What you get
Once a tool is connected, Dana automatically looks up each person in your meeting and adds anything relevant to your brief — for example, a customer’s open deals, their recent support tickets, or your last few notes about them.- It happens automatically. After you connect a tool once, Dana uses it for every brief. You don’t run anything by hand.
- Everything is sourced. Each piece of information Dana adds shows where it came from, with the tool’s icon and a “Referenced from …” label. When the tool provides a link, the reference is clickable so you can open the original record in one tap.
- Dana only reads. Dana never creates, edits, or deletes anything in your tools. It only looks things up.
Who can use it
Custom MCP servers are available on all paid plans. The number you can connect depends on your plan:| Plan | Custom servers you can connect |
|---|---|
| Free | Not available |
| Premium | 1 |
| Professional | 3 |
| Trial | 3 (so you can try the full feature) |
Before you begin
Not every tool can be connected yet. For Dana to connect to a tool, its MCP server needs to meet all of the following:- It’s hosted online. The server must be reachable over the internet at a web address (URL) that starts with
https://. Servers that only run locally on your own computer can’t be connected. - You can sign in to it. Dana connects by sending you through the tool’s normal sign-in screen, so you stay in control of what Dana can see. The tool needs to support apps connecting this way automatically. Tools that only offer a manual API key are not supported yet.
- It can be read from. Dana only ever uses the tool’s read, search, and lookup features.
How to connect a tool
Sign in to the tool
You’ll be taken to the tool’s own sign-in page to approve the connection. This is how the tool confirms it’s really you and decides what Dana is allowed to see.
Let Dana scan the tool
After you approve, Dana automatically figures out which lookups are useful for briefs and tests them. This takes a few moments.
If Dana can’t find anything useful to read from the tool, it will let you know and won’t take up one of your connection slots.
Connection statuses
In the Custom MCP servers section, each connected tool shows a status:| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | Working normally and being used in your briefs. | Nothing — you’re all set. |
| Re-scan needed | The tool changed what it offers, so Dana’s saved setup is out of date. | Select Re-scan to refresh it. |
| Reconnect needed | Your sign-in expired or was revoked. | Reconnect the tool to sign in again. |
| Disabled | Turned off because your current plan allows fewer servers than you have connected. | Upgrade, or remove another server to free up a slot. |
| Pending | The connection hasn’t finished yet. | Finish the sign-in and scan steps. |
Managing your connections
- Re-scan when a tool changes. If a tool adds or removes features, you may see “Re-scan needed.” A quick re-scan brings Dana back up to date.
- Remove a tool anytime. Select the trash icon next to a server and confirm. Dana stops pulling its data immediately, and you can reconnect later whenever you like.
- If you downgrade your plan. If your new plan allows fewer servers than you currently have connected, Dana keeps the ones you’ve used most recently and turns the rest off (they’ll show as “Disabled”). Nothing is deleted — upgrade again or remove a server to re-enable the one you want to keep.
Your privacy and security
Connecting a tool is designed to be safe and to keep you in control:- Read-only. Dana never changes anything in your connected tools. It only looks information up.
- You approve access. You sign in through the tool’s own screen, so you decide what Dana is allowed to see, and you can revoke it at any time from within that tool or by disconnecting it in Dana.
- What’s shared for lookups. To find context about the people in a meeting, Dana sends an attendee’s name and email address to the connected tool so it can look them up. This is what makes per-attendee context possible.
- Secure connections only. Dana connects only over secure (
https) addresses and won’t connect to private or internal network addresses.
Troubleshooting
“That server couldn't be connected.”
“That server couldn't be connected.”
A few common reasons:
- The address doesn’t start with
https://, or it isn’t a valid web address. - The tool doesn’t support automatic app sign-in yet (for example, it only offers a manual API key).
- The tool is one of Dana’s built-ins (Slack, Dex, Notion, HubSpot, Granola) — connect it from its own tile instead.
- You’ve already connected that same tool.
- The address couldn’t be reached.
“Re-scan needed” keeps appearing.
“Re-scan needed” keeps appearing.
The tool likely changed what it offers. Select Re-scan. If it persists, the tool may have removed a feature Dana was relying on — try reconnecting it.
A connected tool isn't adding anything to my briefs.
A connected tool isn't adding anything to my briefs.
The tool may not be able to look people up by email or name, so it has little attendee-specific information to contribute. Tools like CRMs and support desks (which key on email) give the best results.
The feature is locked.
The feature is locked.
Custom MCP servers are available on paid plans only. Upgrade from Settings → Plans to turn it on.
Examples of tools you can connect
These are examples to show the kinds of tools that work well. The strongest fits for meeting briefs are tools that can look a person up by email — CRMs, support desks, and billing systems.| Tool | What it can add to a brief | Looks people up by |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Past support conversations with the attendee | |
| Zendesk | Support ticket history for the attendee | |
| Stripe | Billing relationship – customer, invoices | |
| PayPal / Square | Transaction and order history | |
| CRMs (Attio, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Close, Affinity, Folk) | Relationship, deal stage, notes, last touch | |
| Linear | Issues and projects an attendee owns | User |
| Atlassian (Jira / Confluence) | Tickets and pages tied to the attendee | User |
| GitHub | Pull requests and activity for an account | Username |
| Asana | Tasks and projects involving the attendee | User |