Integration
MCP for Attentive: Claude, reading your SMS programme with your own key.
You run SMS on Attentive. The list is growing, the shopping-behaviour journeys are earning their keep, and the last thing you want is a compliance misstep — texting is unforgiving about consent in a way email never was. So before you touch anything you check the subscriber's opt-in state, you sanity-check which journey a given event actually triggers, and you keep one eye on the quiet-hours and STOP-keyword rails. Ask Claude for help and it gives you good advice about all of it. Generic advice. It has never seen this subscriber's consent record or the events feeding your journeys. An MCP for Attentive — a way to hand Claude your own API key instead of general knowledge — is what closes that gap. Claude stops describing the check and starts running it against your real account.
What "MCP" actually means here.
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard from Anthropic that lets Claude reach outside the chat window. Think of it as a plugin system, except the plugins don't add small features — they give Claude entirely new capabilities: tools that read your data and take real actions. Orbit is one such MCP, built for lifecycle and messaging work. Install it, connect an Attentive API key, and Claude gains the ability to read a subscriber's consent state and feed your journeys — and, only when you grant it, write more. Orbit is not an official Attentive product; it's an independent MCP that calls Attentive's public API with the key you provide, and nothing leaves your machine except the calls to Attentive you configured. The full walk-through of what an MCP is and how it changes the work lives on the MCP for marketing page →.
What Orbit does with Attentive today.
No hand-waving, and no pretending SMS is email. Attentive's public API is built for per-subscriber lookup and event ingestion rather than the bulk reporting an email ESP exposes, so the honest table below is narrower than our email pages — and we'd rather show you that than dress it up. Where there's a limit, it's named. We separate three things: what Attentive's API genuinely allows, what the API simply doesn't surface, and what Orbit holds back on purpose because it's read-only-first and the action is a high-consequence write.
Check the connection
Works todayOrbit verifies the API key is live and returns the account it's bound to, so there's no guessing about whether you're actually connected before an audit starts.
Read a subscriber's consent state
Works todayFor a given phone number or email, Orbit reads which subscription types and channels — text or email, marketing or transactional — that person is opted into, and whether the opt-in is active. This is the consent check that has to run before anything is ever sent.
Sync a custom attribute onto a subscriber
Works todayOrbit can write a custom attribute — a tier, a lifecycle stage, a last-purchase date — onto a subscriber so your journeys can branch on it. A write, so it stays behind a scope you grant on purpose.
Send ecommerce and custom events
Works todayProduct views, add-to-carts, purchases, and your own custom events feed Attentive's journeys — the trigger layer the whole automation side runs on. Orbit can send these when you grant the scope, so a journey you already built fires on real behaviour.
Audit subscriber growth
Partial — named limitAttentive's public API is built for per-subscriber lookup, not a bulk list export or aggregate count — growth curves live in the Attentive dashboard. Orbit reasons about growth from the per-subscriber reads it can pull and the exports you bring, and it says so rather than inventing a total.
Audit a journey
Partial — named limitJourney configuration isn't broadly exposed through the public API, so Orbit reviews the trigger events feeding a journey and the logic you describe or export, rather than reading every node natively. It's a real review of the flow's shape and its consent posture, scoped to what the API actually surfaces.
Opt a subscriber in
Partial — named limitSubscribing a number is possible through the API, but it's the highest-consequence write on an SMS platform — it asserts consent. Orbit will only do it for a number you can prove gave express written consent, never a bulk list import, and it stays behind a scope you grant deliberately.
Fire a bulk SMS campaign
Held back by designAttentive builds and schedules campaigns in its own UI; there's no fire-a-blast endpoint. A paid, compliance-bearing bulk send to real phone numbers is exactly the line Orbit holds by default — read-only-first means the blast stays in your hands, in Attentive, on purpose. Not an API dead-end, a deliberate line.
The short version: Orbit reads a subscriber's consent state, feeds your journeys with the events that trigger them, and reviews the flow logic and the compliance rails — all through your own key. What it won't do is fire a bulk campaign or subscribe a number it can't prove has consent. On SMS, those are the two lines that matter most, and they stay yours.
The compliance reality of SMS.
This is where SMS diverges hardest from email. A text lands in the same inbox as a message from someone's mother, so the rules are stricter and the penalties are real. Orbit reads the consent state and reasons about the rails — it does not give legal advice, and a question specific to your programme belongs with your own counsel. But the mechanics are worth stating plainly.
- Express written consent comes first.Under the US TCPA, a marketing text needs the recipient's prior express written consent — typically captured by a signup unit before the first message. You can't import a list and start texting. Orbit's first move on any subscriber is to read the opt-in state and flag a number whose consent it can't verify.
- Quiet hours and STOP / HELP.Marketing texts are restricted to reasonable local hours, and STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, and HELP keywords must be honoured immediately. Attentive enforces much of this at the platform — quiet hours and opt-out handling are built in — which is one reason it's a strong SMS home. Orbit reasons on top of those rails rather than trying to reimplement them.
- 10DLC and the carrier layer.Application-to-person SMS in the US runs over registered 10DLC numbers, and the CTIA guidelines shape what carriers will actually deliver. This lives below the API, but it's the reason a well-formed message can still be filtered — context Claude can hold when it reasons about your programme.
None of this needs write access. Reading a subscriber's consent and reasoning about the rails runs on a read-scoped key — which is exactly how you should start.
How to connect it.
One credential, and you decide how much it can do. In Attentive, an admin generates an API key from the account settings and grants it a set of permissions. Paste that key into Orbit's config and you're connected.
- Start with read permissions only.Grant the key the permission to read subscription state and nothing that can write or send. That key runs the consent read and the journey review on this page and physically cannot mutate your account. It's the read-only-first posture enforced at the source.
- Widen only when you want writes. Add the permission to sync attributes or send events when you want Orbit feeding your journeys. Each is a deliberate step — and on an SMS platform, where a write can assert consent or trigger a paid message, that deliberateness is the point.
The key is stored as a secret and never leaves your machine in plain text. If the key is missing a permission for something you ask, Orbit tells you which one to add rather than failing silently.
Where Orbit is deepest — and where it isn't.
Straight talk, because SMS is where over-claiming would be easiest. Orbit's lifecycle depth is email-first: its MJML pipeline, its render-and-QA gate, its subject-line and preheader scoring are all built for the email inbox. Its deepest single-platform integration is Braze, where a handful of tools are built around concepts that only exist there — Canvas flows, Content Blocks, its media library.
For Attentive, that shapes an honest fit: Orbit is genuinely useful beside your SMS programme — reading consent, feeding journeys, reviewing the flow and the rails, and bringing the lifecycle discipline that makes a text worth sending — but Attentive is the SMS-native specialist, and Orbit doesn't pretend to replace it. The portable work travels; the channel expertise stays with the platform built for it.
The half that isn't about the API at all.
Reading Attentive is the connection. The reason to bother is everything Claude does once it's connected. Orbit ships 79 lifecycle skills — structured protocols for the actual jobs: reviewing a journey, laddering a win-back, writing a message that respects the channel, scoring the hook. Those are channel-agnostic; the discipline of a good lifecycle programme is the same whether the send is a text or an email.
Underneath sit 130 tools — the calculators a real test needs: sample size, holdout, replenishment timing, the maths behind an RFM cut. Attentive gives you the SMS channel and the consent rails. Orbit is the practitioner sitting next to them, reasoning about the programme the same way you do.
Is this for you?
This is for the ecommerce marketer who runs SMS on Attentive and wants a straight read on it — the person watching the subscriber list, minding the consent state, and making sure the right journey fires on the right event. If that's your week, Orbit hands you a Claude that reads the real state through a key you scoped yourself, and reasons about the compliance rails without pretending to be your lawyer. It's a weaker fit if you want a tool that runs the SMS programme for you — Attentive already does the SMS-native part better, and Orbit's depth is email-first. What it gives you is a Claude that works like a lifecycle practitioner instead of a search engine, and a straight answer about what your platform can and can't do, which is rarer than it should be.
Try it.
Orbit is free — every skill and tool included, no seats and no subscription. Generate a read-scoped Attentive key, paste it in, and Claude goes from advisor to a real read on your SMS programme the same afternoon.
Run a different platform?
The same honest treatment, per platform:
Frequently asked.
What is an MCP for Attentive?
An MCP — Model Context Protocol, an open standard from Anthropic — gives Claude real tools instead of general knowledge. Connected to Attentive through Orbit with your own API key, Claude can read a subscriber's consent state, sync custom attributes, and feed Attentive's journeys with the ecommerce events they trigger on — rather than describing what you should do and leaving the doing to you. It is not an official Attentive product; it is an independent MCP that calls Attentive's public API with the key you provide.
Is SMS different from email here?
Yes, and it's the whole point of this page. SMS carries a heavier consent and compliance load than email — express written consent before the first marketing text, quiet-hours rules, and mandatory STOP and HELP handling — so the read-first work on Attentive leans toward consent and journey review, not a deliverability teardown. And the honest caveat runs the other way too: Orbit's own lifecycle depth is email-first. It is genuinely useful next to an SMS programme — reading consent, feeding journeys, reviewing the rails — but it is not an SMS-native platform, and Attentive is. We would rather say that plainly than oversell.
What can Orbit read in Attentive?
Less than an email ESP exposes, and we won't pretend otherwise. Attentive's public API is built for per-subscriber lookup and event ingestion rather than bulk reporting, so Orbit verifies the connection and reads a given subscriber's subscription state — which subscription types and channels, text or email, that person is opted into, and whether the opt-in is active. Aggregate subscriber-growth curves and campaign performance live in the Attentive dashboard, not the API, so Orbit reasons about growth from what you can pull per subscriber and what you export, not from a native count. Journey configuration isn't broadly exposed either, so a journey audit reviews the trigger events and the logic you describe or export.
How does Orbit handle SMS consent and compliance?
It reads the consent state and reasons about the rails; it does not give legal advice. US SMS marketing runs under the TCPA and the CTIA guidelines: you need express written consent before a marketing text, sends are restricted to reasonable local hours, STOP and HELP keywords must be honoured, and A2P traffic needs 10DLC registration. Attentive enforces much of this for you — quiet hours and opt-out keywords are handled at the platform. Orbit's part is to read a subscriber's opt-in status before anything is sent, flag a number whose consent it can't verify, and keep every write behind a scope you grant on purpose. It surfaces the mechanics; a compliance question for your programme still belongs with your own counsel.
Can Orbit send a text or fire a campaign through Attentive?
No bulk campaign — and that's deliberate. Attentive builds and schedules campaigns in its own UI, and there's no fire-a-blast endpoint to route around; a paid, compliance-bearing bulk send to real phone numbers is exactly the line Orbit holds by default. What Orbit can do, when you grant the scope, is send the custom and ecommerce events that trigger a journey you already built — a product view, an add-to-cart, a purchase — so the message that goes out is one you designed and Attentive's own consent and quiet-hours rails still govern. The blast stays yours, in Attentive, on purpose.
Is Attentive the right home for a whole lifecycle programme?
Attentive is strongest as an SMS-native ecommerce channel — the layer that grows a subscriber list through signup units, runs consent and quiet hours correctly, and turns shopping behaviour into sends through its journeys. For SMS, it is the specialist. Where a programme needs deep, cross-channel journeys that weave email and SMS together, or true incrementality testing across a large audience, a lifecycle-native platform like Braze is the graduation. Orbit is deepest on Braze and email-first overall — so it sits well beside Attentive on the strategy, consent, and copy side, and the discipline travels with you if the programme grows.