Chat apps

ChatGPT

Telem adds web search, page reading and monitors to ChatGPT. You add Telem once as a custom MCP server, and sign in with your Telem account. There is no API key to copy.

Before you begin

A Telem account. It is the account that you use in the Telem console. If you have none, sign in to the console once with Google or GitHub.
ChatGPT on the web, on a plan and in a workspace that let you add a custom MCP server. The mobile apps cannot add one. In a Business or Enterprise workspace, an admin may need to add it for you. See OpenAI’s Add custom MCP server.

Install

Connect ChatGPT to Telem

Open Plugins in ChatGPT, select +, then Add custom MCP server.
Name it Telem. Under Connection, enter this URL, and choose OAuth for the authentication.
```
https://mcp.telem.ai/mcp
```
Tick I understand and want to continue, then select Create as a plugin.
Install the plugin, and sign in with your Telem account when ChatGPT asks.
Select Allow on the Telem page. If you have more than one project, pick the project first. Telem creates a key for ChatGPT in that project.

To use Telem in a chat, type @Telem in your message, or select + and pick Telem.

Monitors work through the plugin too, with no API key. Ask ChatGPT, with @Telem, to watch the web for something, for example: “Create a Telem monitor for new funding announcements by AI search startups, and check it every day.” ChatGPT uses the key that your sign-in created. See Monitors.

Switch the default search and fetch to Telem

ChatGPT also searches the web on its own. To make Telem the default for web searches and page reading, add this line to your custom instructions:

For web searches and reading web pages, use the Telem app (telem_search and telem_fetch) instead of ChatGPT's built-in web search.

Open Settings, then Personalization, in ChatGPT on the web or in the desktop app.
Check that Enable customization is on, and paste the line in Custom Instructions.

Custom instructions apply to all your chats. For the chats of one project only, select the project’s ••• menu, then Project settings, and put the line in its instructions. A project’s instructions override your custom instructions.

In an Enterprise or Edu workspace, an owner or admin chooses in Admin settings whether the workspace has ChatGPT’s own Web search. Without it, ChatGPT searches the web only through apps such as Telem.

In one message, type @Telem, or name Telem, for example: “Use Telem to find …”.

Tools

Search and read

4 tools

telem_search Searches the web on several providers in one call.
telem_fetch Reads the full text of up to 5 pages.
telem_providers Lists the search providers.
telem_session_history Lists the earlier searches in a session.

Monitors

8 tools

monitor_create Creates a monitor. Its agent keeps the results that match.
monitor_list Lists your monitors that have an agent.
monitor_get Gets a monitor and its agent.
monitor_agent Gets the agent: its status, its plan and what it found.
monitor_changes Reads what the agent found, change by change.
monitor_pause Pauses a monitor.
monitor_resume Resumes a paused monitor.
monitor_delete Ends a monitor.

ChatGPT treats a tool that is not marked read-only as a write action, and asks you to confirm it. Telem marks its search and read tools, monitor_list, monitor_get, monitor_agent and monitor_changes read-only. So ChatGPT can ask before monitor_create, monitor_pause, monitor_resume and monitor_delete.

Specific to ChatGPT

The key that Telem creates. When you select Allow, Telem creates an API key named MCP: chatgpt.com and the app’s name, in the project that you picked. The key has Telem Search and Telem Data, and it expires after 90 days. ChatGPT never sees the key. You find it in the console, under API keys.
After 90 days, the key expires and Telem stops working in ChatGPT. Connect again.
Each connection creates a new key. If you remove the plugin and add it again, Telem creates a second key. The first key stays until it expires, so revoke it in the console.
Telem’s defaults. ChatGPT cannot send your .telem/telem.json options or Telem’s settings headers. So searches run with Telem’s defaults, with auto-routing on.
The ChatGPT desktop app keeps its own list of MCP servers, which it shares with Codex in ~/.codex/config.toml. If you set up Telem for Codex, the desktop app has Telem too.

If something goes wrong

“Your Telem account has no project yet”: sign in to the Telem console once, then connect again.
“You can’t create API keys in this project”: your role in that project cannot create keys. Pick another project, or ask the Organization administrator. See Who can create keys.
“This sign-in link is not valid or has expired” or “This sign-in page is not valid or has expired”: the sign-in took too long, or you started a second connection in the same browser. Start again from ChatGPT.
Telem worked, then stopped: its key was revoked or has expired. Connect again.

Update and remove

Telem updates the server, so there is nothing to update. To remove Telem:

Remove the plugin from your plugins in ChatGPT.
Revoke the key in the Telem console: open the project, then API keys, and revoke the key whose name starts with MCP: chatgpt.com.

Revoking the key alone also disconnects ChatGPT. Its calls stop within about 5 minutes.

Learn more

MCP server

The hosted server behind the plugin, and how other clients connect.

Monitors

Watch the web for new results on a query.

Auto-routing

How Telem chooses the providers for each search.

API keys

Find, revoke and create the keys of your project.

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