No. The agent only calls tools on an MCP server that your municipality or its provider exposes.
Can the chatbot query my municipality's systems?
Yes, but it does not connect directly to your database and has no ready-made connectors. Textra's AI agent calls tools on an MCP server that your municipality or its provider develops and exposes at a public address. A developer is needed to expose the system through MCP.
What MCP is and what your technical team has to do
MCP is a protocol through which a server offers tools to an AI agent, for example a query that takes a value and returns a result. Textra does not build that server: your municipality or its systems provider supplies it and decides which tools it exposes.
Textra does not connect directly to a database and has no ready-made connectors for any system. If your municipality has no developer or provider who can expose the system through MCP, this connection is not possible.
How a system is connected
Your provider exposes the system through MCP
The MCP server offers the tools your team decides on, at a public address. Private-network and local addresses are blocked.
You register the server in Textra
You can add an optional credential, as a token or a header. It is stored encrypted and is write-only: once entered, it is not shown again.
You choose which tools each agent can use
Each agent has its own list of allowed tools. With an empty list, it uses none.
The agent uses them while handling replies
During a WhatsApp conversation it can call the allowed tools and, if that is not enough, hands over to a person.
Illustrative example
An enquiry about the status of a procedure
- A municipality's systems provider develops an MCP server with a tool that takes a case number and returns its status, and exposes it at a public address.
- The municipality registers that server in Textra and enables that tool for one agent.
- The municipality sends a WhatsApp notice about a case in progress, and the resident replies asking how it is going, with the case number.
- The agent calls the allowed tool and answers based on what it returns and the account's instructions. If the resident asks for anything else, it hands the conversation over to a person.
Frequently asked questions about connecting systems
There are no ready-made connectors. A developer or provider has to expose the system through MCP.
It is stored encrypted and is write-only. In addition, each agent can only use the tools on its allowed list; with an empty list, it uses none.
No. Textra blocks private-network and local addresses, so the MCP server must be at a public address.
Keep reading
Let's talk with your technical team
Tell us which system you want to query and which provider maintains it, and we will work out together what would be needed.