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.
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How it connects. Connects with an API key. The credential goes into a vault nobody reads back.
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One address. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, the same for every user.
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Their own access. An agent never gets more than the person it acts for.
47 tools
How to connect
How to connect Censys to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor
Two steps, about a minute.
In Elaichi
Connect Censys once
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Open Connections, choose Add connection, and pick Censys.
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Optionally set Share with to give a team access, then press Connect.
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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.
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.
Connect Censys to Claude
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1
Open Customize, then Connectors.
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2
Press Add.
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3
Name it, paste the MCP server URL, then Continue.
https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp -
4
Sign in and approve.
On Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds it once. Everyone else turns it on for themselves.
Connect Censys to ChatGPT
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1
Open Plugins, then press the + button.
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2
Name it and paste the endpoint into Server URL.
https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp -
3
Leave Authentication on OAuth, then tick the risk acknowledgement.
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4
Press Create, then sign in and approve.
Works on the web today. The plugin directory lives at chatgpt.com/plugins.
Connect Censys to Cursor
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1
Open
~/.cursor/mcp.json. -
2
Add the endpoint under
mcpServers.https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp -
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
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1
Add the endpoint as a remote MCP server.
https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp -
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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.
No tools match your search.
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 clientsClaude
ChatGPT
Cursor
Copy the endpoint
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
ElaichiToolsToolboxes
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
ElaichiToolboxesShared 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
ElaichiConnectionsAudit 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 logLaunching 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 Emma Laurent
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✓
Schedule
Every weekday at 08:00
0.2s -
✓
Fetch hosts
Censys
1.4s -
✓
Group by owner
Transform
0.1s -
✓
Draft the digest
Agent step
Ran with 4 tools, returned a structured summary
6.2s -
Approve the digest
Needs approval
Assigned to Michael Brennan
Approve Deny -
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
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%
Related connectors
More from the catalog
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 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.
Put Censys in front of your team
Fourteen days on Gold, no credit card. Connect it once and pick what each team can call.