If you run a trades or home-service business on ServiceM8, you can now let Claude look at your jobs. ServiceM8 publishes an official MCP server — the standard way AI assistants connect to outside software — and its own support article explains how to add it to Claude and ChatGPT. This page covers what that server can do, the three practical ways to connect it, and the chores worth handing over first.
What ServiceM8's MCP server can do
According to ServiceM8's support article, an assistant connected through the server can:
- search clients and jobs, and open the full details of a job;
- read job diary entries, activities and notes;
- list jobs, queues, staff, allocation windows, forms, categories, badges, tax rates and job templates;
- create jobs from templates, add notes, schedule jobs, send jobs to queues and change a job's status;
- compose and send job-linked emails and SMS messages.
The server address is https://api.servicem8.com/mcp, and connecting it means signing in to your ServiceM8 account. Actions that change data — notes, bookings, messages, queue moves, status changes — may ask you to confirm first. What you can actually do also depends on your plan and on what your account admin allows. If access expires, you reconnect.
Route 1: Claude on the web or desktop
This is the shortest path and needs no third party. In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, add a custom connector, paste the server address, connect and sign in to ServiceM8. Then switch it on in a new conversation from the + menu. On Claude Team or Enterprise, an owner adds the connector for the organisation first, and each person then connects their own ServiceM8 login.
If you use ChatGPT instead, ServiceM8 offers a public ServiceM8 plugin there, backed by the same server.
This route fits when you want to ask questions — which jobs are still waiting on parts, what the client said last time — and approve one change at a time.
Route 2: Claude Code
Claude Code adds remote MCP servers from the command line. For a server that signs in through the browser, the usual pattern is:
claude mcp add --transport http servicem8 https://api.servicem8.com/mcpThen run /mcp inside Claude Code to sign in. Bridges such as Composio, Zapier and viaSocket also offer ServiceM8 actions if you already use one of them, but with the official server you do not need them.
This route fits people who already work in a terminal, or who want Claude to combine ServiceM8 data with files on their computer, such as a price list spreadsheet.
Route 3: Orkas
Orkas is a desktop workspace where several AI agents work on the same project, with your files, connected services and scheduled tasks. ServiceM8 is in its connector catalog: you connect it once in the browser, and the agents in your project can list clients and jobs, read notes, job activity and materials, create jobs and notes, and record payments. Recording a payment or deleting anything always asks for a fresh approval that shows exactly what will be sent. Calls through this built-in connector use Orkas credits.
If you would rather use ServiceM8's own toolset, including job-linked email and SMS, open Connectors, choose Add MCP server, enter https://api.servicem8.com/mcp and sign in the same way. Orkas supports browser sign-in for custom MCP servers.
The agents can run on Orkas-managed models or on your own API key, and Claude Code can run inside Orkas as one of your agents, using the same connectors.
What Orkas adds over a single chat is the routine: a task that runs every Monday morning, keeps its results in the project and picks up where last week left off. Scheduled tasks run on your computer, so Orkas needs to be open at the scheduled time.
What to automate first
The work that pays off is the work that is dull, repeats every week, and slips when you are on site.
Quotes that went quiet. In ServiceM8 a quote is a job whose status is still Quote, and the job records whether the quote was sent and when. That is enough for a weekly list of quotes sent more than seven days ago with no decision, sorted by value, each with a short follow-up drafted for you to check and send. Make replying easy: offering to adjust the scope gives the client something to answer.
A Monday job summary. Last week's completed jobs with their invoice totals, jobs still at Work Order, and anything waiting in a queue, on one page instead of a scroll through the dispatch board.
A brief before a return visit. The job diary and notes condensed into a few lines: what was done, what was promised, what the client asked about.
Keep the decisions that need judgement with you: the price, what to say to an unhappy client, and whether a quote is worth chasing at all.
What we have and have not tested
To be exact: we took what the MCP server offers from ServiceM8's documentation, and we checked that the server publishes the standard sign-in metadata that Orkas uses for custom connectors. The ServiceM8 connector is part of the Orkas connector catalog. We have not run any of these routes against a live ServiceM8 account end to end, so this page does not claim a tested integration. ServiceM8's article is the reference for what your account allows.
If you want ServiceM8 work to run on a schedule next to your other agents, download Orkas and connect ServiceM8 from the Connectors panel.