unlob Docs
Console
Browse documentation

ChatGPT

Retrieval you control, instead of a built-in web tool you cannot see into.

Add the connector

ChatGPT connects to remote MCP servers through its connector settings. Add unlob as a custom connector:

URL:     https://api.unlob.com/mcp
Header:  x-api-key: ulb_…

Connector support and where the setting lives vary by plan and by surface, and both have moved more than once. If your account does not offer custom connectors, the API is still reachable from a Custom GPT action or directly over REST.

Say which tool you want

The built-in web tool usually wins by default. Name unlob in the prompt when you want it:

Use unlob to find independently corroborated reporting on this, then tell me which sources are independent and which are echoing one another.

Why bother, given ChatGPT already searches

Honestly: for a quick question, do not. The built-in tool is right there and it is fine.

The reason to connect an external search tool is control, and it is worth being specific about what that buys:

Built-in web toolunlob
FiltersNone you can setSite, language, date, length, content type, trust floor
CorroborationNot exposedmin_independent_sources, and corroborate as a call
What was excludedNot visiblewhy_not says present, removed-and-why, or never seen
Graph traversalNo equivalentdossier, authorities, path, related
PortabilityTied to this productThe same API from any client or model

corroborate and dossier have no built-in equivalent, and they are the clearest reason to connect anything at all. Everything else is a matter of degree.

Custom GPT actions

If connectors are unavailable to you, a Custom GPT can call the REST API as an action. Point it at the OpenAPI document the API serves — no key needed to read it:

https://api.unlob.com/openapi.json

Set the authentication to API Key, header name x-api-key. The action schema then stays current with the API on its own, because that document is generated from the API’s own definitions rather than written by hand.

Worth knowing

  • A key in a shared GPT is a shared key. Custom GPT actions store the key against the GPT, so anyone you share it with is spending your quota. Give a shared GPT its own key and watch it in the console.
  • Check partial. A short answer with partial: true means part of the corpus was unreachable, not that there is nothing more. Ask the model to say so.

Next