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In the first five days of last month I called the GoHighLevel MCP over 1,000 times. Almost all of those calls came from a single command I run every morning inside Claude Code. That one command is tied to a little over $15,000 in cash collected in about six weeks.
This is the MCP that has made me the most money. It connects GoHighLevel, my CRM, straight into the terminal, and it turns my pipeline into something I talk to instead of click through.
I’m Charles J Dove, founder of Charlie Automates. In this post I’ll show you exactly how to wire the GoHighLevel MCP into Claude Code, what it can and can’t do, and the morning command I use to triage leads and send my marketing before I’ve finished my coffee.
What an MCP actually is
If you’ve never heard the term, an MCP is a bridge between your AI agent and the other software you already use. Your CRM, your email tool, your analytics. The model talks to the bridge, the bridge talks to the software, and you get to run that software in plain English.
The GoHighLevel MCP is open source, free, and exposes 269 tools across contacts, opportunities, conversations, calendars, and campaigns. You install it once, point Claude Code at your account, and from then on you direct your CRM by typing.
Start with what it can’t do
I want to be straight with you, because a lot of people expect the wrong things.
The GoHighLevel MCP cannot build your workflows for you inside GoHighLevel. It can’t build your funnels, your landing pages, or your websites either. And honestly, a lot of that stuff should not be automated by an AI agent. Those are the crux of your business. You should own them.
Here’s the better frame. Your Claude Code setup should already know who you are, hold your brand kit, and know how you speak. So when you need to build a workflow, it gives you the copy and the exact steps to build it yourself. You stay the architect. The AI hands you the parts.
For funnels and landing pages, you can still have Claude Code generate clean HTML files and paste them straight into the GoHighLevel funnel builder using its custom HTML block. Same result, you just do the paste.
What it can do (this is the good part)
This is where the MCP earns its keep. With it wired in, Claude Code can:
- Manage your entire contact database. Create contacts, update them with notes from a sales call, pull details before you dial.
- Handle tags and tasks. Tag a contact, assign a task, enroll someone into an existing workflow.
- Read and write conversations across your whole pipeline.
- Work your opportunities and pipelines. Read the details on each contact, triage high quality versus low quality, and route them to the right stage.
- Draft and send email, book appointments, and update opportunity status.
Pipeline triage is what I use it for the most. Before I hop on a call, I have it read the prospect, summarize what they’re about, and even drop a TLDR into my notes so I walk in prepared with five minutes of prep.
The setup (about 10 minutes)
You only need to grab two things out of GoHighLevel: a Private Integration token and your Location ID. Do not use a legacy API key, it won’t work.
Step 1: Get your GoHighLevel credentials
- Log in to your GoHighLevel account (there’s a free trial through that link).
- Go to Settings → Integrations → Private Integrations.
- Click Create New Integration. Name it something like
Claude Code MCP. Leave the webhook URL blank. - Select the scopes you’re comfortable with. For pipeline work, turn on contacts, conversations, opportunities, calendars, and locations (read and write). I’m personally fine giving it access to everything in my account. You might call me crazy. That’s fine.
- Save and copy the token. It starts with
pit-. Treat it like a password. - Grab your Location ID from Settings → Business Profile (or Settings → Company → Locations).
Step 2: Install the MCP server
Clone the open-source server, install, and build it once.
git clone https://github.com/mastanley13/GoHighLevel-MCP.git
cd GoHighLevel-MCP
npm install
npm run buildThat compiles the server to dist/server.js, the file Claude Code will run.
Quick tip from the video: instead of running every command by hand, you can paste the repo link straight into Claude Code and tell it to set the MCP up for you. If pasting the link gives you trouble, screenshot the repo’s setup steps and hand those to Claude instead.
Step 3: Wire it into Claude Code
Add the server to your .mcp.json. Use the absolute path to the dist/server.js you just built, then drop in your two credentials.
{
"mcpServers": {
"ghl": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "node",
"args": ["/absolute/path/to/GoHighLevel-MCP/dist/server.js"],
"env": {
"GHL_API_KEY": "pit-YOUR_PRIVATE_INTEGRATION_TOKEN",
"GHL_LOCATION_ID": "YOUR_LOCATION_ID"
}
}
}
}GHL_API_KEY takes your Private Integration token, not a legacy key. If you don’t want to paste your token through the chat, just ask Claude where to place it in your file system and it’ll walk you through it.
Step 4: Confirm it’s live
Close Claude Code completely and reopen it. The MCP loads at startup, so a fresh terminal is required. Then type /mcp. You should see GoHighLevel listed. If it’s not active, click it and hit Reconnect.
Test it with something read-only:
List my GoHighLevel pipelines and how many opportunities are in each stage.
If Claude comes back with your real pipeline names and counts, you’re wired in. If it doesn’t, screenshot the whole setup conversation, hand it back to Claude, and let it self-diagnose where it went wrong.
The command I run every morning
I built a single command around this MCP that runs my whole inbound pipeline. It walks every stage with me, and the shape is something you can copy.
- New leads. Fresh intake lands in the first stage. The command reads each one and pre-scores it high quality or low quality.
- High quality. Agency owners and business owners with budget and a clear problem get routed to a personal-outreach queue.
- Low quality. Real humans who responded but aren’t a fit yet get a lighter, batched touch.
- Contacted. Anyone already emailed gets checked for replies, then a follow-up drafted.
- Closed. Paying customers and dead leads get filed so the funnel math stays honest.
When I run it on the new-report stage, it calls the GoHighLevel MCP, pulls the fresh leads, and reads the verbatim answer each one typed into my intake form. That one field carries the most signal, so it reads it word for word, never a paraphrase. Then it hands me a ranked summary: who they are, what they said, where it routed them, and one line on why.
For the leads I want to email, it runs three skills back to back: a subject-line skill, a copywriting skill, and a humanizer skill so the email sounds like me. It drops in my booking link, shows me the draft, and only sends on my explicit yes. Then it moves the opportunity down the pipeline. Email sent, deal routed, all from one conversation in the terminal.
Two hard rules I bake in. Draft first, always. Nothing sends without my approval. One clear ask. Every message ends with a single low-friction call to action, never a menu of links.
What needs AI and what doesn’t
Most of what I just described is not even AI automation. It’s deterministic routing. A form fills out, a tag gets added, the contact lands in a stage, a templated email goes out. No model required.
The AI shows up in the augmentation layer. Scoring a lead, drafting copy in my voice, writing the TLDR before a call. I use AI to augment my decisions, my copy, and my higher-level strategy. The MCP is what takes the deterministic CRM work and lets me drive all of it from one place.
If you want the lead-generation half of this same stack, scraping thousands of local leads into GoHighLevel with Apify and Claude Code, that lives in the Unlimited Leads playbook. This post is the triage-and-close half.
The one thing every solopreneur needs first
If you take nothing else from this, take this. The two systems that matter most are a proper lead intake system and a clean onboarding sequence.
A lead fills out your form, gets tagged, lands in the pipeline, and you get a text and a Slack ping. If they go through your VSL and don’t book, they get tagged and dropped into a nurture sequence. If they book, an appointment reminder workflow warms them up before the call. None of that is complicated. One conditional step here and there. But it makes dealing with prospects ten times easier and it impresses the prospect every single time.
Key takeaways
- The GoHighLevel MCP connects your CRM straight into Claude Code and exposes 269 tools across contacts, opportunities, conversations, calendars, and campaigns
- It will not build your funnels, workflows, or sites for you, and that’s fine. Have Claude Code generate the HTML and copy, then you place it
- Setup is about 10 minutes: create a Private Integration token, grab your Location ID, build the server, paste two lines into
.mcp.json - The highest-value use is pipeline triage. Read each lead, score high or low quality, route them, draft outreach in your voice, send on approval
- Keep a human in the loop on anything that touches sales. Draft first, send on your yes
Watch the full walkthrough
I posted the whole setup on my YouTube channel at @charlieautomates, and this is the exact CRM layer I run inside Charlie Automates. At my agency CC Strategic, it’s what we wire up for clients who are drowning in leads they can’t triage fast enough.
Wired it up but not sure which leads to chase first?
Book a 30-minute free strategy call with Charles. I’ll look at your pipeline live, point out the highest-leverage automation to build next, and install Charlie OS on your machine in the same hour. No pitch deck, no homework, just clarity.
Want more setups like this without the trial and error? Join the CC Strategic AI community on Skool. New AI builds dropped weekly. SOPs, prompts, full workflows.
FAQ
Q: Is the GoHighLevel MCP free? Yes. The MCP server is open source and free. You need a GoHighLevel account to use it, and there’s a free trial through my affiliate link above.
Q: Do I need to be a developer to set this up? No. If you can copy four commands into a terminal and paste two lines into a file, you have what you need. You can also paste the repo link into Claude Code and have it run the setup for you.
Q: Can it build my GoHighLevel funnels and workflows? No. It manages contacts, opportunities, conversations, calendars, and campaigns. For funnels and landing pages, have Claude Code generate the HTML and paste it into the GoHighLevel funnel builder’s custom HTML block.
Q: Is it safe to let an AI send emails to my leads? It’s as safe as you make it. I bake in a draft-first rule so nothing sends without my explicit approval. The MCP can send on its own, but for anything touching sales, keep a human in the loop and review every draft before it fires.