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Native Soil is an official ChatGPT app · it's in ChatGPT's app directory, so you add it in one click.

Add Native Soil in ChatGPT →

Opens the app in ChatGPT's directory. Click Add there and that is the whole setup.

1. Open the Native Soil app in ChatGPT's directory using the button above and click Add. No client id, secret, or connector URL to paste · the directory listing wires it up for you.

2. Sign in when prompted · with Google, or with email and password. Then turn on Reference memories and chats (see below) and, in a conversation where you've done real work, type soil save. (If you just want to confirm the connection, soil info does that, but the real proof is a save you can load back.)

Before your first save: turn on Reference memories and chats

In the Soil connector's Preferences, enable Reference memories and chats. This is what lets ChatGPT pass your accumulated project context to Soil; with it off, saves capture only the visible thread. It is the single biggest lever on save quality, so do this before you type soil save.

With it off, Soil saves just what is in the current thread: an honest handover, but a thin one. Turn it on and a save captures the whole project · its locked decisions, structure, and conventions · not only the visible chat.

Alternative: add it as a custom connector

You don't need this · the app directory is the one-click way in. But if you or your organization prefer the raw MCP URL, ChatGPT's Developer mode still lets you add Soil as a custom connector:

1. In ChatGPT, open Settings → Connectors and, under Advanced settings, turn on Developer mode. This is what lets you add a custom MCP connector by URL.

2. Back on Connectors, add a custom connector named "Soil" with the Soil MCP URL. You don't supply a client id or secret · Soil's OAuth bridge does Dynamic Client Registration:

   https://mcp.nativesoil.dev/mcp/soil

3. Sign in when prompted · with Google, or with email and password. Then turn on Reference memories and chats (see the section above) and type soil save in a conversation where you've done real work. (If you just want to confirm the connection, soil info does that.)

If Soil's tools go missing in a long chat

In a very long or old conversation, ChatGPT can stop exposing a connector's tools to that specific chat · the model will say the Soil tools are not available here, or that it cannot run soil info. This is a ChatGPT limitation in how it carries connectors across long chats, not a Soil outage.

Soil fails safe when this happens: it never shows a fabricated "Saved" card. A save counts only when the tool returns a numeric #NNN load code · if you did not get a #NNN, it did not save, no matter what the chat says. Your soil list (and the console) is the source of truth: if it is not there, it did not save.

The fix is simple: start a new chat · the tools return immediately · and run your save there. Saving early and often, under stable #names, keeps your project's continuity safe well before a chat ever grows that long.

If the thread still holds a working state you can't easily recreate, you can save it out instead of abandoning it: Save a project from a thread that is out of room walks through running a prompt that has the model write the project's state out as a record, then pasting that record into Soil's Import page, which stores it as a normal handover with its own #NNN load code.

Use Soil

The commands are the same in every client · same grammar, same account. You type them in plain language in the conversation; the model calls the matching Soil tool. @ says where, # says which:

soil save                       save this conversation as a graded handover
soil save #my-name              save under your own name · kept, never overwritten
soil save #my-name @project     add to a shared project · either order
soil list                       your handovers · soil list @project for a team
soil load #001                  load by exact code · by name: soil load #my-thread
soil load @project              whole-project restore · #NNN or #name for one thread
soil info                       your account status · the connection check

Save in this client, load in any other. See the soil commands for details and the reference for every form.