There are two ways to connect an AI assistant to Impreza. The original one installs a local server and reads an API key and secret. The newer one is a remote connector with OAuth, and it is both simpler and safer: nothing to install, and no long-lived secret sitting on your disk.
Why OAuth is the better default
- Nothing to install. One URL added as a connector, and the client registers itself
- No API key or secret to copy, store or rotate, and no IP whitelist to maintain
- Scoped. You approve read, deploy or manage; destructive and financial actions are opt-in
- Revocable. Cut a connection off at any time from your clientarea
Connect in four steps
Add the connector
In an AI client that supports remote MCP connectors, add this as a custom connector:
https://mcp.imprezahost.com/mcp
Authorize
Click Authorize. You sign in to your Impreza clientarea and land on a consent screen. The sign-in happens on Impreza. The AI client receives an authorized access token for the granted scopes; you do not need to paste your Impreza password into the client.
Grant only the scopes you need
Review the permission checkboxes before approving. Read and Deploy are selected by default; Manage is not. For read-only access, uncheck Deploy even if the authorization link requests scope=read. The selected permissions determine the grant. Check the app name and redirect target as well.
Work from the chat
Your assistant can now reach the toolset your scopes allow: deploy apps and manage their lifecycle, handle domains and DNS, control VPS power, backups and reinstalls, and top up your balance in crypto.
A manage grant can power off a server, reinstall it or spend your balance. If the assistant only needs to look around, grant read. Treat destructive and financial scopes as something you turn on for a specific task, not as a default.
Every connected client is listed in your clientarea under Impreza API, in Connected Apps. Revoke anything you no longer use, and revoke immediately if a machine running an AI client is lost or compromised. Revocation removes the grant; it does not undo completed changes or guarantee cancellation of a job already dispatched.
The remote connector cannot upload a project folder from your machine. If you want to deploy the code sitting in your working directory, install the local impreza-mcp server for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Continue or Zed. Both methods work side by side. If you go that route, pair with a code instead of pasting a secret: the key is stored with restrictive permissions and never printed.
Connect through Tor with a compatible client
A compatible client can use Impreza’s hosted onion MCP endpoint:
http://mcp.imprezareshna326gqgmbdzwmnad2wnjmeowh45bs2buxarh5qummjad.onion/mcp
Enter that exact endpoint in a Tor-capable remote MCP client. For the API base URL, portal and documentation addresses, see Use Impreza MCP over Tor. Discover OAuth metadata through the same onion endpoint you intend to use. The authorization server and consent redirect must identify that onion issuer. The logical OAuth resource remains https://mcp.imprezahost.com/mcp; it is not replaced with the onion URL.
Opening the consent page in Tor Browser alone does not route the client’s token exchange or MCP requests through Tor. Your client must explicitly support the onion endpoint and a Tor proxy. Keep issuer, resource, state and PKCE validation enabled. A mismatch is a connection error, not a reason to disable validation.
For local MCP connected to an onion API URL, configure IMPREZA_PROXY with an explicit socks5://host:port proxy. If that proxy is unavailable, the connection fails instead of falling back to direct DNS or clearnet. Consult the Tor connection documentation for current endpoints and requirements.
Some desktop clients receive the browser response at a loopback URL on your own computer. Use the exact callback supplied by the running client. A callback-received message is not proof that token exchange and MCP connection succeeded. Follow the Tor Browser consent troubleshooting steps if the return is blocked; never share callback URLs containing authorization codes.
Tor changes the network path. It does not prevent your AI provider from seeing prompts, tool arguments or returned results.
Keep important actions behind your approval
OAuth consent connects the client with granted permissions. It does not mean you have personally approved every future action. The account owner can add a per-credential policy so selected purchases, deletions and security changes wait for a human decision in API Management → Approvals. This is off until configured; the assistant cannot approve its own request. See how to require human approval for the decision and resubmission flow.
Delegate a specific task and review access
An OAuth connection and a delegated credential serve different purposes. Use the delegated app access guide to limit a helper task by permissions, lifetime, resources and purchase allowance. Revocation does not undo completed changes or guarantee cancellation of a job already dispatched.
To understand described data categories and retention indicators for the account, read the account privacy report guide. The report has a defined coverage boundary and is not a complete data export.
Start now
Read the setup in our documentation, then put it to work: deploy a server from your AI agent or manage DNS from the chat.