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Security

Censys MCP connector

The Censys connector lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI clients look up hosts, certificates, web properties and DNS records in Censys through one governed Elaichi endpoint, with every call logged under the person who made it.

Connect on Elaichi How to connect

  • How it connects. Connects with an API key. The credential goes into a vault nobody reads back.

  • One address. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, the same for every user.

  • Their own access. An agent never gets more than the person it acts for.

How to connect

How to connect Censys to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

Two steps, about a minute.

1

In Elaichi

Connect Censys once

  1. Open Connections, choose Add connection, and pick Censys.

  2. Optionally set Share with to give a team access, then press Connect.

  3. Paste a Censys API key. One person generates a token in Censys and pastes it once. Everyone else works through Share with, and never sees it.

The credential is vaulted. Nobody reads it back, not even the AI.

Add connection

Choose a connector.

censys
Censys
Herd Security
Infisical
Intruder
Kisi
Orca Security
2

In your AI client

Point it at one endpoint

Everyone in the organization uses the same address, and each person only ever reaches what their own account allows.

Censys MCP connector for Claude

  1. 1

    Open Customize, then Connectors.

  2. 2

    Press Add.

  3. 3

    Name it, paste the MCP server URL, then Continue.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  4. 4

    Sign in and approve.

On Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds it once. Everyone else turns it on for themselves.

Censys MCP connector for ChatGPT

  1. 1

    Open Plugins, then press the + button.

  2. 2

    Name it and paste the endpoint into Server URL.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Leave Authentication on OAuth, then tick the risk acknowledgement.

  4. 4

    Press Create, then sign in and approve.

Works on the web today. The plugin directory lives at chatgpt.com/plugins.

Censys MCP connector for Cursor

  1. 1

    Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

  2. 2

    Add the endpoint under mcpServers.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Reload Cursor, then sign in and approve.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Set up per machine, so repeat it on each computer you work from.

Connect Censys to any MCP client

  1. 1

    Add the endpoint as a remote MCP server.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  2. 2

    Sign in and approve.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The Elaichi Agent already has these tools, with nothing to set up.

Connect Censys on Elaichi See pricing

Use cases

What teams do with Censys through Elaichi

Every one of these runs inside the access the person already has, and lands in the same audit log.

  • Security operations

    Check what an IP is exposing right now

    Ask for a Censys host by its address and get back the open services, software and location, then pull its service history to see what changed and when.

  • Threat intelligence

    Chase a suspicious certificate across the internet

    Look up a certificate in Censys by fingerprint, read the raw details, and find every host presenting it so a single indicator turns into a full picture.

  • Attack surface management

    Build a running inventory of external assets

    Run Censys searches for your organization's names and ranges, aggregate the results by service or location, and list the web properties that belong to you.

  • Incident response

    Reconstruct a host's timeline during an incident

    Pull the event history for a Censys host to see when services appeared, disappeared or changed, and enrich the record with everything Censys knows about it.

  • Vulnerability management

    Confirm a fix by rescanning the host

    After a patch or a firewall change, trigger a Censys rescan and check the scan result so the ticket closes on evidence rather than assumption.

  • IT and infrastructure

    Trace a domain to the addresses behind it

    Resolve a name to its IP ranges in Censys, or work backward from an address to the names pointing at it, to untangle what is really serving a site.

Try asking

  • “Show new Censys hosts added in the last week.”
  • “Which Censys certificates expire in the next 30 days?”
  • “List web properties on our Censys perimeter by team.”

See all 47 Censys tools below

Compare

Elaichi vs Zapier MCP vs Composio for Censys

All three can connect Censys to an AI assistant, and all three have admin controls. They differ in where access lives and how you pay.

Elaichi compared with Zapier MCP and Composio for Censys, by what to check
What to check Elaichi Zapier MCP Composio
Where the AI connects One address for the whole organization. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp A server per member, created at sign-in. An MCP endpoint per team, or an SDK.
Control over Censys tools Allow or restrict single Censys tools, per role or user. App and action restrictions on the account. Role permissions, down to the action.
Record of calls One audit entry per Censys call. A History tab of tool calls. A log of every tool call.
Single sign-on SAML or OIDC, plus SCIM, on Gold. SAML on Enterprise. SAML and OIDC on Enterprise.
Price $15 per user per month. 2 tasks per successful call. Billed per tool call.

Sources: Zapier MCP docs, security, usage; Composio docs, gateway, enterprise, pricing. Checked September 2026.

Longer take: Zapier MCP alternative and when you don't need an MCP gateway.

AI tools

Censys tools for your AI agents

47 tools are ready to call through Elaichi's MCP endpoint the moment you connect Censys, governed by the same roles, restrictions, and audit log as everything else in Elaichi.

See it in Elaichi

What connecting Censys gets you

6 screens from the product, each doing one job for your Censys account.

The agent

Ask about hosts, get answers from Censys.

Type a question in plain language and read live host and certificate records.

  • hosts
  • certificates
  • web properties
  • services

Ask Elaichi to work across your apps.

Show new Censys hosts added in the last week.

Which Censys certificates expire in the next 30 days?

List web properties on our Censys perimeter by team.

Also runs in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

MCP clients

Censys works in Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.

One governed MCP endpoint over OAuth, no SDK and no shared API key.

ElaichiMCP clients
Claude ChatGPT Cursor

Copy the endpoint

https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
Client Connected by Status Last used
Claude
E

Emily Carter

 • Connected 4 minutes ago
Cursor
M

Megan Brooks

 • Connected 2 hours ago
ChatGPT
R

Ryan Hayes

 • Connected Yesterday

Tool catalog

47 Censys tools ready to call.

Hosts, certificates and web properties are covered with no custom code to write.

  • Get single Censys host by ID
  • Censys hosts bulk get
  • List all Censys hosts
  • Censys hosts enrichment
ElaichiTools
Tool Action Description
Get single Censys host by ID Get Get a single Censys host by its IP address. Returns: ip, location, autonomous_system, whois, services, service_count, dns. Required: id (the host's IP address).
Censys hosts bulk get Get Retrieve up to 100 Censys hosts by their IP addresses in a single POST request. Returns: resource, extensions. Required: host_ids.
List all Censys hosts List Retrieve multiple Censys hosts by their IP addresses via the deprecated GET method. Returns: resource, extensions. Required: host_ids. Use the bulk_get POST variant instead.
Censys hosts enrichment Action Get enrichment data for a single Censys host by IP address. Returns: ip, location, autonomous_system, whois, services, service_count, dns, reputation, greynoise, network, privacy, labels, third_party. Required: host_ip.
Censys hosts event history Action Get event history timeline for a Censys host. Returns: resource, extensions. Required: host_id, start_time, end_time. start_time is the timestamp closest to current time and end_time is furthest; both must be valid RFC3339 strings.

Toolboxes

Every team gets its own Censys toolbox.

Curate one toolbox per team so each sees only the Censys tools it needs.

  • Security operations
  • Threat intelligence
  • Attack surface management
  • Vulnerability management
ElaichiToolboxes
Name Source template Tools Created

Security operations toolbox

Censys · hosts and event history

 Censys starter 18 Mar 4, 2026

Threat intelligence toolbox

Censys · host enrichment and certificates

 — 9 Mar 2, 2026

Attack surface management toolbox

Censys · web properties and services

 — 24 Feb 27, 2026

Vulnerability management toolbox

Censys · services and host history

 Censys starter 6 Feb 19, 2026

Compliance toolbox

Censys · certificates and expiry evidence

 — 31 Jan 30, 2026

Incident response toolbox

Censys · host lookups and service history

 — 12 Jan 22, 2026

Shared connections

Share a Censys account, never the key.

Teammates query hosts and certificates through a connection without ever seeing a credential.

  • Security operations
  • Threat intel
  • Attack surface
  • Vulnerability management
ElaichiConnections
Connection Scope Status Access
CE

Censys (Security operations)

Connected by Emily Carter

 Personal • Active 1 team · 6 members
CE

Censys (Threat intel)

Connected by Jake Morgan

 Organization • Active 3 teams · 24 members
CE

Censys (Attack surface)

Connected by Megan Brooks

 Organization • Active 2 teams · 11 members
CE

Censys (Vulnerability management)

Connected by Tyler Reed

 Personal • Needs re-auth 1 team · 3 members
CE

Censys (Compliance)

Connected by Ryan Hayes

 Personal • Active Not shared
CE

Censys (Incident response)

Connected by Ashley Parker

 Personal • Active 2 teams · 9 members

Audit log

Every Censys call is on the record.

When, who, what happened, type and resource, appended for each host and certificate lookup.

  • When
  • Who
  • What happened
  • Type
ElaichiAudit log
When Who What happened Type

2 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:10 PM
E

Emily Carter

emily.carter@northwind.io

 Restriction Created Access

8 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:04 PM
J

Jake Morgan

jake.morgan@northwind.io

 Restriction Updated Access

14 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:58 PM
M

Megan Brooks

megan.brooks@northwind.io

 Role Assigned Access

20 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:52 PM
T

Tyler Reed

tyler.reed@northwind.io

 Censys Users Updated MCP

26 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:46 PM
R

Ryan Hayes

ryan.hayes@northwind.io

 Censys Hosts Created MCP

32 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:40 PM
A

Ashley Parker

ashley.parker@northwind.io

 Censys Hosts List Toolbox

Launching soon

From answering questions to doing the work

A person no longer has to ask. A trigger starts the work, inside the same permissions and the same audit log as everything else. Automations and live dashboards are launching soon, on the Black plan.

Automations

A schedule turns Censys hosts into action.

Fetch hosts, group them, draft a digest, get approval, post back to Censys.

Censys digest

Run 418 · started 2 minutes ago · on behalf of Emily Carter

  1. ✓

    Schedule

    Every weekday at 8:00 AM

    0.2s
  2. ✓

    Fetch hosts

    Censys

    1.4s
  3. ✓

    Group by owner

    Transform

    0.1s
  4. ✓

    Draft the digest

    Agent step

    Ran with 4 tools, returned a structured summary

    6.2s

  5. Approve the digest

    Needs approval

    Assigned to Michael Brennan

    Approve

  6. Post the digest

    Censys

    Queued

Collections and dashboards

Censys health numbers arrive without being asked.

Four metrics, 14 days of records created and a team breakdown, computed on a schedule.

Censys health

Refreshed 4 minutes ago · every 15 minutes · from the hosts collection

Live

Hosts

1,284 ↓ 12%

Certificates

96 ↓ 8%

Needs attention

3 ↑ 2

Updated this week

412 ↑ 9%

Hosts created

Last 14 days

By team

Share of activity

Security operations 34%

Threat intel 27%

Attack surface 21%

Vulnerability management 18%

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I connect Censys to Claude?

In Elaichi, choose Censys and paste in a Censys API key from your Censys account; there is no OAuth application to register and no client ID or secret to generate. Then open Claude, go to Customize, then Connectors, then Add, and paste the Elaichi endpoint https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp. Sign in to Elaichi when Claude asks, and Censys is available in your conversations.

Does Censys work with ChatGPT and Cursor as well as Claude?

Yes. Once Censys is connected in Elaichi, the same endpoint, https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, works in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, any other MCP client and the Elaichi Agent. You connect Censys once and every client you use picks it up.

What can an AI agent actually do with my Censys data?

An agent connected to Censys can look up hosts by IP and report their open services, pull a host's event and service history, fetch certificates and their raw details, list your web properties, run and aggregate searches, resolve names to IP ranges and back, and trigger a rescan of a host. Because Censys offers many actions, the agent searches for the right one as you ask, so short concrete requests such as "show the certificate history for this host" work better than long paragraphs.

Does connecting Censys give the AI access to my whole Censys organization?

The AI sees exactly what the Censys account behind the API key can see, and nothing more; if that account cannot view certain hosts or run certain searches, neither can the agent. Elaichi can narrow that access further, for example by removing the ability to rescan, but it can never widen what Censys itself allows. Every request still runs under the Elaichi user who made it, so the audit log names the person, not just the key.

Can my team share one Censys connection?

Yes. One person connects Censys in Elaichi with an API key and shares the connection with a team; nobody else ever sees or handles that key. Each teammate still signs in to Elaichi as themselves, so the audit log records exactly who ran which Censys lookup or rescan.

Can I stop an agent from triggering rescans or changing things in Censys?

Yes. Restrictions in Elaichi work action by action, so you can keep Censys read-only by blocking rescans while leaving host, certificate and search lookups available. A blocked action is never shown to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any other client, so no prompt, accidental or deliberate, can reach it.

What happens to a Censys connection when someone leaves?

Offboarding a person in Elaichi ends their access to Censys and every other connected application at once, without touching the Censys API key. A Censys connection shared with a team keeps working for everyone still on it. If you want Censys gone entirely, disconnect it once in Elaichi and it disappears from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and every other client at the same time.

Does the Censys MCP connector work with Gemini, Codex, Claude Code or other MCP clients?

Yes. Censys is reached over the same MCP endpoint every client uses, so anything that speaks MCP can call it — Gemini, Codex, Claude Code, Windsurf, Cline, Zed and OpenCode among them — alongside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and the Elaichi Agent. The tools on offer and the access behind them are identical whichever client asks. Only the setup screen differs.

Is Elaichi an alternative to Zapier MCP for Censys?

Yes. Both let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor use Censys. Zapier MCP fits a team that already automates in Zapier, since each person signs in and acts as themselves in that account. Elaichi fits when IT wants one address for the whole company, per-tool rules by role, and a record of every Censys call.

How is Elaichi different from Composio for Censys?

Composio gives AI agents tools and sign-in handling across 1,000+ apps, for developers building agents or people using an assistant, billed per tool call. Elaichi gives a company's own people governed access to Censys: one address, restrictions per role or user, and $15 per user per month. Both have role permissions and a log of every call.

Put Censys in front of your team

14 days on Gold, no credit card. Connect it once and pick what each team can call.

Connect Censys Talk to us
Works with
Claude ChatGPT Cursor and any other MCP client, or the Elaichi Agent.
When the trial ends
Nothing is deleted. Connections, roles and the audit log stay where they are, so subscribing picks up exactly where you left off.