Apps / Custom Connectors not working inside projects

I have similar issue when using ChatGPT with custom connector. It is not visible inside the projects. Outside the projects connectors are accessible but only for limited number of tool calls - after 3-5 calls agent tells me that “list_resources returns only {finite: true}" and it cannot finish the work.

So what I tested:

  1. Start new conversation outside Projects: ask ChatGPT about access to connector - PASS
  2. Move this conversation to any Projects, freshly created or older does not matter: ask ChatGPT about access to connector - FAIL - no connectors are available.
  3. Move conversation out of the Projects: ask ChatGPT about access to connector - PASS - connector available again.

I have the same issue. Replying to boost as I think it is a critically important issue.

Summary of my similar/same issue:
MCP Apps created via Admin → Apps can enter a partially registered state where they work in non-Project chats but are not discoverable or usable inside Projects. Oddly the app appears inside projects as an app in the drop down menu if first invoked outside a Project, but is still not usable. This creates inconsistent behavior, breaks the documented “Apps are workspace-wide” model, and prevents MCP usage in Projects.

After much digging I found this: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10169521-projects-in-chatgpt

which says “Are connectors supported in projects? Connectors are currently not supported.”
Connectors → are now apps (they got renamed)
So maybe this is by design? but frankly who isn’t working primarily in projects?! Simply for organisation of chats if nothing else.

WORKAROUND:
The only workaround I have found is that you can move a chat in and out of a project, and the app connection appears to work whilst the chat is outside the project and not whilst it is inside the project. You can then in theory:

  1. move chat out of the project
  2. run prompt that calls the app
  3. move the chat back into the project
  4. run prompts that relate to project context/scope/documents
  5. and so on….

Maybe this workaround helps someone.

But seriously, this is madness, please fix!

PS: chatgpt is also super happy to lie about this, and just pretend that it can see the app and make up a fake output.

You are right about Connectors support inside projects. Just my assumption was wrong.
I have used Connectors in Projects for about 2 months and it just stopped working about week ago - at the time when Connectors stopped working in Projects, some members posted problems with their Connectors; I thought it may be corelated to my observations, here is the link to original post: https://community.openai.com/t/chatgpt-not-using-connected-local-app-sdk/1369390

Commenting to help boost priority of this issue. I would love for my projects to be able to see my app but it can’t find any tools unless I’m outside of the “project” interface.

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I also just got alerted to this issue by our workspace users. This is a big issue for us, users have been using our custom connector (now “App”) in projects for months. This was the main reason we migrated to ChatGPT business. Please take a look!

This is a huge blocker for us as well. Is support for apps within projects on the roadmap?

This is a blocker for us as well. We are exposing data agents to our business users, and we want them to be able to use project instructions to provide their own preferred outputs. Not having this capability is a blocker. If it is not fixed, we’ll have to consider other platforms that offer this capability (e.g., Claude).

The more I work with projects, more broken it appears. Files attached at the Project root, aren’t accessible to chats within the project. And the idea of using an external repository, works great till learning that app connectors aren’t available inside projects.

I am in the same boat right now. Brutal! Especially after recommending OpenAI to start with.

Same here.

It is reproducible. I created a custom MCP in dev mode. It only works outside project, but not in project.

but I recalled this working a while ago as I almost always work inside projects for better chat organisation.