Every app has a ceiling: what its makers thought of. Respite lets you set limits, pauses and schedules. But your life is not a settings screen, and some of what would help you most, such as “why do my Tuesdays fall apart?” or “write me a pause message that actually works on me”, is not something we should be hard-coding. So we are opening the door to your own AI.

What is bring your own AI?

Respite is, to our knowledge, the first mobile screen time app with a built-in MCP server (November 2026). It speaks MCP (the Model Context Protocol), an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to apps. With a Respite Plus account you can connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP-capable assistant to Respite, sign in, choose what it can do, and let it work with your Respite data for you.

The idea is simple: your app is no longer limited by what we built. Your AI does the thinking. It already knows how you write, what you are working on and how you like to be talked to. Respite supplies the data and the levers.

What works today, and what is coming?

This is a staged rollout, and we want to be straight about where it is.

Status
Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor and sign in Works today
Check your account: plan, devices, when connected Works today
Read your usage, insights, limits, interruptions and progress Works today (Plus)
Make limits stricter: lower a limit or add a schedule, applied at once (opt-in) Works today (Plus)
Loosening (raise or remove a limit, remove a schedule) becomes a request you approve Works today; the approval screen is coming in app updates
A change log with undo for anything an AI changed Works today
A Connected AI screen in the app Coming in app updates
Write your own pause messages Planned
Custom if-this-then-that rules Planned

Everything marked coming or planned is what we are building toward, and we will not describe a tool as available until it is. Details of the write tools are in letting your AI change your limits. The What’s new page will say when each one arrives, and the AI hub keeps the current list.

How does it work, and what about privacy?

  • We do not run an AI on your data. Respite has no AI of its own here and pays for none. The model is the one you chose, on the plan you already have.
  • Your data only goes to the AI you connect, for the permissions you allow. There is no other recipient.
  • You choose the permissions. Access is split into separate permissions: reading usage and history, managing limits and schedules, managing the messages that appear at the pause, and managing custom rules. Changing limits is a separate, unticked-by-default checkbox on the approval page, and it only allows making them stricter. The consent screen shows what the assistant is asking for, and you can allow or deny it.
  • You can revoke access any time by disconnecting Respite in your AI app’s connector settings. Deleting your Respite account ends every connection. A Connected AI screen inside the app is arriving in app updates.
  • Your AI provider handles what it receives. What a tool returns goes into your chat with Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, under that provider’s policy. See is it safe to give an AI your screen time data?
  • Sign in is the same as the app: Google or Apple.

Our broader approach to data is in privacy-first screen time tracking.

Why connect an AI to a screen time app?

A few things people can do with a general assistant and their own numbers, and which the live tools now make direct:

  • Spot patterns, such as which days and times your use spikes (prompt ideas).
  • Check which limits you actually keep, and which you break.
  • Turn a vague goal into limits that fit your life, and let the AI set the stricter ones if you opted in.
  • Next: draft honest, personal messages for the moment you reach for an app, once those tools exist.

Our practical guide, how to use ChatGPT or Claude to reduce screen time, shows prompts you can use right now, with or without Respite connected.

What does it cost?

Bring your own AI is part of Respite Plus. Respite stays free for everyone. Whatever your AI assistant costs, you pay it directly.

How do I connect?

Step-by-step instructions are in how to connect Claude, how to connect ChatGPT and the all-clients guide. The short version: add Respite as a custom connector with the address https://respite-api.liveintently.app/mcp, sign in, and allow.

Next step

Download Respite, take a look at Plus, and keep an eye on What’s new.