# Ask without signing in: the public tools | Busymate AI

Source: https://busymate.ai/docs/guides/public-tools
Busymate AI answers questions about the platform itself to anyone — no account needed — on the site's assistant widget and on the MCP server. Both answer from the same small set of **public tools**: read-only facts about the platform, never anything about an account, a workspace or a customer. This guide shows how to try them, how to reach them from your own MCP client, and where the line to private data is.

## The public tools

| Tool | Answers |
|---|---|
| `get_platform_pricing` | How the platform is priced — per workspace, metered by conversations and model spend, white-label and custom domains included — and the published app plans. Never a number that is not published. |
| `get_platform_overview` | What the platform is and does, with the public pages and their summaries. |
| `search_platform_docs` | A full-text search over these docs: the explanation pages, the guides and the glossary. |
| `get_platform_status` | The running version and build, and the public surfaces (site, chat, console, docs, MCP). |
| `get_platform_contact` | How to reach a person: the contact page, sign-in, and the in-chat hand-off. |
| `get_bro_capabilities` | What the assistant can do for a visitor who has not signed in — and what it cannot. |
| `get_whitelabel_overview` | How white-label works: your name, your address, the one-script widget, signed-in customers, your own tools over MCP, and the hand-off to your team. |

Every public tool is a read. No argument selects a person or a workspace, no answer carries a secret, and every call is rate-limited per visitor.

## 1. Ask on the site

Open the marketing site and press **Try the demo** (or the assistant button in the bottom corner). The panel that opens is the platform's own white-label assistant — the same widget every workspace can embed — running as an anonymous visitor of the platform workspace. Ask it what the platform costs, how white-label works, or whether it can see your account; each answer comes from one of the tools above, and the assistant says which.

## 2. Connect an MCP client

The same tools are served to any MCP client that connects to the management server without signing in. Add the server to Claude Code:

{{snippet:claude-code}}

Or paste the equivalent client configuration:

{{snippet:mcp-config}}

Without a session the client's tool list is exactly the seven public tools. Signing in through the server's OAuth flow replaces that list with the management tools your role allows.

## 3. Know where the line is

A visitor without a sign-in cannot see or change any account, workspace or customer data, cannot be quoted a price that is not published, and cannot have the assistant act on their behalf — no writes, no sign-ups, no orders. Ask the assistant; `get_bro_capabilities` says the same in the chat. To talk about your own workspace, sign in and open the full chat; to give your own customers a signed-in experience on your own assistant, follow [Recognize signed-in customers](https://busymate.ai/docs/guides/identified-visitors).

## 4. Use the same mechanism for your workspace

When you [connect your MCP server](https://busymate.ai/docs/guides/connect-mcp-server), each of its tools gets an access level — **public** (any visitor), **identified** (a signed-in customer) or **delegated** (a signed-in customer, acting through your systems). Your public tools are what your own site widget answers from before a customer signs in; the platform's public tools are simply that policy applied to the platform's own workspace.

## Verify

1. On the marketing site, ask the widget "what does it cost?" — the reply names the per-workspace, metered model and points at the [pricing page](https://busymate.ai/pricing) rather than inventing a number.
2. Ask "can you see my account?" — the reply says no, and tells you to sign in.
3. From an MCP client with no session, list the tools: exactly seven, all named `get_*` or `search_*`; calling any management tool returns an authorization challenge, not a result.

<!-- qa:start -->
### Does the site assistant know anything about me?
No. It runs as an anonymous visitor of the platform workspace with the seven public tools only. Nothing about an account, a workspace or a customer is reachable until you sign in.

### Why is the unsigned tool list so short?
Because the advertised set is the callable set. A client is never shown a tool it will then be refused; the management tools appear once a signed-in session is presented.

### Can a public tool ever write anything?
No. Every public tool is a read of platform facts the site already publishes, and the tier cannot admit a write by construction.

### Where do the prices come from?
From the published pricing contract and the published app store record. If a figure is not published, the answer points you to the [contact page](https://busymate.ai/contact) instead.
<!-- qa:end -->

## Next

- **[Connect your MCP server as assistant tools](https://busymate.ai/docs/guides/connect-mcp-server)** — the access levels and the confirmation card, for your own workspace.
- **[Recognize signed-in customers](https://busymate.ai/docs/guides/identified-visitors)** — the identity that unlocks account tools.
- **[Connecting your systems (MCP)](https://busymate.ai/docs/connectors)** — the explanation behind the guide.