AI MCP and TapForms someday?

[PierreBn]

Hi,

This was already asked in April ( https://www.tapforms.com/forums/topic/tap-forms-5-and-maybe-next-version-too-and-mcp/ ), and Brendan you didn’t have any plans for this.

Just to check if this might have changed.
I am in any case very interested! ;)

My personal opinion on this:
As AI becomes more widespread, there is a good overlap between technical users who may use a personal database software like tapforms and those that use AI more and more. It is now perfectly possible for someone to develop a simple, personal, custom database just with a few prompts (albeit of course not as good and rich in functions as tapforms – but maybe enough for some).
Leveraging both AI and TapForms rich functions through an MCP connector would be the best of both worlds. An example of this: my note taking (with the open source Joplin) is now so much better thanks to their native MCP connector.
It’s not about doing everything with AI, it’s about selectively using is. Being able to read, update, analyze or sort my tapforms records through an AI would be amazing with a native MCP (the script workaround isn’t really as safe and/or powerful IMHO). I respectfully think AI integration is going to be key to long term success of software suites (while also respecting those who want nothing to do with AI); particularly for data oriented software solutions like tapforms.

Best,
Pierre

[Brendan]

Hi Pierre,

In the next 1.5 version of Tap Forms Pro I’ve added the ability to specify a custom URL and model name for the “Create Form with Fields” function. I know it’s not a full MCP connection for data analysis, but it’s a start.

But actually I had worked on a sort of Chatbot feature for Tap Forms Pro that would let you ask questions about Tap Forms using Apple Foundation Models, but there were too many limitations on it. And when I pointed the code at ChatGPT, I quickly ran out of tokens with just a single request because it had to send a whole bunch of data to ChatGPT before it could return a result. With small forms with a few records it was pretty good. But for larger forms with thousands of records, it wasn’t practical because of having to send sooo much data to the ChatGPT servers.

What sorts of prompts would you expect to be able to issue?

Thanks,

Brendan

[PierreBn]

Hi Brendan,

Thanks for the detailed reply! I’m glad to hear about the additional flexibility coming in 1.5, and it’s interesting to hear what you’ve already tried with the chatbot.

I can see the difficulty with sending thousands of records to a model. An MCP connection could let the AI retrieve only the records and fields it needs (through an MCP-driven search into tapforms), using an AI subscription many of us already have: with a compatible client, this could work within the AI subscription limits (ChatGPT Pro, Claude…), without buying separate API credits on top of ChatGPT Plus/Pro or a similar subscription. The connection between the AI desktop app and Tap Forms through an MCP would run locally on the Mac, between the desktop AI app and TapForms.

To answer your question, I use Tap Forms for many things, including my model railway collection. I already use AI to research models from their manufacturer and catalogue number, gather their specifications, and format the results according to my database fields. Currently, I have it generate a CSV file which I then import into Tap Forms (an MCP would allow me to also upload or modify attachments directly).

Some prompts I would find useful are for example:
– “Research this model and prepare a new record using my existing fields and naming conventions. Check whether I already own it before adding it.”
– “Find models with missing technical details, research those details, and show me the proposed updates with sources.”
– “Find possible duplicate records, allowing for variations in catalogue-number formatting.”
– “Check for inconsistent manufacturer names or railway-era notation, and propose corrections for me to review.”
– “Summarise my collection by manufacturer and era, including purchase totals where available, omit models <100 euros.”
– “Compare these newly announced models with my collection and tell me which ones I already have.”

As I mentioned in my original post, the Joplin MCP integration has made this kind of interaction very useful for my notes. I’d love to have that same continuity with Tap Forms: research something in an AI conversation, consult my existing records, then save the results back after reviewing them.

I know you’re developing Tap Forms on your own, and I appreciate the large work involved. Hopefully these examples give you a clearer picture of what I had in mind! Maybe other users have other use cases.
In any case, I still love TapForms ;)

Thanks again,
Pierre

• This reply was modified 1 day, 23 hours ago by PierreBn.
• This reply was modified 1 day, 23 hours ago by PierreBn.

[PierreBn]

(An other example, less specific):
For people using TapForms as home inventory system. Just scan a purchase receipt with the AI app. Have the AI scan the receipt, retrieve the item details and simply ask it to create a new record in the TapForms home inventory. Just one receipt to scan and one prompt, and all is already in Tapforms.

[Daniel Leu]

I wrote a TFP MCP but have been to busy to publicly release it… Currently it only allows retrieval of data and not creating new records, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to add.

Cheers, Daniel

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See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

[PierreBn]

Thanks Daniel, I have only hobby-developper coding notions, but I’ll have a look at your page and see what I can build on top of that and the official TapForms from Brendan!

Pierre

[Daniel Leu]

Right now, I haven’t posted the MCP script yet. Busy with other work.

Cheers, Daniel

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See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

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