Assistant Security and Quotas

How COLA Cloud assistant integrations handle data sharing, connection grants, quotas, and revocation.

What the Assistant Can Access

When you connect an assistant to COLA Cloud, the assistant can call MCP tools against the same data your COLA Cloud account can access:

• 2005-forward COLA Registry records in the web/API product
• Label image URLs, extracted barcodes, and enrichment fields on detail records
• TTB permittee records
• TTB label approval processing-time metadata
• Your account usage summary

The assistant does not receive your API key from OAuth connections. ChatGPT and other OAuth-capable connector clients sign you in through COLA Cloud OAuth, and COLA Cloud maps that OAuth subject to your account. API-key MCP clients receive only the key you configure locally in that client.

Quotas

MCP usage shares the same quota system as the web app, REST API, SDKs, and CLI. COLA Cloud meters usage by returned records, not by raw HTTP request count.

Meter	Counts
Detail views	Single-record lookups such as get_cola, fetch for COLA IDs, and barcode detail expansion
List records	Items returned from list/search tools such as search, search_colas, and search_permittees
Open data	TTB processing-time metadata does not count against monthly quota

Current tier limits are listed in Authentication & Quotas.

Connection Grants

OAuth signs the user into the assistant connection. COLA Cloud stores COLA-specific connection grants on the linked connected-app record. Subscription and quota checks still happen on every paid call.

If OAuth succeeds but tool calls return oauth_connection_required, the OAuth subject has not been linked to an active COLA Cloud account yet.

Grant	Allows
colas:read	COLA searches, detail fetches, and barcode lookups
permittees:read	Permittee searches and detail fetches
open_data:read	TTB processing-time metadata
usage:read	Usage and quota status

Revocation

For OAuth connections, open Dashboard > Connected Apps in COLA Cloud to see linked assistant apps, scopes, connection time, last-used time, and support-safe identifiers. Revoking a connected app blocks future OAuth calls for that connection.

You can also remove the connector from ChatGPT or Claude settings. Removing it in the assistant stops that client from using the connector, but COLA Cloud’s Connected Apps page is the source of truth for blocking OAuth calls against your COLA Cloud account.

For API-key MCP clients, revoke the API key from Dashboard > API Keys.

Saved Searches

The public ChatGPT app and current public MCP tool surface are read-only. They do not create saved searches or billing changes.

Use Dashboard > Saved Searches in the COLA Cloud web app when you want durable daily, weekly, or monthly email alerts.

Prompt Injection and Source Data

COLA Registry data, label text, permittee names, and enrichment fields are untrusted source data. Assistants should treat returned text as records to analyze, not as instructions to follow.

The public ChatGPT app is read-only, but you should still review retrieved records and citations before using them in business or compliance workflows.