Connect ChatGPT to Traveler.md
Connect Traveler.md to ChatGPT so it can read your Traveler.md and Trip.md files and keep them updated as you plan. ChatGPT calls this a custom MCP app, and it needs developer mode turned on before you can create one.
What you’ll need
- A Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise, or Education account, on the web. OpenAI’s developer guide lists developer mode for these plans. OpenAI’s help center currently limits full MCP, including write tools, to Business, Enterprise, and Edu. On Pro, the help center says you can connect read-only. On Plus or Pro, ChatGPT can read your files, but updates to your profile and trips may not work.
- An admin, on workspace plans. On Business, only admins can use developer mode. On Enterprise and Edu, an admin grants access in Permissions & Roles → Connected Data.
Step 1: Turn on developer mode
Turn on Developer mode. The two OpenAI pages give different locations for the toggle:
- Settings → Security and login
- Settings → Apps → Advanced Settings
ChatGPT labels this setting elevated risk, because developer mode lets you add unverified connectors that can modify or erase data. Traveler.md’s write tools only ever touch your own profile and your own trips.
Step 2: Create the Traveler.md app
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Open the app creation form. Depending on your account, it is under Plugins (the plus button) or Apps → Create. Workspace admins use Workspace settings → Apps → Create.
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Name it
Traveler.md, and describe it as reading and updating your Traveler.md travel profile and trips. -
Enter the server URL. Make sure it starts with
https://.MCP server URLhttps://mcp.traveler.md/mcp -
Set the authentication method to OAuth. Sign in to Traveler.md, review the scopes, and approve.
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Click Scan Tools to load the Traveler.md tools.
The app then appears under Drafts. On a workspace plan the draft is yours alone until an admin publishes it in Workspace settings → Apps → Drafts → Publish. On Business, you cannot update an app after you publish it. To change it, create the app again.
Step 3: Tell ChatGPT to use your files
Paste the instruction block below into your custom instructions, so ChatGPT reaches for your files instead of answering from the conversation alone.
I use Traveler.md as my travel memory, so my preferences and my trips live in one place I can connect to the travel tools I use. There are two kinds of files, and I manage both on the Traveler.md platform: one profile with my lasting travel preferences, and one file per trip with the details for that trip. You can read and update both through the Traveler.md connector. Follow these rules whenever travel comes up: - Read before answering. For any travel-related request, first read my profile and the relevant trip file. Use what's there, and don't ask me for anything the files already contain. - If you can't reach my files, say so. Don't guess or invent preferences. Tell me the connector isn't responding so I can reconnect it. - Capture durable preferences immediately. When I state a lasting travel preference, even casually with no trip in progress (e.g. "I prefer aisle seats"), update my profile right away, then confirm in one line what changed. Make the actual update, don't just say you will. - Keep one-off details in the trip file. Needs specific to a single trip (e.g. "ground-floor room this time") go in that trip's file, not my profile. For that trip, the trip file overrides my general defaults. - One file per trip. Create a trip file as soon as I mention somewhere I'd like to go, even loosely, with status Dreaming. Store the itinerary and ideas in it, and update it as plans firm up. - Ask before archiving. Check with me before you archive a trip. - Keep everything clean. No duplicates, and preserve existing entries unless you're correcting or replacing them. If a new preference conflicts with an old one, replace it and note the change. - Flag the edits that matter. Tell me briefly when you create a trip file or make a significant change, and skip announcing trivial ones.
Then start a chat, choose Developer mode from the plus menu, select Traveler.md for the conversation, and ask “What do you know about my travel preferences?”
Good to know
- Write actions ask for confirmation by default. ChatGPT shows you the input it is about to send, so you can check it before your profile or a trip changes.
- Both MCP transports work. ChatGPT supports SSE and streaming HTTP. Traveler.md uses streaming HTTP.
Troubleshooting
- No developer mode setting? Check both locations in step 1. On a Business workspace, only admins can use developer mode. On Enterprise or Edu, ask an admin to grant access in Permissions & Roles → Connected Data.
- Reads work but updates fail? Your plan may allow read-only MCP. OpenAI’s help center limits write tools to Business, Enterprise, and Edu.
- Revoked or narrowed a connection and the assistant still has access? Changes take effect within a minute.
- Other issues: see Support.