Use Frontside inside ChatGPT and Claude
Frontside has a connector for AI assistants.Add it once, then ask your assistant where to surf, and it answers from Frontside's forecast: the breaks of an area ranked for the day, each with its rating, wave height, wind, swell period and best hours, and a link to the break's page. It needs no account and keeps nothing about you.
The connector, in one table
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is its address? | https://frontside.live/mcp - a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. |
| Does it need a login? | No. There is no account, no key and nothing to sign in to. |
| What can it do? | Three things, all read-only: look up a surf area or break, rank an area's breaks for a day, and give one break's forecast for the days ahead. |
| Which day can you ask about? | Today, tomorrow, or a date within about a week. |
| Where does it work? | Surf areas such as Peniche, Ericeira and the Algarve in Portugal, Canggu and Uluwatu in Bali, and the North Shore of Oahu. Ask it for an area and it says what it has. |
| What does it keep about you? | Nothing. It counts that a request was made, never what was asked or who asked. |
How do you add it?
In Claude: open Settings, then Connectors, choose to add a custom connector, and paste the address https://frontside.live/mcp/claude. Once Frontside is in Claude's connector directory you can pick it from the list instead.
In ChatGPT: open Settings, then Apps and connectors, and add a connector with the address https://frontside.live/mcp/chatgpt. Adding a connector by its address needs developer mode switched on; once Frontside is in ChatGPT's app directory you can add it from there.
Any other assistant that speaks the Model Context Protocol can use the same address. It answers plain JSON over HTTPS, with no sign-in step.
What can you ask?
Ask the way you would ask a friend who checks the forecast. "Where should I surf near Peniche today?" ranks the breaks around Peniche for today. "Rank the breaks around Canggu for tomorrow" does the same for tomorrow. "What does Pipeline look like this week?" gives one break, a line a day.
A whole country is too many breaks to rank in one answer, so for "Portugal" it lists the areas it has and you pick one.
What does an answer hold?
For each break: a rating in Frontside's own words (Flat, Poor, Poor to Fair, Fair, Fair to Good, Good, Epic), the wave height in metres and feet, the swell period, the wind and what it is doing to the surface, the best hours where the day has any, and a link to the break's page on Frontside.
The rating is the best hour still ahead in daylight, the same rule the app uses. An answer about a morning that has already gone says so: "was Fair at 8am".
Answers are summaries, up to fifteen breaks at a time. The connector does not hand out the hour-by-hour table.
What should you know before you paddle out?
It is a forecast, not a safety call. It does not know the rip, the crowd, the rocks or your ability. On a big day the answer says so, and the decision in the water is yours.
The numbers are the app's. Two things the app does in your browser are not in the connector yet: where a coastal weather station exists, the app corrects today's hours with the wind that was measured, and it uses the tide to choose between two equally rated hours.
Common questions
Do I need a Frontside account to use the connector?
No. Frontside has no accounts. The connector answers anyone who asks, and there is nothing to sign in to.
What does Frontside learn about me when I ask through an assistant?
Nothing that identifies you. The assistant sends the name of the surf area or break; Frontside sends back the forecast. We count that a request was made, which of the three tools it used, which region it was about and which assistant it came through. We do not keep the words you asked, your address, your location or any identifier of you or your conversation.
Is it the same forecast as the Frontside app?
Yes. The connector reads the same forecast table and uses the same rating rules as the app, so a break reads the same word in both, apart from the measured-wind and tide details described above.
Where does the forecast come from?
Frontside's own model rates each break from wave and weather data by Open-Meteo, which is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. Every answer carries that credit.
Which assistants does it work with?
Claude and ChatGPT, and any other assistant that can connect to a Model Context Protocol server by its address.
Who do I write to if it gives a wrong answer or stops working?
hello@frontside.live. Say which break and which day, and what the assistant answered.