pincushion

Grok Bot

Set up Pincushion

Connect Grok Bot to the hosted Pincushion MCP server with your key, then let it read and fix the pins on your project.

Sign in

Run this once in a terminal and finish sign-in in the browser. It registers your project and stores your key on this machine.

npx pincushion-mcp setup

Then print the hosted server URL and the file that holds your key:

npx pincushion-mcp remote-url

Connect

Add a remote MCP server in Grok Bot. Use the URL below and send your key as a Bearer header:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pincushion": {
      "url": "https://www.pincushion.io/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_PINCUSHION_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_PINCUSHION_KEY with the contents of that file (usually ~/.pincushion/license-key). Keep it in Grok Bot's server settings; do not paste it into the chat. Sign-in through OAuth, with no key to copy, is planned and not available yet.

What happens

  1. Ask Grok Bot to call get_actionable_pins for pins waiting on you, or implement_approved_pins for approved pins grouped by page.
  2. It calls claim_pin, makes the change, then calls fix_and_resolve with the commit, branch and PR link.
  3. To show stakeholders what shipped, create_share_report makes a read-only link to the project's pins.

The hosted server works with synced pins, threads, status, reports and snapshots. If Grok Bot also needs to read your repo and git branch through Pincushion, use the local server instead. The Chrome extension is optional: it is how stakeholders drop pins, and you do not need it to read them.

Empty

No pins yet

Nobody has dropped a pin on this project, or none are approved. That is a finished list, not a connection error. Share a crit report or install the extension, then ask again.

If it stops

Unauthorized

The key is missing, mistyped or revoked. Copy the current key from ~/.pincushion/license-key into the Authorization header and reconnect. If the file is missing, run npx pincushion-mcp setup again.

Sign-in is still open

Run npx pincushion-mcp setup in a terminal and finish sign-in in the browser before adding the server.

Grok Bot only takes a URL

If there is no place for a header, run npx pincushion-mcp remote-url --embed-key. That URL contains your key: treat it as a secret.

Open a pin

Each pin includes a link to the page it was left on, ending in ?pincushion_pin= and the pin ID. Open it in a browser with the Pincushion extension to see the pin in place.

Using another agent? See Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Cline.

MCP setup