Hosted vs local connectors

Hosted connectors

A hosted connector such as Site Audit runs on ToolCargo's servers. Your AI client sends it a request over HTTPS; it can reach anything that is available through its documented tools: public web pages or online services you connect with the required credentials. Nothing is installed on your computer.

What hosted connectors cannot do

ToolCargo's hosted endpoints do not browse your computer's folders, view your screen or control installed applications. They cannot open a PDF by its local Documents path or rename a file on your desktop. To process a file remotely, you or your client must send its contents explicitly.

Hosted PDF processing is available

ToolCargo's PDF MCP server can inspect PDFs, extract embedded text, merge or select pages, rotate pages and fill standard forms after your client sends the file bytes as base64. It can also create PDFs from images, Latin text or the documented HTML/Markdown subset. It does not open a local path, fetch a PDF URL or control Acrobat.

The combined binary input and generated output each have a 2 MiB limit, and documents have at most 100 pages. Your assistant must support sending and saving the file data. Read the PDF file-transfer instructions and processing and privacy limits before sharing a document. This hosted connector does not require a ToolCargo companion app.

Local companions (planned)

For desktop apps and local files, the connector itself has to run on your computer as a local MCP server. The plan for those connectors is:

• a small signed companion app you install once, which your AI client talks to locally;
• access limited to folders or apps you approve, with a preview before anything changes;
• your ToolCargo account used only for the licence and updates — file contents stay on your machine.

None of these companions exists yet. Photoshop Bridge and Local Files are listed as planned so we can measure interest before building and maintaining desktop software.