Quick Guide
What Msharti is and what it does — read this first.
Read this first. Everything else is detail.
What Is Msharti?
Msharti is a bridge.
You already use AI assistants like Claude, Copilot, and ChatGPT. You already run your business on M-Pesa, KRA, Salesforce, Sage, and Outlook. Msharti connects the two — so your AI can read your business data and answer questions about it.
Without Msharti: You copy data from M-Pesa, paste it into a spreadsheet, export it, then ask Claude to summarise it. Twenty minutes. Four tools. Two errors.
With Msharti: You ask Claude, “How much came in via M-Pesa yesterday?” Claude asks Msharti. Msharti asks M-Pesa. The answer comes back in 3 seconds.
What Msharti Does — Four Things
1. CONNECT
Msharti links your AI assistant to your business systems. We have built 26 connectors covering the tools Kenyan and African businesses actually use:
| Category | Connectors |
|---|---|
| Kenyan finance | M-Pesa Daraja, KRA GavaConnect |
| Microsoft | Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Dynamics 365 |
| CRM | Salesforce, Zoho CRM, HubSpot |
| Databases | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL |
| Marketing | Meta Ads, Mailchimp |
| Support | Zendesk, ManageEngine, Jira, Confluence |
| Finance | Sage, Google Sheets |
| Communication | WhatsApp Business, Notion |
No coding needed. You log into each provider’s website, copy your credentials, and paste them into Msharti. We test the connection automatically. Done.
2. QUERY
Once connected, you ask questions in plain English. Your AI assistant translates your question into instructions, Msharti routes those instructions to the right system, and the answer comes back as a sentence you can read.
Questions you can ask:
- “How much came in via M-Pesa today?”
- “Is supplier ABC123 TCC-compliant?”
- “Summarise emails from John about the Q2 budget”
- “Show me the top 5 deals closing this month”
- “Which products are out of stock?”
- “List all employees who joined in 2024”
Questions you CANNOT ask (and why):
- “Run this raw SQL against our database” — database connectors (PostgreSQL, MySQL/MSSQL) are read-only by design. INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are blocked at the gateway, regardless of what the AI generates.
- “Give me everyone’s KRA PIN” — You can only query data you have permission to access.
Msharti is not read-only everywhere — that’s a database-connector-specific guarantee, not a platform-wide one. Connectors like M-Pesa (B2C payments, tax remittance), Outlook/Gmail (send email), and CRM tools (create deal, create ticket) can genuinely write or move money when the connected tool supports it. Role-based access controls who can invoke those write tools — see Security overview.
3. SECURE
Msharti sits between your AI and your systems, controlling exactly what can and cannot happen:
| Security Layer | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Encryption | Your credentials are encrypted with AES-256 before they are stored. Even if our servers were breached, your passwords are unreadable. |
| Tenant isolation | Your data is completely separate from every other customer’s data. There is no way for one customer to see another’s transactions. |
| Read-only default | The database connector only allows SELECT queries. INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are blocked at the gateway. |
| Injection detection | Every request is scanned for prompt injection attacks. Suspicious requests are blocked and logged. |
| Secret stripping | When data comes back, we automatically redact phone numbers, API keys, and passwords before showing it to the AI. |
| Audit logging | Every single question and answer is logged. You can see who asked what, when, and what the result was. |
| Role-based access | Every user gets one of four roles — Admin, Manager, CFO, or Viewer — that governs which tools they can invoke across all connectors. Need finer per-connector restriction (e.g. a sales rep who can use Salesforce but not M-Pesa)? Admins can set that up with a custom role. |
4. GOVERN
Msharti gives you visibility and control over how AI is used in your business:
| Governance Feature | What You See |
|---|---|
| Usage dashboard | How many questions were asked this month. Which connectors were used. By whom. |
| Audit trail | A complete log of every tool call: who made it, when, what system it hit, whether it succeeded or failed. |
| Cost controls | Per-tenant rate limits. You can set a maximum number of calls per month. |
| Data residency | Your data stays in Africa. For banks and SACCOs, we offer self-hosted deployment inside Kenya. |
| Compliance | Our audit logging and data protection controls align with Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019. |
How It Works — A Simple Flow
You: "How much came in via M-Pesa today?"
↓
Claude / Copilot / ChatGPT
↓
Msharti Gateway (checks permissions, scans for injection)
↓
M-Pesa Daraja API
↓
Safaricom servers
↓
Answer: "KES 347,200 from 42 transactions."The whole round trip takes 1–3 seconds.
What Msharti Is NOT
This is important. Do not expect Msharti to do things it was not designed for.
| Msharti is NOT | Why |
|---|---|
| An AI model | We do not generate answers. We fetch data so your AI can generate answers. |
| A bank or payment processor | We don’t hold or clear funds ourselves — but connectors like M-Pesa can initiate real payments (B2C, tax remittance) on your behalf when you enable them. |
| A replacement for your systems | We do not replace M-Pesa, KRA, or Salesforce. We connect to them. |
| A tax advisor | We can check TCC status. We cannot file your taxes or give tax advice. |
| A law firm | We can verify compliance data. We cannot interpret the law for you. |
| Unlimited storage | We do not store your historical data unless you subscribe to the Data Retention Service. |
| Free forever | The free plan includes 9 connectors and 300 calls per day (~9,000/month). Beyond that, a paid plan is required — see Pricing at a glance below. |
Who Is Msharti For?
| Role | What They Use Msharti For |
|---|---|
| Business owner | Daily collection summaries, M-Pesa reconciliation, supplier compliance checks |
| Finance manager | Automated M-Pesa reporting, KRA TCC verification, Sage invoice queries |
| Sales manager | Salesforce pipeline summaries, deal alerts, top accounts review |
| Operations manager | Stock queries, order tracking, delivery status |
| IT administrator | Central control of AI access, audit logging, security monitoring |
| SACCO treasurer | Member contribution tracking, loan disbursement monitoring, KRA compliance checks |
| School bursar | Fee collection summaries, outstanding balances, payment reconciliation |
| E-commerce founder | Order volumes, payment gateway reconciliation, customer support metrics |
Pricing at a Glance
See Pricing for full plan details and Limits & plans for exact connector counts, daily call quotas, and seats per tier — one source of truth instead of a second copy of the same numbers here.
Add-ons:
- M-Pesa Data Retention (beyond 48 hours): KES 2,000/Paybill/month
- Email Archive: KES 1,500/mailbox/month
- Custom Connector: Email support@msharti.dev for a quote
- Self-Hosted Deployment: Custom pricing
What You Need to Get Started
- A Msharti account — sign up at mcp.msharti.dev (free)
- An AI assistant — Claude Desktop, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor, or ChatGPT with MCP support
- Credentials for the systems you want to connect — we show you exactly how to get them
Time to first connection: 5–15 minutes per connector.
Next Steps
- Read the connector guides — one for each system you want to connect
- Connect your first system — start with M-Pesa or KRA
- Ask a question in your AI assistant
- Invite your team — assign roles and permissions
- Upgrade when you need more connectors or higher call limits
Need help? We are a Nairobi-based team. Same time zone. Same context.
Email: support@msharti.dev
This is the quick guide. For detailed setup instructions for each connector, see the full connector documentation.