Connect: the terminal and AI apps

What Connect is for

Many people now use an AI app such as ChatGPT or Claude every day. Connect lets that app look at your own Flicx Sheet, so that you can ask it things like: What do we still owe the caterer? Which students have not paid this month? What is on my calendar tomorrow?

You do not need Connect to use Flicx Sheet. It is an extra, for people who already use an AI app or a terminal. If you only want a helper inside the app itself, use Flicx Companion instead. It needs no setting up.

A few words you will meet in this chapter:

Please noteWhatever you connect works as you, with what you can already see in Flicx Sheet, and nothing of anyone else's. Anything that changes or deletes asks for your yes first.

Where the steps are kept

The app has a Connect window that holds every line you need to type, each with a copy button. Press your picture at the top right, then Connect. Keep it open while you set things up in the other program.

Where to find itTop bar›Your picture›Connect

1. Flicx CLI shows the steps for a terminal.
2. Flicx MCP shows the steps for AI apps: one card for AI apps on the web, and one for AI apps on this computer.
3. Click the copy button at the end of a line to copy it. Then paste it where it is needed, so that you do not have to type it letter by letter.

On a phone it is in the same place: tap your picture at the top, then Connect. The same steps are also on a page anyone can read without signing in: the Connect page.

Connect ChatGPT, or another AI app on the web

This is for AI apps that you use in a browser and that let you add a server by its address. Nothing is installed on your computer.

1. In Flicx Sheet, press your picture and open Connect, click Flicx MCP, and copy the address on the card AI apps on the web. It is https://mcp.flicx.space/mcp.
2. In the AI app, add a custom MCP server and paste that address. In ChatGPT this is under Settings, Plugins, Add, Create custom MCP server. If Add is not shown, turn on Developer mode first.
3. Choose OAuth as the sign-in. If the app shows boxes for a client ID or a secret, leave them empty.
4. A Flicx page opens in your browser. Sign in if it asks you to, check the name of the app, and press Allow.
5. You are taken back to the AI app. Ask it something about your sheets to try it.

1. Read the name of the app in the heading. Press Allow only if it is the app you are setting up right now. Press Cancel if you did not expect this page.

The AI app is given a key of its own. It never gets your Flicx Sheet password.

Please noteAI apps change their menus often. If the names in your app differ from the ones above, look for the words MCP, connector or custom server in its settings.

Connect VS Code, Claude, Cursor or another app on your computer

Some AI apps run on your computer and start a small program to reach other things. For these you first install Flicx CLI, then tell the app about it.

1. Install Flicx CLI and sign in. The next section shows how.
2. In Flicx Sheet, press your picture and open Connect, click Flicx MCP, and find the card AI apps on this computer.
3. Copy the settings shown there. There is one block for VS Code, which goes in a file called .vscode/mcp.json, and one block for Claude, Cursor and most other apps.
4. Paste the block into the MCP settings of your AI app.
5. Close the AI app and open it again. Then ask it about your sheets.

The app works as whoever signed in with flicx login on that computer. If nobody is signed in, the AI app tells you to run flicx login in a terminal.

Use Flicx Sheet from a terminal

Flicx CLI works on Windows, macOS and Linux. The computer needs Node, version 18 or later, which is a common tool that many computers used for programming already have.

1. Open a terminal and type npm install -g @flicx/cli, then press Enter. This installs Flicx CLI.
2. Type flicx login and press Enter. Your browser opens Flicx Sheet.
3. On the page that opens, press Authorize. The page then shows an 8-digit code.
4. Go back to the terminal, type the code, and press Enter. The terminal answers that you are signed in, with your email address.

1. The page says a terminal is asking to work as you. Press Authorize only if you have just typed flicx login yourself. Otherwise press Cancel.
2. The code works once, for ten minutes. Copy copies it, so that you can paste it into the terminal.
3. After you type the code, the terminal says who is signed in.

Now try a few commands:

Every command and switch is explained in the full guide to Flicx CLI.

What you can ask for

Once connected, an AI app can read your sheets, to-dos, notes, calendar and Library, and can change them when you ask it to. Some things people ask:

• Which guests in my Guest list have not replied yet?
• Add ₹2,500 for flowers to my Budget sheet.
• What is due this week in my to-do lists?
• Find the electricity bill for June in my Library.
• Make a PDF report of this month's house expenses.

It gives you links. An AI app cannot open a sheet in front of you, so it gives you a link to click instead. The link opens the thing itself in Flicx Sheet. It can give a link to:

• A sheet, or one row of a sheet.
• A file in the Library, opened so that you can see it, or the Library and its gallery.
• A to-do, a to-do list or an activity.
• A note, or the notes page.
• The calendar, or one day of it.
• A PDF saved in the Library, opened in the PDF editor.

These links are for you. They open in your own Flicx Sheet after you sign in. They do not share anything with anyone else.

It can make a report as a PDF. Ask for a report and the AI app makes it and holds it without saving. An AI app on the web gives you two private links: one to look at the PDF and one to open it in Flicx Sheet's PDF editor. They work for 30 minutes, until the report is saved or made again. An AI app on your own computer gives you a file to open instead. The report goes into your Library only when you say it may be saved. See PDF reports.

It can make a public link, after asking how long. A public link lets anyone who has it read a sheet or open a Library file without signing in. Because that lets a stranger in, the AI app must first ask you how long the link should work: one hour, one day, 7 days, 30 days, or until you take it back. Then it asks for your yes. It can also list your public links and take one back. See Sharing with others.

Please noteA few things need the app itself and cannot be done from an AI app or a terminal: opening a sheet on your screen, starting a slideshow, and joining a team's call.

It asks before it changes anything

Reading is done freely: looking up a row, listing your to-dos, finding a file. Anything that adds, changes or deletes is different. Before it happens you are shown exactly what is about to be done, and it is done only if you say yes.

1. For a public link, the AI app first asks how long the link should work.
2. You are then shown the question, in full, with what will happen. Nothing has been done yet.
3. Only after you say yes is it done, and you get the result.

• Some AI apps show the question in a small box of their own, with buttons. Others show it as part of the chat and wait for you to type yes.
• If you say no, or say nothing, nothing is changed.
• A yes covers that one action only. The next change is asked about again.
• In a terminal the question ends with Go ahead? [y/N]. Type y and press Enter for yes. Pressing Enter alone means no.

TipRead the question each time. It names the sheet, the row or the file, so that you can catch a mistake before it is made.

Stop an app from using your Flicx Sheet

• An AI app on the web: disconnect Flicx in that app's own settings. The key it was given stops working.
• A terminal: type flicx logout and press Enter. This signs out of that terminal.
• An AI app on your computer: it works through Flicx CLI, so flicx logout stops it too. You can also remove Flicx from the app's MCP settings.

Common questions

Do I have to use this? No. Everything in Flicx Sheet works without it.

Can the AI app see other people's sheets? No. It sees what you can see when you are signed in, and nothing more. Sheets that others have shared with you are included, because you can see those.

Can it delete my data by mistake? Not without asking. Anything that changes or deletes is shown to you first and waits for your yes.

Does the AI app learn my password? No. An AI app is given a key of its own. A terminal is signed in with the 8-digit code, which works once, for ten minutes.

I pressed Allow by mistake. What now? Disconnect Flicx in that AI app's settings. Its key then stops working.

Do I need a Flicx Sheet account? Yes. The AI app or the terminal works as your account.

The terminal says not signed in. Type flicx login and go through the code again.

Where is the full list of commands? On the Connect page and in the full guide to Flicx CLI.