Tap Forms 5 (and maybe next version, too) and MCP

[JScottA]

Brendan, is it correct that Tap Forms 5 supports syncing data via Apache CouchDB? I am asking because I am looking to create an MCP server to connect Windsurf to TF5 for a datasource. Before I start down the road, I wanted to check with you. While I’m checking, have you explored MCP for connecting TP5 (or the upcoming new release) to GenAI?

[Brendan]

Hi JSCott,

I don’t know what MCP is I’m afraid. And I’m not familiar with Windsurf either.

Tap Forms 5 does support CouchDB for syncing. Tap Forms Pro will support WebDAV (but not CouchDB) for syncing on your own local network. The new version does connect to ChatGPT and DeepSeek (using your own API keys) to use AI for form building.

[JScottA]

Hi Brendan,

Thanks for the clarification on Tap Forms 5 and the upcoming Pro version—very helpful!

To clarify, MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a protocol developed by Anthropic to facilitate integration between generative AI services (such as Anthropic’s Claude chatbot or ChatGPT) and external data sources or tools—like databases for analysis, or computational engines such as Wolfram Alpha for mathematical processing.

For example, imagine that I have an extensive database on my mountain biking adventures. Yes, I’m aware you are a mountain biker! My database has a lot of details on things like locations, routes, equipment used, points of interest, notable events, maintenance, etc. Using MCP, I could easily connect an MCP supporting chatbot (currently Claude and soon to be ChatGPT, Gemini, and many others) and have discussions with the data. For example, I could ask the chatbot to generate an outline for a book based on my biking adventures outside of Canada. The chatbot would use my TF5 database to access all of the data related to my natural language query and output what I asked for and in the format that I requested it, in this case a story outline.

A business owner could collect all of the customer reviews and comments and use a chatbot to generate a sentiment analysis from the database.

Eventually (provided Apple gets actually gets a vision) I could use information a TF5 database combined with Shortcuts/AppleScript to power automation locally like Zapier can currently do over the internet. By the way, Zapier has created 7,000+ MCP connections for powering automations with generative AI. Game changing for the automation business.

That’s great for Zapier, but I’m looking for a more local solution and a local database that I can build an MCP server to use for my Chatbot to access would be very useful to me and maybe to my clients.

I know that you are trying to get a new version out the door. So rather than work through getting an MCP server up and running for TF5, I should wait for the next one. If you are able to share information on data syncing or even API access to the new database, that might be helpful.

[Brendan]

You will be able to use Shortcuts to call out to scripts to fetch data from Tap Forms Pro, so maybe that’s a avenue for you to integrate with these other system.

[Author]

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