Quickstart

Integration Options

Arlo Health provides three integration methods:

MCP (Recommended)

Model Context Protocol for native AI agent integration. Tools are discovered automatically.

Claude & ChatGPT

Add Arlo as a connector — no code required. Guides for Claude and ChatGPT.

REST API

Traditional REST endpoints for direct HTTP integration (also wrapped by the OpenClaw plugin).

Core Workflow

Arlo’s core primitive is the conversation — a continuous health thread that never closes. Every provider visit flows through it:

Gather Context

Have a natural conversation with the user to understand their health concern

Start a Conversation

Call start_conversation with a first-person narrative and the patient’s current region

AI Triage

Await replies with wait_for_reply; answer follow-up questions with send_message

Payment Gate

Present the consultation summary; the patient explicitly confirms via confirm_provider_connection

Provider Match

User is matched with a licensed clinician (MATCHING → WITH_PROVIDER)

Provider Visit

User exchanges messages with the provider asynchronously

Back to IDLE

The visit wraps up with clinical notes (get_visit_notes) and any prescriptions; the conversation stays open for follow-up

Step 1: Gather Context

Before starting a conversation, talk with the user to understand their health concern:

What’s the main symptom?
How long has it been going on?
Any associated symptoms?
Has this happened before?

Also confirm where the patient is right now — care is licensed by current physical location, not home address.

Step 2: Start the Conversation

Call start_conversation with a first-person narrative and the region:

{
  "contextMessage": "I've had a sore throat for 3 days. It started with a scratchy feeling and now it hurts to swallow. I don't have a fever but I've been feeling tired. I had strep throat last year with similar symptoms.",
  "region": "US-CA"
}

{
  "contextMessage": "sore throat, 3 days, no fever",
  "region": "US-CA"
}

Rich, narrative context helps the AI triage system gather information faster, reducing the number of follow-up questions.

Before starting a new conversation, call list_conversations — if a relevant conversation already exists, continue it with send_message instead. Messaging an idle conversation re-runs triage on the same thread, preserving continuity of care.

Step 3: Respond to AI Triage

start_conversation returns immediately (fast-ack). Call wait_for_reply to await the AI’s response — it’s resumable, so re-call it if it returns stillWaiting. Answer follow-up questions with send_message, which by default sends and waits for the next reply in one call:

{
  "conversationId": "conv_abc123",
  "messages": ["No fever, but I've been feeling really tired and run down the past few days."],
  "lastSeenMessageId": "msg_042"
}

send_message enforces a read-first gate: pass lastSeenMessageId from your last get_conversation/wait_for_reply result, or call get_conversation first. If triage returned an informationNeed checklist, batch all the answers into one send_message call.

Step 4: Handle the Payment Gate

After triage completes, the conversation enters PAYMENT_REQUIRED. Arlo is pay-per-use and never auto-charges — the patient must explicitly confirm:

Present the paymentGate.consultationSummary to the user
If a card is on file: on the user’s confirmation, call confirm_provider_connection to place the per-visit hold
If not: call create_payment_setup, direct the user to the Stripe card-setup URL, poll get_payment_status until ACTIVE, then confirm
If the user declines: cancel_request dismisses the gate and the conversation returns to AI-only chat

Step 5: Provider Visit

Once a provider is matched, the conversation becomes WITH_PROVIDER. Messaging is asynchronous — use wait_for_reply to await provider messages and relay them. Providers can:

Ask additional questions
Provide diagnosis and treatment recommendations
Write prescriptions and order labs

When the provider wraps up, the conversation returns to IDLE — fetch the clinical note with get_visit_notes, and check get_prescriptions for any prescriptions.

Authentication

On connector hosts (Claude.ai, ChatGPT): the platform’s connector UI handles OAuth — nothing to build. On agent runtimes (Claude Code, OpenClaw, custom agents): call init_signup to start the OAuth flow:

Call init_signup — returns an authUrl
User opens the URL and completes signup
Poll check_account_status until authenticated: true

See Authentication for the full OAuth 2.1 flow and discovery endpoints.

Onboarding

New users need a complete profile before care. Call get_user_profile and follow its nextStep. On widget-capable hosts, start_onboarding opens an interactive setup flow that handles records import, demographics, terms, and payment in one place.

Webhooks (Agent Runtimes)

Within a session, wait_for_reply delivers replies without polling. For waking your agent when it isn’t actively waiting, register a webhook:

{
  "webhookUrl": "https://your-agent/hooks/arlo",
  "webhookToken": "your-secret-token",
  "deliveryContext": {
    "to": "+15551234567",
    "channel": "whatsapp",
    "deliver": true
  }
}

See Webhooks for full documentation. (Connector hosts receive events over the platform’s own channel — no webhook needed.)

Next Steps

MCP Tools Overview

Explore all available MCP tools

Consultation Lifecycle

Understand conversation status flow

Authentication

Deep dive into OAuth 2.1 setup

Payments

Learn how pay-per-use works

Getting Started

Tutorials

Concepts

Integration Options

MCP (Recommended)

Claude & ChatGPT

REST API

Core Workflow

Step 1: Gather Context

Step 2: Start the Conversation

Step 3: Respond to AI Triage

Step 4: Handle the Payment Gate

Step 5: Provider Visit

Authentication

Onboarding

Webhooks (Agent Runtimes)

Next Steps

MCP Tools Overview

Consultation Lifecycle

Authentication

Payments

​Integration Options

MCP (Recommended)

Claude & ChatGPT

REST API

​Core Workflow

​Step 1: Gather Context

​Step 2: Start the Conversation

​Step 3: Respond to AI Triage

​Step 4: Handle the Payment Gate

​Step 5: Provider Visit

​Authentication

​Onboarding

​Webhooks (Agent Runtimes)

​Next Steps

MCP Tools Overview

Consultation Lifecycle

Authentication

Payments

Integration Options

Core Workflow

Step 1: Gather Context

Step 2: Start the Conversation

Step 3: Respond to AI Triage

Step 4: Handle the Payment Gate

Step 5: Provider Visit

Authentication

Onboarding

Webhooks (Agent Runtimes)

Next Steps