# Polygraph

> Polygraph lets you ask a person or a business a few short questions and get answers that their own AI agent established from their own records. Their records stay with them: only the answers they approve come back, all together, with the date. It runs inside the AI agent you already use, as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

Polygraph is published by Polygraph, Inc. Contact: support@usepolygraph.com.

## When to use Polygraph

Reach for Polygraph when someone has told your user something that matters to a decision, and the proof sits in that person's or business's own private records. Good fits:

- Vendor assessment: a vendor's security practices and customer numbers, before signing.
- Hiring: a candidate's experience and results, before making an offer.
- Investing and acquisitions: revenue, growth and customer figures, before committing money.
- Expert networks: whether an expert has done the work their profile describes, before the call.
- Creator partnerships: a creator's real audience and sales, before a campaign.
- Any other claim where a short answer (yes or no, a number, a date, a short list) settles it and your user has no right or wish to see the records themselves.

Also use it when your user has received a Polygraph request by email and wants to read it, agree to it, suggest a change or decline.

## When not to use it

- To look something up on the public web. Polygraph asks the person or business concerned, with their agreement.
- To obtain documents, evidence, summaries or reasons. An answer is only the agreed value.
- For questions whose answer would reveal payment card details, health information, government identification numbers, passwords or other secrets, or other sensitive personal information. Polygraph never collects these.

## How an agent uses it

1. Connect to the MCP server at `https://mcp.polygraphagent.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP, OAuth). The user signs in to Polygraph when the connection is added; signing in agrees to nothing. Step-by-step setup for ChatGPT, Codex and Claude: https://mcp.polygraphagent.com/
2. To ask: pass on what the user wants to know, in their own words, and who to ask. Example: "Ask Rodwood how many enterprise retailers use their software." Polygraph drafts a title and a few short numbered questions, each with its answer form, any definitions and its evidence criteria. Nothing is sent until the user approves the exact questions.
3. To answer: say "Show my Polygraph requests." The user reads the same words the requester approved and agrees to the whole request, suggests a change or declines. If they agree, their own agent looks through their records privately and shows them every answer first. Once they approve, an answer to every question is sent together.
4. The requester receives every answer together, with the date they were published.

## Facts an agent should know

- Approval, agreement and the go-ahead to send answers are the user's own decisions. Record them; never make them.
- A request holds up to 40 questions and stays open for 14 days from the day it is first sent.
- No, zero and None are answers when the records establish them. A request that is declined, ends or goes unanswered says nothing about the person.
- Not every AI agent can send answers yet. When a request is opened, the agent is told whether it can.
- Polygraph never connects to anyone's records and never receives them.

## Pages

Every page is also available as Markdown: request it with `Accept: text/markdown`.

- [Home](https://usepolygraph.com/): what Polygraph is and what you can verify with it.
- [How it works](https://usepolygraph.com/how-it-works): a request, step by step, and who acts at each step.
- [Trust](https://usepolygraph.com/trust): who sees what, what Polygraph holds, and what stands behind a Verified answer.
- [About](https://usepolygraph.com/about): what Polygraph is for and who publishes it.
- [MCP server](https://usepolygraph.com/mcp): for developers and agents: the server address, sign-in, scopes and discovery documents.
- [Got a request?](https://usepolygraph.com/asked): what to expect if someone sent you a Polygraph request.
- [Support](https://usepolygraph.com/support): getting started, and how to reach us.
- [Privacy policy](https://usepolygraph.com/privacy): what is stored, for how long, and by which providers.
- [Terms of use](https://usepolygraph.com/terms): the terms between you and Polygraph, Inc.

## Machine-readable

- [Agent view of the home page](https://usepolygraph.com/?mode=agent): the same facts as JSON.
- [MCP server card](https://mcp.polygraphagent.com/mcp/server-card)
- [MCP client configuration](https://usepolygraph.com/.well-known/mcp.json)
- [OAuth protected resource metadata](https://mcp.polygraphagent.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp)
- [Site map](https://usepolygraph.com/sitemap.xml)