AI agents and Board Game Lab

Board Game Lab has a remote MCP server. Any AI agent that can use MCP connectors (Claude, ChatGPT, a coding agent, your own) can, once you allow it, design and playtest games in your browser as you.

• What your agent can do
• Set it up (once)
• Let it act as you
• Your agent's tab
• Stay in control

What your agent can do

Signed in and paired with your Board Game Lab tab, it works on your games the way you do — you talk, it drives the app, and you watch it happen in your own browser:

Design and build

It can open or create projects, compose decks, lay out card templates, fill cards with values and text, and wire up the game's logic — from your notes, a rulebook you paste, or a conversation.

“Open my Hearts project and add a standard 52-card deck.”

“Here is my rulebook — build a playable prototype of it.”

Playtest with you

It can start a playtest at the table, deal, move cards and pieces, and play seats — a full round on its own to shake out the rules, or the other seats against you.

“Deal a hand and play the other seats against me.”

“Play through one full round and tell me where the rules feel off.”

Watch and review

During a playtest it can read the table — whose turn it is, every hand and pile, the game log — check it against the rules, and report what it finds.

“Start a playtest and check the opening deal against the rulebook.”

Everything it does happens in your tab, in front of you, it never has your password, and you can end its reach at any moment — see Stay in control.

Set it up (once)

Add this remote MCP server to your agent, the same way you add any public MCP server:

No key or header is needed. Adding the server signs your agent in to your Board Game Lab account with OAuth: if your agent asks how to authenticate, choose OAuth (see below). Step-by-step for the most common agents:

Each agent also has a page of its own: Claude, ChatGPT, and any other MCP client (OAuth too).

Claude Desktop app (and claude.ai)

Board Game Lab is in Claude's connector directory: no address to paste.

1. Open Board Game Lab in Claude's connector directory (in the Claude app: Customize → Connectors, search for Board Game Lab).
2. Press Connect to Claude, sign in to Board Game Lab on the page that opens, and press Approve.
3. In a new chat, Board Game Lab is switched on under the + button next to the message box, in Connectors.

Step by step, with screenshots: Board Game Lab in Claude. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an organization owner may have to allow Board Game Lab first, in Organization settings → Connectors.

ChatGPT desktop app (and chatgpt.com)

ChatGPT has its own address and step-by-step guide: Board Game Lab in ChatGPT.

Codex, Cursor, Grok and other MCP clients

Other agents (Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Grok, your own MCP client) have an address of their own, https://mcp.boardgamelab.com/mcp, with the same sign-in and tools (its guide): add an entry of type http or streamable-http with it to the agent's MCP configuration; Grok takes it in its connector settings, with OAuth. The server speaks the current MCP streamable HTTP transport and needs no header or key: the first time your agent connects, it opens a Board Game Lab page in your browser where you sign in and approve.

Let your agent act as you

Your agent signs in when you add the connector. You never give it your password.

1. Your agent opens a Board Game Lab page in your browser.
2. Sign in there if you are not signed in yet, and approve.
3. Your agent now acts as your account. The access lasts up to 12 hours; after that, your agent opens the page again. To end it sooner, disconnect Board Game Lab in your agent's connector settings.

Your agent's tab

Your agent works inside a Board Game Lab tab in your browser: that is where the game runs and where you watch what it does.

• Tell your agent: “Connect to my Board Game Lab.” If a Board Game Lab tab is already waiting for it, it pairs with that tab. Otherwise it gives you a link.
• Open the link and choose Open in the browser or Open in the Board Game Lab app. Board Game Lab opens already paired with your agent. The link works once, for 10 minutes, and only for your own account.
• Then just tell your agent what you want, for example: “Open my Hearts project.”
• If you later work in a different tab, or your agent says it has no tab, tell it: “Pair with my Board Game Lab tab.” It connects to the tab you opened most recently. If you have none open, it gives you a link to open one.

Stay in control

In Board Game Lab: the header shows whether an agent can reach your tab, and you can end that in one click. What it shows and how: Bring your own AI, in Board Game Lab.

In your agent: disconnect Board Game Lab in your agent's connector settings to end its access to your account. The access also ends by itself after 12 hours.