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Connect via OpenAI API

Prerequisites

An OpenAI API account with Responses API access
An umk_live_ API key from app.uptimemonitoring.com — see Authentication

Connect

Use the mcp tool type in a Responses API request. This example restricts allowed_tools to the read-only list_monitors for safe verification — remove the restriction to enable write tools in production:

curl https://api.openai.com/v1/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4o",
    "tools": [
      {
        "type": "mcp",
        "server_label": "uptimemonitoring",
        "server_url": "https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/mcp",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer umk_live_..."
        },
        "allowed_tools": ["list_monitors"]
      }
    ],
    "input": "List my UptimeMonitoring monitors."
  }'

Replace umk_live_... with your UptimeMonitoring API key. Keep the two keys separate: OPENAI_API_KEY (sk-...) is your OpenAI credential; umk_live_... is your UptimeMonitoring credential.

Auth modes

Use case	Method
Backend-to-backend / server agent	Pass `Authorization: Bearer umk_live_...` in the `headers` field (shown above)
User-facing agent with OAuth	Pass the user’s OAuth access token via the `authorization` field of the MCP tool config instead of `headers.Authorization`

To enable write tools (create_monitor, update_monitor, delete_monitor) in production, remove allowed_tools and handle the mcp_approval_request events in the response stream, or set require_approval: "never" only after confirming user intent in your application layer.

Verify

Run the curl call above. The response should include a tool call to list_monitors and a follow-up assistant message summarising your monitors.

Common errors

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`401` from UptimeMonitoring	Wrong key in `headers.Authorization`	Confirm the key starts with `umk_live_` — do not use your OpenAI key here
MCP tool ignored by model	Older model version without `mcp` tool support	Switch to `gpt-4o` or a later model
Server not found	URL typo	The endpoint is `https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/mcp`, not `mcp.uptimemonitoring.com`

See also