Connect Claude to Orbital

Before you start

You need an Orbital account, which you can create at app.orbitalaip.com/signup. You also need the Backtesting app turned on in the project you will use, since every tool call checks it before it runs.

A new account starts with Backtesting on in its first project, but a workspace you create later starts without it; see Switch an app on or off in a project.

Two ways in

Orbital AI for ChatGPT is coming, and there is nothing to install yet; see ChatGPT.

Claude on the web or desktop

1. Add the connector

   Open Add to Claude. It opens Claude's Add custom connector form for Orbital AI at https://mcp.orbitalaip.com/mcp. Or go to Customize → Connectors, click + Add, then Add custom connector, and enter the name and the URL. Click Continue, review the detected authentication settings, and click Continue again.

2. Set up sign-in

   Under Authentication, choose Sign in now. Under OAuth client, keep Use Claude's published identity (Recommended). Orbital needs no request headers. Click Add.

3. Approve in Orbital

   Claude sends your browser to Orbital's consent page, described below.

4. Switch it on in a chat

   Click +, then Connectors, and switch Orbital AI on for that conversation.

Claude Code

Add the server from your terminal.

claude mcp add --transport http orbital-ai https://mcp.orbitalaip.com/mcp

Then run /mcp in Claude Code and follow the browser steps to sign in and approve the connection.

Signing in and approving

Both ways end on Orbital's consent page, titled Connect to Orbital. If you are signed out, Orbital shows Sign in first, with Sign up for a new account, and brings you back afterwards.

A pending request stays valid for 30 minutes; after that the page says Nothing to connect and you start again.

The consent page shows:

• a sentence naming who is asking and where you go back to, such as "Claude (claude.ai) wants to connect to Orbital and will be sent back to claude.ai"; from Claude Code it names localhost and the port Claude Code is listening on;
• the permissions asked for (the table below);
• a Workspace picker and a Project picker, which start on your current workspace and project;
• the binding sentence: "The connection is bound to the project name. To use another project, connect again.";
• two buttons: Approve and Deny.

There is no per-permission choice: Approve grants the list as shown and returns you to Claude, and Deny returns you with nothing connected.

Write and run also need a project role that may write; see Permissions and refusals. With a read-only role, Claude can still list and read, and for anything else it relays the role refusal: "Your role in this project (role) cannot change strategies or spend credits."

One workspace, one project

The connection is bound to the workspace and project you chose. Claude's tools reach only that project: its strategies, versions and runs, and nothing elsewhere in your workspace.

To work in another project, connect again and pick it on the consent page:

• In Claude, remove the connection, then add Orbital AI again.
• In Claude Code, run /mcp, choose orbital-ai, then Clear authentication; run /mcp again and sign in.

What Claude can and cannot do

Claude can:

• list the strategies in the project and read each one with its latest backtest verdict;
• create strategies from rule cards or as a Program, save changes as new versions, and build a Program's code;
• estimate a backtest, run it, read the results and the trade log, and cancel a run that is still going.

Claude cannot:

• place orders, deploy a strategy or reach Trade; trading stays inside Orbital;
• delete a strategy, a version or a run, because no tool exists for it;
• reach another project or workspace, or do more than the permissions you approved;
• recommend anything: results are hypothetical and Orbital computes only the rules you supplied.

The eleven tools lists every tool.

Three prompts to start with

Removing the connection

In Claude:

1. Open Customize → Connectors

2. Find Orbital AI

   It is listed under Connectors.

3. Remove it

   Click Remove, or open the three-dot menu next to it, and follow the prompts.

In Claude Code, sign out of the server first, which revokes its tokens at Orbital, then remove it from your terminal.

claude mcp logout orbital-ai
claude mcp remove orbital-ai

Orbital's settings do not list connected assistants, so the removal happens in Claude.

Help

Read Troubleshooting first, then email hello@orbitalaip.com or ask on Discord.