Overview

The NimbleWork MCP Connector lets you use AI assistants to interact with your Nimble workspaces using natural language — creating workitems, updating cards, managing todos, logging time, and more — without leaving your AI tool.

Using the NimbleWork MCP connector in an AI assistant

This article explains how to connect the NimbleWork connector on any supported AI platform and how to use it to perform common actions. The steps below use Claude (Anthropic) as the example platform, but the same connection flow applies to other supported platforms including Grok, Gemini, OpenAI, and Microsoft Copilot.

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Prerequisites

Connect the NimbleWork Connector

What You Can Do

Your Access and Permissions

Available Tools

Example Actions

Important Points

Prerequisites

  • An active Nimble account with access to the workspace(s) you want to work with.
  • Access to a supported AI platform — Claude, Grok, Gemini, OpenAI, or Microsoft Copilot.

Connect the NimbleWork Connector

The connection process is the same across all supported AI platforms. The steps below show the flow using Claude as an example.

  1. Open your AI platform and go to Settings.
  2. Select Connectors (or Integrations / Extensions, depending on the platform).
  3. Search for NimbleWork and select it from the results.
  4. Click Add (or Install / Enable).
  5. Click Connect. Your browser opens the Nimble login page.
  6. Sign in with your Nimble account credentials.
  7. An authorization screen appears listing the access the connector is requesting. Review it and click Authorize (or Allow).
  8. You are returned to your AI tool. The NimbleWork connector now shows as Connected.

Note: Your Nimble credentials are never stored by the AI platform. The connector uses a secure OAuth authorization flow — your password is shared only with Nimble, and the AI tool receives a time-limited access token.

Note: Some platforms require you to add NimbleWork manually. For step-by-step instructions, see the guide for your platform:

What You Can Do

The NimbleWork connector works with your Nimble Workitems (cards) and the items on them — it does not cover everything you can do in Nimble. Once connected, you can use natural language to:

  • Find and read — list your projects and workspaces and their card types; read Workitems and their ToDos, comments, attachments, and linked Workitems.
  • Create and update Workitems — create a Workitem, update its details, and close, reopen, or delete it.
  • Manage ToDos and time — add ToDos to a Workitem, assign and update them, close, reopen, or delete them, and log time.
  • Act on Workitems — flag, block, or vote on a Workitem (and undo each); link or unlink Workitems (for example, as parent and child); add a comment; or attach a file.
  • Switch context — select the project or workspace to work in.

Tip: If your prompt does not specify a workspace and you have access to more than one, the AI assistant will ask you to choose before taking any action — so your changes always land in the right place.

Your Access and Permissions

The NimbleWork connector works with exactly the access you already have inside Nimble — no more, no less. Signing in through your AI assistant never gives you extra rights. If you can do something in Nimble, you can do it through the connector; if you can’t, the connector can’t either.

This is because Nimble decides what you can see and do based on your persona (your assigned role) and the projects you’ve been added to. The connector simply carries those same rules across to your AI assistant. (You may hear this called role-based access control.)

What this means for you

  • You’ll only see the projects and workspaces you’ve been invited to — not every project in the account.
  • You can only work with the workitem types your persona is allowed to use.
  • For each workitem type, you can do only the actions your persona permits — for example view only, view and edit, or full access.
  • If you try something you’re not allowed to do, the assistant tells you it couldn’t be done because you don’t have permission — and nothing changes in Nimble.

Example — what to expect

Say your persona is a Reviewer who can view everything in a project, create and edit User Stories, but not delete them — and can only view Releases.

  • “Show me the user stories in Project Apollo.” → The assistant lists them. ✅
  • “Create a user story called ‘Login screen redesign’.” → It’s created. ✅
  • “Delete user story US-42.” → The assistant replies that you don’t have permission for this action; the story stays untouched. ❌
  • “Change the dates on Release 3.” → You can view the release but not edit it, so the assistant reports it can’t make that change. ❌

In short, the connector is a safe way to work: it can never let anyone do something their Nimble role doesn’t already allow.

Available Tools

The connector exposes the same set of tools on every supported AI platform — 31 in total, grouped into read-only tools and write/delete tools. Read-only tools only retrieve information; write/delete tools make changes. Most AI assistants ask for your approval before a tool runs, and typically let you allow an action once or always allow it.

Read-only tools (9) — these only retrieve information; they never change anything.

Tool What it does
List Workspaces Shows the projects and workspaces your account can access.
List Forms Lists the workitem types (forms) available in a workspace.
List User Forms Lists the workitem types you personally have access to.
Get Form Shows the fields and structure of a specific workitem type.
List Cards Lists workitems in a workspace, with optional filters (by type, status, and more).
Get Linked Cards Shows the workitems linked to a given workitem — its parents, children, and related items.
List Todos Lists the ToDos on a workitem.
Get Comments Retrieves all comments added to a workitem.
Get Attachments Retrieves the details of the attachments on a workitem (such as name and file size), not the attachment files themselves.

Write / delete tools (22) — these make changes, and always respect your Nimble permissions.

Tool What it does
Create Card Creates a new workitem.
Update Card Edits fields on an existing workitem (name, description, dates, assignee, and more).
Close Card Marks a workitem as complete/closed.
Reopen Card Reopens a closed workitem.
Delete Card Deletes a workitem.
Flag Card Flags a workitem to draw attention to it.
Unflag Card Removes a flag from a workitem.
Block Card Marks a workitem as blocked, with a reason.
Unblock Card Removes the blocked status from a workitem.
Vote on Card Adds your vote to a workitem.
Remove Vote from Card Removes your vote from a workitem.
Link Card Links one workitem to another (for example, parent, child, or related).
Unlink Card Removes a link between two workitems.
Add Todo Adds a ToDo (checklist item) to a workitem.
Update Todo Edits a ToDo — for example its text, assignee, or estimate.
Close Todo Marks a ToDo as done.
Reopen Todo Reopens a completed ToDo.
Delete Todo Removes a ToDo from a workitem.
Log Time Records time spent against a workitem or its ToDo.
Add Comment Posts a comment on a workitem. Note: @mentions and emoji are added as plain text through the connector — they do not trigger notifications or render the way they do in the product UI.
Add Attachment Attaches a file to a workitem. Note: Only small, text-based files (up to a few KB, such as TXT or CSV) can be attached through the connector. For larger files, such as multi-MB PDFs or images, add the attachment from the product UI in the Comments & Attachments tab.
Select Workspace Sets the active project/workspace so your next requests act in the right place.

Example Actions

The examples below show natural language prompts you can type and what the connector does in response.

1. List your workspaces

Prompt: “List all the workspaces I have access to.”

What happens: The connector returns the names and IDs of all workspaces accessible to your account. Use this to confirm which workspace you want to work in before creating or updating workitems.

2. Create a workitem

Prompt: “Create a user story in the Feature Development project named ‘Design for Mobile login page’.”

What happens: The connector creates a new card in the specified workspace and form, and returns its ID (e.g., FF21) and a confirmation. You can include additional fields such as priority, description, estimate, or due date in your prompt.

3. Update a workitem

Prompt: “Update FF21 — set the description to describe the mobile login mockups and set the estimate to 6 hours.”

What happens: The connector updates only the fields you specify (description and EstimateHours) on FF21. All other fields remain unchanged.

4. Add a todo and log time

Prompt: “Add a todo to FF21 called ‘Create wireframes’ with an estimate of 3 hours, then log 2 hours of work against it.”

What happens: The connector creates the todo on FF21 and logs 2 hours of actual effort against it in a single conversation — no switching between tools required.

Important Points

  • Always mention the workspace/project name in your prompt when working across multiple workspaces to avoid ambiguity.
  • Comments, attachments, and other changes you make through the connector are recorded under your own Nimble user account.
  • If the connector loses its connection (token expired or revoked), you can reconnect by going to Settings > Connectors in your AI platform and clicking Reconnect.
  • To disconnect, go to Settings > Connectors in your AI platform and remove the NimbleWork connector. You can also revoke access from your Nimble account settings.
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