# overlap

> Tell an AI what you're going through, here or inside Claude or ChatGPT. It looks for someone living it too. You're introduced only if both say yes.

overlap is a peer-connection service for adults who want to meet someone living through a similar personal situation. Use it when the user asks whether another person shares their situation, wants a peer to talk to, or asks about their overlap requests and matches. Matches are asymmetric in time, so a match can appear days after the user submits a request.

The word "overlap" can also mean an intersection of lists, sets or schedules. Those questions are outside this service. It does not provide romantic matches or recommendations for licensed therapists, doctors or other professionals. Answer those requests without calling overlap tools. A request to meet a peer living through an illness is within scope; a request to find professional care is not.

The first case is answered by preview_pool, which needs no account and saves nothing. It counts the people already in the pool whose situation is close to a description, so the user learns whether anyone is there before deciding whether to join. Every other tool needs the user to be signed in, and calling one while they are not returns an authentication challenge rather than an answer.

## Connect

- MCP server: https://overlap-ai.com/api/public/mcp
- `initialize`, `tools/list` and `preview_pool` answer without a token. Every other tool answers `401` with a `WWW-Authenticate` challenge, which is how a client starts sign-in.
- Setup steps for people, per assistant: https://overlap-ai.com/connect

## Tools

- `preview_pool`: See how many people are going through something similar. Count people in overlap's peer-connection pool who are going through a similar personal situation. Use when the user asks whether another person shares their situation before deciding whether to join. Do not use for intersections of lists, sets or schedules, dating, or finding licensed professionals. Returns a number and nothing else, capped at 10 — never anyone's words, name or details. It saves nothing: no match request is created and nobody is contacted. This is the one tool that works without an account.
- `create_match_request`: Share what the user is going through as a match request. Use this tool to save a private match request draft when the user wants to find a peer living through a similar personal situation. Write the match request from the current conversation. Write 2–5 sentences in the third person, and 200–1500 characters. Use the words of the user, not formal or clinical words. Cover three things: the situation, where the user is in it, and what help they want. Write it so that a stranger in the same place recognizes themselves. Any situation belongs here: an illness, a company, a move, a course, a hard year. Example of a good match request: "She was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer four months ago and is halfway through chemotherapy. The medical side goes to plan. She finds the isolation harder than the treatment. The people around her keep telling her to stay positive. She hopes to hear from someone at a similar stage who understands the day-to-day of it." Never invent a detail. Never include a name, an email address, an employer or another personal identifier. With no replaces_draft_id, this tool saves a new independent private draft. With replaces_draft_id, it saves the complete revised text as a new draft and supersedes only the identified earlier draft. Existing open requests remain unchanged. The draft is not submitted to the matching pool and contacts nobody. Returns request_id, status and the exact stored request_text. Publishing uses the separate confirm_match_request tool and requires the user’s explicit approval of that exact stored text. Discarding uses withdraw_match_request with the draft’s request_id.
- `confirm_match_request`: Confirm the draft match request. Confirm one draft match request and add it to the matching pool. The other requests of the user do not change. It stays active until the user withdraws it. Call this ONLY after the user approves the exact stored text. Always pass its request_id.
- `check_matches`: Check for matches. Where the user stands. It returns every current match request, the number of other people in the pool, and any match. Use it to answer what the user submitted, and who they matched with. A match can appear days later.
- `get_match_details`: Get match details. Get the full details of one match: what the other person wrote, why the two of them matched, something to open with, and where the match stands. It only reads. To accept, decline or block the match, call respond_to_match. Never promise an address.
- `respond_to_match`: Answer a match. Record the one answer the user gave about a match: accept, decline or block. Call it only after the user has said which of the three they want. When both people accept, overlap opens a private conversation in the app. It also sends each person a link by email. Never promise an address. A decline covers this one request, and a later request from that person can still match. A block is permanent and covers the person, so send block only when the user asks for exactly that.
- `withdraw_match_request`: Withdraw the match request. Withdraw one match request, either a draft or an open one. Always pass its request_id. If it is unclear which one the user means, call check_matches first. The other requests of the user stay active. This voids a pending match from this request. It keeps a match that both people accepted.