Set up your own MSP
Do this once. It gets you signed in, licensed, and running your own gateway before any client sees the product.
Sign in to the control panel
Everything below happens at mspai.acidni.net/platform.
- Go to /platform and sign in with your Microsoft work account.
- You need the Gateway.Admin role; Acidni staff also hold Platform.Admin.
You’ll know it worked: The sidebar loads and your name appears at the bottom left.
Watch out: If you are told you need the Gateway.Admin role, your sign-in worked but you hold no role. Roles for MSP staff come from YOUR Microsoft directory's groups, which Acidni does not control — ask Acidni to grant you one under Users & roles, or have your group mapped in ENTRA_GROUP_ROLE_MAP.
Check your organisation record
Your Entra directory id is the only link between your Microsoft tenant and this platform. If it is wrong, nobody from your directory can sign in.
- Open Organizations and click your MSP.
- Confirm the Entra directory (tenant) id matches your Microsoft tenant.
- Set a contact email — clients see it as the reply-to on their setup email.
You’ll know it worked: The record saves and your colleagues can sign in.
Watch out: The directory id is a GUID, not your domain name. Find it in the Entra admin centre under Overview → Tenant ID.
Install your own gateway
The gateway is the piece that actually reaches systems. Run one for yourself before selling it — it is also how you demo.
- Go to Gateways and click Download MSP gateway installer.
- Copy the archive to a Windows server, or any machine running Docker, at your office.
- Run install.ps1 (Windows) or ./install.sh (Linux) and accept the licence.
You’ll know it worked: Within a minute the gateway appears in the Gateways list as online.
Watch out: The download contains a live enrollment token that expires in 24 hours. The gateway makes only OUTBOUND connections — no firewall rule, port forward or public address is needed.
Turn on the connectors you need
- Open your gateway → Connectors, tick the systems it should reach, and Save.
- Then open the Configuration tab and fill in each connector's settings.
You’ll know it worked: The connector count rises and the Connectors page lists it under 'Running on'.
Watch out: Secrets such as passwords and API keys are never stored here — they go in the gateway's .env on site. The panel deliberately shows those fields as 'set in .env' rather than an input.
Connect your AI client
- In Claude, or another MCP client, add a connector pointing at https://mspai.acidni.net/v1/mcp.
- Sign in with the same Microsoft account.
You’ll know it worked: The client lists your connector tools — files, quickbooks, shipping and so on.
Watch out: Seeing only two generic tools means the rest were filtered out. Check, in order: are you signed in as the right organisation, is that organisation licensed, and is a gateway online for it?
Onboard a client
Repeat per customer. About ten minutes, most of it spent waiting for their server to pull the image.
Create the client record
- Organizations → Add a client. Enter their name and a contact email.
- Add their Entra directory id if their own staff will sign in.
- Leave 'Email setup instructions' ticked to send them a plain-English welcome.
You’ll know it worked: The client appears in the Clients table and the confirmation says the email was sent.
Watch out: If it reports 'Email NOT sent', mail is not configured — the client was still created. Send the instructions later from the client's own page.
Send them the installer
The bundle carries a live credential, so hand it over the way you would a password.
- Open the client and click Download installer.
- Send the archive over a channel you already trust with credentials.
- Have their technician run install.ps1 on the server that can see their data.
You’ll know it worked: The client's gateway shows online in Gateways.
Watch out: Do not email the archive to a public address. Each download mints a NEW token, so an old bundle cannot be replayed — regenerate rather than resend if in doubt.
Choose what their AI can reach
- Open their gateway → Connectors and tick only the systems they agreed to.
- On the Configuration tab set the share path, company id, host names and so on.
- On site, put any passwords or API keys into the gateway's .env file.
You’ll know it worked: Ask the AI client a question that needs that system and confirm real data comes back.
Decide who may use what
- Permissions: set which connectors each role may use.
- Users & roles: grant individuals narrower access where needed.
You’ll know it worked: A restricted user signs in and sees only their permitted tools.
Watch out: Access is deny-by-default. A user with no grant sees nothing, rather than everything.
Give the AI safe access to file shares
How to let an agent read company files without letting it change them.
Do not try to constrain the AI on the user's PC. An agent running there inherits that user's permissions, so “please do not delete things” is a prompt, not a control.
Put the access behind the gateway instead, and give the gateway its own identity. Create a dedicated Active Directory service account (for example svc-acidni-ai) that is NOT any employee's account, and give it READ-ONLY NTFS rights to exactly the folders the AI should see.
Mount that share into the gateway read-only. The service account's password lives in the gateway host's mount configuration — never in this panel, and never on the hub.
Four independent layers then stop a write, and any one of them is sufficient: NTFS permissions on the server; the read-only mount; a connector that exposes only search, stat and read, with no write tool to call; and path confinement to the configured share, so '..' cannot escape it.
For the agent's own working files, give each user a separate writable location — a personal AI drive — that is not your production share. The AI then reads company files and writes drafts somewhere harmless.
Who can do what
Four roles, each strictly inside the one above it.
Platform administrator (Acidni) — the whole platform: every MSP and every client. Held by Acidni staff only.
MSP administrator — their own MSP and all of its clients: onboard clients, install gateways, choose connectors, review the whole tenant's audit trail. This is the role an MSP's own staff hold. (It was previously called Gateway.Admin; that name still works.)
Client administrator — one client site and nothing beside it. For a customer who has their own IT person: they can see their own gateway and review their own usage logs, but cannot create clients, act for the MSP, or see any other customer.
Client auditor — the same view as a client administrator, but strictly READ-ONLY. For someone who needs to review usage logs without being able to change anything. The restriction is enforced on every request, not per screen, so it cannot be worked around.
A client's roles are always assigned by you, never taken from their own Microsoft directory — an administrator in their tenant cannot grant themselves access to yours. Even a mistaken grant cannot promote a client user beyond their own site.
What the platform does and does not do
The answers clients ask for before they will sign.
Access is read-only by default. Connectors expose search and read tools; there is no write, move or delete surface for an agent to call.
Gateways make only OUTBOUND connections. No inbound firewall rule, port forward or public IP is required at any site.
Every tool call is logged — who asked, which tool, when, and whether it was allowed. Users see only their own entries; an MSP admin sees their tenant.
Client secrets stay on the client's gateway, in its .env file. The hub stores non-secret configuration only, and the API refuses to store a field marked secret.
Each gateway gets its own signing key, so a credential taken from one site is useless at another.
When something is wrong
The failures we actually see, and what each one really means.
A gateway shows 'never connected' — it was enrolled but has never checked in, so the installer probably did not finish. Run it again on the server and watch for errors.
A gateway shows 'offline' — it ran before and has stopped. Check the machine is on, Docker is running, and outbound HTTPS to mspai.acidni.net is allowed.
The AI client lists only two generic tools — the connector tools were filtered out. Confirm you signed in as the right organisation, that it holds a licence, and that a gateway is online for it.
'This Microsoft directory is not registered' — the Entra directory id on the organisation record does not match the directory you signed in from. Fix it on that organisation's page.
'Requires the Gateway.Admin role' — sign-in worked, but you hold no role. Ask an administrator to grant one under Users & roles.
A connector returns sample data — it has no credentials, so it serves a clearly-labelled reference dataset rather than pretending. Fill in its settings and, on site, its .env.
Common questions
Does the AI need a hole in our firewall?
No. The gateway only makes outbound connections to the hub, and the hub answers through that same connection. Nothing dials in.
Can the AI change or delete our files?
No. The file connector exposes search, metadata and read only — there is no write tool to call. We also recommend mounting the share read-only with a dedicated read-only service account, so the server itself would refuse a write.
Where do passwords and API keys live?
In the gateway's .env file, at the site that owns them. They are never sent to or stored on the hub — the configuration API rejects any field marked secret.
Do our clients need Microsoft accounts?
Only if their staff will sign in themselves. Add their Entra directory id to the client record and their users are confined to their own site.
How do we add a connector to a site that is already running?
Tick it on that gateway's Connectors tab. It applies on the next heartbeat, within about a minute. Shipping brand-new connector CODE needs a 'docker compose pull' on the gateway.
What happens if a client's server is switched off?
The gateway shows offline and its tools stop resolving. Nothing is lost; it reconnects by itself when the machine comes back.
Can we see what the AI has been asked?
Yes — the Audit log, filtered to what your role may see. Every call records the user, the tool, the time and the decision.
Still stuck?
Open Help & Support in the control panel and send us a request — it reaches us with the page you were on, and you get a reference to quote.