How to Connect ChatGPT to Stow (Step-by-Step Setup Guide)

ChatGPT now supports external tool integrations — which means you can give GPT-4 access to your Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion, and more. With Stow as the policy layer, every tool call ChatGPT makes goes through your permissions, gets logged, and stays within the boundaries you define.

This guide walks through connecting ChatGPT to Stow. The setup takes about five minutes, and the result is a ChatGPT that can act on your tools without acting beyond your rules.

How the Architecture Works

Once connected, ChatGPT routes all tool requests through Stow before they reach your services:

Stow evaluates every request against your policy before executing it. Actions outside your configured permissions are blocked. Everything is logged regardless of outcome.

Before You Start: Developer Mode

Step 1: Create an Agent in Stow

Before configuring ChatGPT, create an agent in your Stow dashboard:

• Navigate to AI Agents in the sidebar
• Click + Add Agent
• Name it (e.g., "ChatGPT") and select the ChatGPT icon
• Click Create Agent

On the Agent Configuration page, select ChatGPT from the Implementation Methods and copy the provided application URL. You'll paste this into ChatGPT in the next steps.

Step 2: Enable Developer Mode in ChatGPT

• Open ChatGPT and click your name in the bottom left
• Go to Settings → Apps
• Click Advanced settings
• Toggle on Developer Mode

Step 3: Create the Stow App in ChatGPT

• In the same Apps section, click Create app
• Give it a name — "Stow" works well
• Paste the application URL from your Stow dashboard into the URL field
• Click Save

ChatGPT will immediately initiate the OAuth flow. You'll be redirected to Stow to authorize the connection. Complete the flow and you'll be sent back to ChatGPT with the integration active.

Step 4: Verify in the Stow Dashboard

After completing the OAuth flow, navigate to AI Agents in your Stow dashboard. You should see your ChatGPT agent listed as active with its Security Baseline recorded — the IP, ASN, and region captured on first connect.

Run a test in ChatGPT: ask it to list the tools it has available through Stow. You should see the capabilities from your connected services. Check the Activity Log in Stow — the request should appear as executed.

What You Can Do Now

With ChatGPT connected to Stow and your services configured, try prompts like:

Each of these requests passes through your Stow permission policy before any action is taken. If ChatGPT tries to do something outside your allowed operations — like sending an email when you've only allowed reading — it's blocked and logged.

How ChatGPT Connects vs. How Cursor Connects

ChatGPT authenticates with Stow via OAuth — you authorize the connection through a standard web flow and no credentials are handled manually. This is the same mechanism Claude Desktop uses.

Cursor, by contrast, uses an SSE URL with your agent credentials embedded directly in a JSON config file. If you're setting up multiple agents, make sure you're using the right authentication method for each.

What Gets Logged

Every ChatGPT tool call through Stow is recorded in your Activity Log.