# How to Connect ChatGPT to Etimad Tenders via MCP (Step-by-Step Guide) ## Introduction **ChatGPT** has become part of the daily workflow for many companies working on Saudi government tenders, but it has no knowledge of live **Etimad** platform data, and it cannot search open tenders or read a specific tender's terms of reference. This isn't a flaw in the model itself — it's simply that ChatGPT has no direct connection to a tender data source. This is where the **Model Context Protocol (MCP)** comes in: an open standard that lets AI assistants connect securely to external data sources. TendersAlerts' MCP server turns Etimad tenders into one of those sources. Once connected, ChatGPT can search tenders, read their details and documents, analyze the market and competitors, and manage your notifications — all without ever leaving the chat. This guide walks through the connection steps in detail and shows what you can do afterward. ## What Is Developer Mode in ChatGPT, and Why Do You Need It? The "Custom Connectors" option doesn't appear directly for every ChatGPT user. You first need to enable **Developer Mode** from settings, which is only available on paid ChatGPT plans (Plus, Pro, or Business). This mode is what unlocks adding any MCP server by its direct address, instead of relying solely on ready-made connectors from the ChatGPT store. For Business or Enterprise accounts, a system administrator may need to enable custom connectors at the organization level before any user can add one. ## Steps to Connect ChatGPT to Etimad Tenders - **Enable Developer Mode:** From **Settings → Connectors → Advanced**, enable the **Developer mode** option. - **Create a new custom connector:** From the same Connectors page, choose **Add custom connector**. - **Paste the MCP server address:**`https://api.tendersalerts.com/mcp ` - **Choose OAuth as the authentication method** if prompted, then save. - **Start a new chat** and enable the connector from the Tools menu at the bottom of the chat window. - On first use, you'll be redirected to a TendersAlerts authorization page. Log in with your account and grant permission. This whole process takes less than two minutes and requires no API key or code. The authorization flow relies on **OAuth 2.1 with PKCE**, so your password is never sent to ChatGPT — the connector only receives an access token tied to your account. You can read the full security and permissions details in the [complete connection guide](/docs/mcp). ## What Can You Ask ChatGPT After Connecting? Once the connector is enabled, ChatGPT automatically picks the right tool out of 11 specialized tools based on your question. Here are three real examples: ### 1. Search and filtering > "Search for open IT tenders in Riyadh, sorted by the nearest submission deadline." ChatGPT calls the **search-tenders** tool and returns a list sorted by agency and deadline, ready to act on without opening the Etimad platform. ### 2. Reading the terms of reference > "Show me the details of tender 260839002113, then summarize the terms of reference and the bill of quantities." Here ChatGPT chains the **tender-details**, **tender-documents**, and **tender-boq** tools, exactly like an experienced tender officer would: starting with the basics, then expanding into attachments and technical detail. ### 3. Competitor analysis > "Analyze Company X's performance in construction tenders during 2025 and 2026: win rate, price positioning, and who competes with it most." The **vendor-details** tool aggregates the competitor's past bids and awards and summarizes them in seconds, instead of the hours it would take to search manually through Etimad records. ## Why Does a Tendering Team Actually Need This Connection? The fundamental difference between a general AI assistant and one connected via MCP is that the first one "guesses" or relies on general, possibly outdated information, while the second retrieves real, live data from the source. In the context of Saudi government tenders, this isn't a minor detail: - **Deadlines change**, and outdated information about a submission date can cost you an entire opportunity. - **Terms of reference documents are long and complex**, requiring careful reading of evaluation criteria and attachments before deciding whether to bid. - **Manual competitor analysis** means gathering dozens of bids and awards from scattered records — work that consumes hours every time. TendersAlerts' MCP server closes this three-part gap at once, because ChatGPT gains access to the same depth of data available on the TendersAlerts platform itself, not just a generic summary of Etimad. ## Tips for Asking ChatGPT More Precise Questions After Connecting Answer quality depends on how clear the question is, just like any search. Some practices that improve results: - **Mention the tender reference number** if you have it, since this skips intermediate steps and reduces the chance of confusion between similarly named tenders. - **Specify the activity, city, and agency** instead of a generic question like "give me tenders," since **search-tenders** works best with clear filters. - **State the sort order explicitly**, such as "sort by nearest deadline" or "newest first," instead of letting the model guess the priority. - **Ask for explicit comparisons** when analyzing competitors, such as "compare the win rates of Company X and Company Y in the construction activity over the past two years," which calls **vendor-details** with clearer parameters. - If you need results in English for your team, say so explicitly, since some fields are displayed based on the **locale** parameter, which the assistant sets automatically from your question's language. ## A Complete Practical Scenario: From Question to Decision To picture the real benefit, imagine the following exchange in a single conversation with ChatGPT after connecting: - **"Search for open cybersecurity tenders in Riyadh and Dammam."** ChatGPT returns a numbered list sorted by nearest deadline. - **"Show me the details of the second tender in the list, and summarize the terms of reference."** ChatGPT reads the contract duration, evaluation criteria, and required attachments. - **"How concentrated is this market? Is there a single vendor dominating it?"** The assistant calls **market-analysis** to give you the top vendors' market share and the average award value. - **"Create an alert for me for similar future tenders with the keyword cybersecurity."** ChatGPT creates a new notification setting directly in your account via the **create-notification-setting** tool. Four steps, one conversation, without opening Etimad or TendersAlerts even once. This is the essence of MCP's value: shrinking the distance between a question and a decision. ## The Difference Between Copy-Paste and Direct Access via MCP Before MCP, the only way to get Etimad data into ChatGPT was to manually copy numbers and text from the platform and paste them into the chat. This approach carries three fundamental problems: - **Data may already be outdated** by the time it's copied. - **Large files**, such as a long terms of reference document or bill of quantities, are hard to paste in full or even summarize manually. - **No cumulative context**: every new question requires copying and pasting again. With the MCP server, ChatGPT reads data directly from the source as soon as you mention a tender reference number or agency name, and it stays able to refer back to it for the rest of the conversation without repeating the copy-paste cycle. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Do I need a TendersAlerts subscription to use the connector?** The tender search and name-to-ID lookup tools (**search-tenders** and **taxonomy-lookup**) work for free without login. The other nine tools, such as tender details, documents, market analysis, and vendor analysis, require an [active subscription](/plans). **Can ChatGPT see my password or payment data?** No. OAuth 2.1 authentication never grants the connector access to your password, payment data, or identity verification documents — only a scoped access token. **How do I revoke ChatGPT's access to my account?** From your TendersAlerts account settings under "Connected Apps," or from the connector settings inside ChatGPT itself. Access stops immediately either way. ## Conclusion Connecting ChatGPT to Etimad tenders via MCP turns your AI assistant from a general-purpose tool into a specialist that knows Saudi government tender data in real time. The steps require no technical expertise: enable developer mode, paste the server address, and log in. After that, searching tenders, analyzing competitors, and reading terms of reference documents becomes a single sentence inside the conversation you already use every day. [Connect ChatGPT to Etimad tenders now](/mcp) and start your first conversation with real Etimad data.