for Better Answers
- Name the scope: My active accounts, Enterprise tier, or renewing in the next 90 days gives a sharper answer than my customers.
- Ask for an exact list when you need one: List, count, or table of returns a report with the same rows every time. Open questions read conversations, and the wording can differ from run to run.
- Ask for counts across large groups: How many accounts and how much revenue for each tier returns totals without listing every account.
- Ask for evidence: Show the email, quote it with the date, or include the transcript makes your assistant open the source.
- Give dates for fiscal periods: This quarter means the calendar quarter.
- Save what works: Turn a good prompt into a project or skill in your assistant so your team runs it the same way.
FAQ
Why did my assistant answer from general knowledge instead of Staircase AI?
Start your question with Using Staircase, or name an account, and confirm that the connector is turned on for the conversation.
Why do two runs of the same open question differ?
Search and analysis read conversations, and your assistant writes each answer from scratch. For a fixed list, ask for a report.
Which tool names changed?
Staircase AI removed the ask and fetch tools. Use staircase_query and staircase_fetch_evidence instead. Your assistant builds reports with staircase_report_metadata and staircase_run_report, and Staircase AI no longer lists staircase_generate_report for new connections.
Additional Resources
- Connect Staircase AI to LLMs Using MCP
- Create Automations Using the Staircase AI MCP Server