MCP scopes
The permissions an MCP connection can be granted, what each allows, which are on by default, and which tools need them.
A connection can do only what it was granted. A person chooses these permissions on Inkwave's consent page when they connect an assistant by signing in, and the owner or an admin chooses them when creating an API key on Settings, MCP. They can be changed later with Manage permissions, and the change applies to the connection's next request. For the tools themselves, see MCP tools.
A signed-in connection is also capped by the person's role in the publication, checked on every request: it can never do more than they can.
Scopes
Needs means granting the scope also grants that one. Includes means the scope also allows what that one allows.
| Scope | Name | What it allows | On by default | Needs | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
read | Connection enabled | Required. Marks the connection as live. On a signed-in connection it grants nothing on its own: everything it may see or change is listed separately. On an API key created before 16 October 2026 whose permissions have not been saved since, it also grants audience:read, posts:read, subscribers:read: see below. | yes | ||
audience:read | Audience overview | List size, growth over time, engagement and deliverability. No individual subscribers. | yes | ||
subscribers:read | Subscriber list | Individual subscribers — names, status, plan and when they joined. Not their email addresses. | yes | ||
subscribers:email | Subscriber email addresses | Adds email addresses to the subscriber list. These are sent to the connected application and may be stored in its logs. Leave this off unless the assistant genuinely needs to identify people. | no | subscribers:read | |
posts:read | Post performance | Opens, clicks, bounces and web views for posts you have already published. | yes | ||
notifications:read | Notifications | Lets the assistant read your notifications for this publication — failed sends, people waiting to join, finished imports, new comments. Only the ones addressed to you, and only for this publication. Email addresses inside them are shown only if you also allow email addresses. | no | ||
revenue:read | Revenue and paid subscribers | Lets the assistant read what your publication earns — monthly and annual recurring revenue, churn, refunds, your pricing tiers, and who is subscribed to each. Only owners and admins can grant this. Subscriber email addresses appear only if you also allow email addresses. | no | ||
audience:write | Organise your audience | Lets the assistant create and edit subscriber tags, custom fields and segments, and move subscribers between them. It cannot delete anything, and it cannot send email. | no | subscribers:read | |
content:write | Organise your posts | Lets the assistant create tags and guest authors, and put them on your posts. It cannot publish or send a post, and it cannot delete anything. | no | posts:read | |
forms:write | Build forms and surveys | Lets the assistant build and edit polls, surveys and signup forms. It cannot publish them, cannot delete them, and cannot see the answers people have already submitted. | no | ||
automations:write | Build automations | Lets the assistant build automation flows and their steps. It cannot switch an automation on, cannot change one that is already running, and cannot delete anything. | no | ||
posts:write | Write draft posts | Lets the assistant write new draft posts. It cannot publish or send one, cannot schedule it, and cannot change a post you are already working on. Every draft waits for you to open it. | no | posts:read | |
content:delete | Delete | Lets the assistant delete drafts, tags, guest authors, segments, signup forms and switched-off automations. This cannot be undone. It can never delete a poll, a survey, a preference group or a subscriber tag — those hold answers, votes and choices your readers gave you. | no | ||
publish | Send and publish | Lets the assistant publish a post to your subscribers, and switch automations on and off. A published post is EMAILED IMMEDIATELY and cannot be recalled; a switched-on automation starts mailing people on its own. Leave this off unless you want an assistant sending on your behalf. | no | ||
recommendations:write | Manage recommendations | Lets the assistant add, remove, feature and reorder the newsletters you recommend. These appear PUBLICLY on your site and to people subscribing, as an endorsement in your name. Nothing is emailed, and anything added can be removed again. | no | ||
notifications:write | Change notification settings | Lets the assistant turn your own notifications on and off — things like ‘newsletter sent’ or ‘new comment’. These settings belong to your account, so they apply everywhere you are a member, not just this publication. Alerts you cannot miss — a failed send, someone waiting to join, a finished import — cannot be turned off by anyone. | no | notifications:read | |
website:read | View your website | Lets the assistant see your website: its pages and addresses, the theme it uses, and the words on any page. This includes pages you have not published yet, so unpublished drafts are visible to it before they are visible to anyone else. | no | ||
website:write | Build your website | Lets the assistant build your website: add, change, move, duplicate and remove any block on your pages, navbar and footer, add ready-made sections, adjust sizes and spacing, change its colours and fonts, and create, rename, hide, reorder and delete pages. Changes to your pages, navbar and footer wait in your draft until they are published — by you in Inkwave, or by the assistant only if you also allow it to publish your website. This permission cannot publish, and it cannot add or change custom HTML. Two changes do not wait: a new colour palette or font pairing applies to your live site immediately, and deleting a page removes it from your live site at once, along with its earlier versions, and cannot be undone. | no | website:read | |
website:publish | Publish your website | Lets the assistant put your website's draft live: the pages, navbar and footer it names, which readers see immediately. Before publishing it must look at what will change against your live site, and if anyone edits a page after it looked, that publish is refused rather than putting the unseen change live. It cannot publish a site you have never published yourself, schedule a publish, or cancel one you scheduled. Your team is notified of every publish, and an earlier version can be restored in Inkwave. | no | website:read | |
comments:read | Read comments on your posts | Lets the assistant read the comments readers leave on your posts, including ones waiting for approval that nobody has seen yet, along with your comment insights, the readers you have banned and why, and your comment settings. It sees each comment, the commenter's display name and which post it is on — not their email address, unless you also allow email addresses. | no | ||
comments:moderate | Moderate comments | Lets the assistant approve, hide and restore comments on your posts. These changes are live the moment they are made — there is no draft and no publish step, so an approved comment is visible to readers immediately and a hidden one disappears from the page immediately. Deleting comments permanently and banning commenters are separate permissions, and it can never reply to anyone as you. | no | comments:read | |
comments:rules | Change comment settings | Lets the assistant change how comments work across your whole site: turn comments on or off, choose which new comments are held for approval, and edit the blocked words, the link limit, the ordering, the edit window and reply notifications. Every change applies to every post and every reader the moment it is saved — turning comments off closes them on every post at once. | no | comments:read | |
comments:ban | Ban and unban commenters | Lets the assistant ban a reader from commenting on your site, and lift a ban. A ban takes effect immediately and stops that person posting new comments; comments they already posted stay as they are. This is a decision about a person rather than a comment, so leave it off unless you want an assistant making it. | no | comments:read | |
comments:delete | Delete comments permanently | Lets the assistant permanently delete comments on your posts. This cannot be undone. Deleting a comment that starts a conversation also stops its replies from showing on your site. Hiding a comment takes it down and keeps it recoverable, which is usually all moderation needs. | no | comments:read |
What read means on an API key
Every credential carries read. On an API key created before 16 October 2026, read also stands for audience:read, posts:read, subscribers:read, because API keys were read-only before they had a permission list, and keys issued then still work. That stops the first time the key's permissions are saved in Manage permissions on or after 16 October 2026, which shows those reads ticked: from then on the key has exactly what is ticked. Keys created since 16 October 2026 never get it: they have exactly what was ticked when they were created. It never gains a write scope or subscribers:email this way. A signed-in connection gets no such expansion: it has exactly what was ticked.
Tools by scope
Where a tool needs different scopes for different actions, the actions are named.
| Scope | Tools |
|---|---|
read | Every tool needs it. Nothing more is needed for get_my_access, get_publication_setup, list_my_publications. |
audience:read | get_audience_overview |
subscribers:read | search_subscribers |
subscribers:email | Never required, but adds to what these return: get_comment_insights, get_comment_queue, get_notifications, get_paid_subscriptions, manage_comment_bans, search_subscribers |
posts:read | draft_newsletter (get, list), get_newsletter_performance, get_post_content |
notifications:read | get_notifications, manage_notification_preferences (list) |
revenue:read | get_paid_subscriptions |
audience:write | manage_custom_fields, manage_preference_groups, manage_segments, manage_subscriber_tags |
content:write | manage_content_tags, manage_guest_authors |
forms:write | build_poll, build_subscribe_form, build_survey |
automations:write | build_automation |
posts:write | draft_newsletter (every action except get, list), set_newsletter_thumbnail |
content:delete | delete_entity |
publish | publish_content |
recommendations:write | manage_recommendations |
notifications:write | manage_notification_preferences (every action except list) |
website:read | get_block_catalogue, get_website_overview, preview_website_publish, read_website_page |
website:write | compose_website_page, design_website_theme, edit_website_blocks, manage_website_pages |
website:publish | publish_website |
comments:read | get_comment_insights, get_comment_queue, manage_comment_bans (list), manage_comment_settings (get) |
comments:moderate | moderate_comments (every action except delete) |
comments:rules | manage_comment_settings (every action except get) |
comments:ban | manage_comment_bans (every action except list) |
comments:delete | moderate_comments (delete) |