Connecting ChatGPT

Connect tela to ChatGPT as a custom MCP connector, so ChatGPT can search, read, and (with permission) write your wiki. This is the screenshot walkthrough; for the connection overview and other clients (Claude Code, Cursor, the stdio proxy) see [[Agents & MCP]].

[!IMPORTANT] ChatGPT reaches your server from OpenAI's cloud, so this needs a paid ChatGPT plan and a publicly reachable tela (a localhost instance won't work). Auth is OAuth — you sign in through tela, there's no token to paste. No OAuth, or self-hosted without it? Use [[Agents & MCP|Claude Code or the stdio proxy with a PAT]] instead.

1. Enable Developer Mode

Custom MCP connectors with full tool-calling live behind ChatGPT's Developer Mode. Turn it on once: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode.

ChatGPT Settings → Apps → Advanced settings — the Developer mode toggle

[!NOTE] ChatGPT flags this "elevated risk" — it's what lets you add unverified third-party connectors. That's expected for a self-hosted server like tela.

2. Add the tela connector

In Settings → Apps, click Create app (next to Advanced settings) and fill the form:

ChatGPT "New App" form — Name, Server URL, Authentication

Field	Value
Name	`tela`
Connection → Server URL	`https://telawiki.com/api/mcp` (your origin + `/api/mcp`)
Authentication	OAuth
Icon	leave blank — tela supplies its own logo

Tick "I understand and want to continue", then Create. ChatGPT sends you to tela to sign in and authorize; you land back connected. tela now appears under Enabled apps:

tela listed under ChatGPT's Enabled apps

[!TIP] On the connector's page you can set Ask permission (e.g. Never, so it acts without confirming each call) and, via the ⋯ menu, Reconnect or Rename.

3. Engage tela in a chat — the part that trips people up

[!WARNING] An enabled connector is not automatically active in every chat. New chats include it; older chats do not. If tela isn't engaged in the chat, ChatGPT can't call it — and instead of saying so, it may claim it did the work ("I created the page") when nothing actually happened. Always confirm the result exists.

To engage it in any chat, open the composer "+" (Add files and more) menu and pick tela (a checkmark appears):

ChatGPT composer "+" menu — select tela to engage it for this chat

Then just ask in plain language — "create a page titled … in my Personal space" — and ChatGPT calls tela's tools.

4. Verify it's really working

Ask ChatGPT to list your spaces or create a test page, then open tela and confirm the page exists. If it isn't there, tela wasn't engaged (step 3) — start a fresh chat or re-engage via "+".

Troubleshooting

"It says it did something but nothing changed" → tela wasn't engaged in that chat. Engage via "+" → tela, or start a new chat, and verify the page exists in tela.
Tools don't appear / 401 → re-authorize from the connector's ⋯ → Reconnect.
Plain letter icon instead of the tela logo → cosmetic only. tela already advertises its logo over MCP, but ChatGPT shows an auto letter-avatar and an icon can only be set when the app is first created (the ⋯ menu has no icon edit). Safe to ignore.
Can't connect at all → OAuth needs a public tela with OAuth configured; otherwise use a PAT via [[Agents & MCP|Claude Code or the stdio proxy]].

See [[Agents & MCP]] for the full tool list and what agents can do, and [[API & personal access tokens]] for token-based auth.