AI assistants
Connect Timen to Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant and manage your time just by chatting — start a timer, log time you forgot, or ask how much you tracked this week.
Overview
Timen speaks MCP (the Model Context Protocol), the open standard AI assistants use to work with other apps. Once you connect Timen, an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT can read your time data and — if you allow it — track and edit time on your behalf, all in plain language. It acts as you, on your current team, and only sees what you can already see in Timen.
What you can do
Instead of clicking around, you can just ask. For example:
- “Start a timer on the Acme website project.”
- “I spent two hours this morning on client calls — log it.”
- “How much did I track this week, grouped by project?”
- “What am I tracking right now?”
- “Move yesterday’s 3pm entry to the Marketing project and tag it billable.”
- “Create a project called Q3 Redesign under the Acme client.”
The assistant figures out which Timen tools to use and confirms anything that changes or removes data.
Connect an assistant
You connect Timen once, from your assistant’s connector settings:
- Open your assistant’s connector or integrations settings — for example, in Claude that’s Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, and ChatGPT and other MCP clients have a similar connector setting.
- Enter Timen’s address:
https://mcp.gettimen.com/mcp - Your browser opens Timen. Sign in if you aren’t already.
- Review what the assistant is asking for and choose whether it can only read your data or also make changes, then click Authorize.
- That’s it — the assistant is connected and shows up under Settings → AI assistants.
Connecting uses a secure sign-in (OAuth). The assistant never sees your password, and you can disconnect it at any time.
Access and permissions
- Read or read & write. At connect time you decide whether the assistant can only view your data (read) or also start timers, log time, and create projects (write).
- Your data only. The assistant sees exactly what you can. If you’re a team member you see and edit only your own time entries; admins and owners see the whole team’s.
- Invoices are read-only. Assistants can list invoices (if you have the invoice permission) but can’t create or change them.
- Your current team. Everything happens on the team you’re currently working in.
Tools reference
These are the actions an assistant can take once connected, grouped by area. Reading is available to any connected assistant; the write actions — starting timers, logging or editing time, and creating projects or clients — need write access.
Timers & time entries
| Tool | Description | Example usage |
|---|---|---|
timen_get_running_timer | Shows the timer you have running right now, if any. | “What am I tracking right now?” |
timen_start_timer | Starts a timer, optionally on a project and with a note and tags. Any running timer is stopped first. | “Start a timer on the Acme website.” |
timen_stop_timer | Stops the timer you have running. | “Stop my timer.” |
timen_log_time | Adds a completed entry for time you already spent (by start and end time, or a duration). | “Log 2 hours on client calls this morning.” |
timen_list_time_entries | Lists time entries, filtered by date range, project, tag, or billable status. | “Show my entries from last week.” |
timen_update_time_entry | Edits an entry’s note, project, times, billable flag, or tags. | “Move yesterday’s 3pm entry to Marketing.” |
timen_delete_time_entry | Deletes an entry. The assistant previews it and asks you to confirm first. | “Delete Tuesday’s duplicate entry.” |
Reports
| Tool | Description | Example usage |
|---|---|---|
timen_report | Totals your time and groups it by project, client, tag, person, or day. | “How much did I track this month, by project?” |
Projects & clients
| Tool | Description | Example usage |
|---|---|---|
timen_list_projects | Lists the projects you can access. | “What projects can I track against?” |
timen_list_clients | Lists your clients. | “List my clients.” |
timen_create_project | Creates a new project, optionally under a client. | “Create a project called Q3 Redesign under Acme.” |
timen_create_client | Creates a new client (requires the client-management permission). | “Add a client named Riverside & Co.” |
Tags & people
| Tool | Description | Example usage |
|---|---|---|
timen_list_tags | Lists your team’s tags. New tags are created automatically when you name one while tracking time. | “What tags can I use?” |
timen_list_team_members | Lists the people on your team. | “Who’s on my team?” |
Account & invoices
| Tool | Description | Example usage |
|---|---|---|
timen_get_me | Confirms who you are — your account, team, role, time zone, and whether a timer is running. | “Which team am I working in?” |
timen_list_invoices | Lists invoices (read-only; requires the invoice permission). | “Show my unpaid invoices.” |
Manage and disconnect
- Open Settings → AI assistants in Timen.
- Every connected assistant is listed with when it connected and whether it has read or read & write access.
- Click Disconnect to revoke its access immediately. It can’t reach your data again until you reconnect.
Security and privacy
- Assistants connect with a secure OAuth sign-in — your password is never shared.
- You choose read-only or read & write access, and you can change your mind by disconnecting and reconnecting.
- Removing or overwriting time is always confirmed before it happens.
- Disconnecting from Settings → AI assistants revokes access right away.