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Activation required. AI access management must be enabled for your tenant before you can use it. To get started, contact the C1 support team for a walkthrough.
The Apollo MCP server lets you govern access to Apollo — contacts, accounts, and other sales data — as tools your AI clients can call through C1. Apollo authenticates with an API key sent in a request header. A single key authenticates everyone, so all tool calls reach Apollo as one shared identity. Create the key from a dedicated service-account user so activity is attributable to C1 rather than a person.

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How C1 connects to Apollo

C1 hosts the Apollo MCP server, so your users’ AI clients only ever see MCP tools — they never call Apollo directly. When an AI client calls one of these tools, C1 makes the matching request to the Apollo API using the credentials you configure here, then returns the result to the AI client. The credentials you set up below are what C1 uses to call Apollo on your users’ behalf.

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Before you begin

  • AI access management must be enabled for your tenant. See Enable AI access management.
  • An Apollo account with permission to create API keys, which typically requires an admin role.
If you don’t see Apollo in your MCP server catalog, contact the C1 support team to enable it for your tenant.

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Create an Apollo API key

Create an API key in Apollo so C1 can authenticate to the Apollo API.
1
In Apollo, open Settings > Integrations > API Keys. See Apollo’s Create API Keys docs for the exact path and required permissions.
2
Create a new API key and give it a recognizable name such as C1.
3
Limit the key to only the endpoints you need, then copy the key. Treat the key like a password.

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How Apollo credentials are shared

Every user’s tool calls use the one API key you provided, so Apollo sees a single shared identity. C1 still attributes each call to the individual user in the AI tool usage audit log. For a shared production setup, create the key from a dedicated service-account user so activity is attributable to C1 rather than a person. For how shared and per-user credentials work across MCP servers, see Configure authentication.

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Register the Apollo MCP server in C1

With your API key ready, register the server and provide your credentials.
1
Follow Register an MCP server and select Apollo from the catalog.
2
When you configure authentication, choose Custom header, enter the header name X-Api-Key, and paste your API key as the value.
3
Save your changes. C1 starts a sync that discovers the tools the Apollo server exposes.

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Discover and govern tools

After you register the server, C1 runs tool discovery against Apollo. Discovered tools appear on the server’s Tools tab. Each tool starts as either Pending review or automatically Approved, depending on the option chosen when the server was set up or your tenant’s default tool settings in Settings > AI Connections. See Require tool approval and Default tool classification. Before anyone can call an Apollo tool, it must be approved, added to a toolset, and bound to an access profile. Continue to Govern tools and toolsets to set this up.
Tool discovery runs even if your credentials are incorrect, so seeing discovered tools doesn’t confirm that authentication is working. You confirm your Apollo credentials when an approved user successfully calls an Apollo tool from their AI client.

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Manage your Apollo credentials

  • Rotate the API key by creating a new key in Apollo and updating it on the server’s authentication settings in C1, then revoking the old key.
  • Adjust access by limiting the key’s endpoints in Apollo.