MCP server: ChatGPT, Claude and other AI apps
Connect Rankfender to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code or Cursor: setup, access rules, every tool, credits and limits.
Rankfender's MCP server connects your projects to AI apps such as Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code and Cursor. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard these apps use to call other software. The assistant can read your project and, if you allow it, make changes, always after asking you.
Who can use it
Projects whose owner is on the Professional, Business or Agencies plan. Team members use the owner's plan: owners, admins and editors can allow changes, viewers can only read. See Plans.
Connect an AI app
Use one URL in every app. The app opens a Rankfender sign-in page, then a consent page where you choose the projects (all of them, including future ones, or only those you tick), whether the app may make changes and whether it may also publish to your website.
https://app.rankfender.com/mcpClaude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop)
- Open Customize → Connectors and click Add custom connector. Claude Desktop has the same page.
- Paste the URL above and click Add.
- Sign in to Rankfender when Claude asks (Claude Desktop opens the page in your browser), choose your projects and what Claude may do, and click Allow.
- In a chat, turn Rankfender on from the tools menu. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner first adds it in Organization settings → Connectors (Add → Custom → Web), then each member clicks Connect. The Free plan allows one custom connector.
ChatGPT
- On chatgpt.com, open Plugins, click + and choose Add custom MCP server.
- Name it Rankfender, paste the URL above as the Server URL and choose OAuth.
- Accept the warning and create it as a plugin, then sign in to Rankfender, choose your projects and what ChatGPT may do, and click Allow.
- In a chat, type @ and pick Rankfender. In a workspace, an admin may need to allow custom MCP servers.
Claude Code
Add the server (add --scope user to use it in every project), then type /mcp in Claude Code, choose rankfender and Authenticate. Your browser opens the Rankfender sign-in page.
claude mcp add --transport http rankfender https://app.rankfender.com/mcpCursor and other MCP apps
Add Rankfender to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (every project) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project). Cursor finds the sign-in page by itself: sign in to Rankfender, choose your projects and click Allow. Any other app that supports remote MCP servers (streamable HTTP) with OAuth sign-in works the same way with the URL above.
{
"mcpServers": {
"rankfender": { "url": "https://app.rankfender.com/mcp" }
}
}With a project API key (read only)
For apps that cannot sign in, use a project API key from Settings → Integrations (see Your API key). A key gives read-only access to its one project, whatever the user's role. Send it as Authorization: Bearer or in the X-Rankfender-Key header.
claude mcp add --transport http rankfender https://api.rankfender.com/functions/v1/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer rfk_your_key"What the app can do
- Read only, unless “Let … make these changes” was ticked on the consent page. Publishing needs a third tick, “Let … publish to your website”, which is off by default. To change either, connect the app again.
- Changes need owner, admin or editor rights on the project. Viewers and API keys can only read.
- Paid actions and actions with warnings (an off-intent keyword, an article that already targets a near-identical keyword) first answer with the cost, the owner's balance and the warnings, and change nothing. The app must call again with confirm: true after you agree.
- Nothing is deleted. Removing a keyword, competitor or tracked prompt hides it and can be undone; articles can only be taken off the calendar; edited text keeps the previous version.
- Without the publish tick, your website does not change: an edited article reaches it only when someone clicks “Update on your site” in Rankfender.
- Numbers come with their measurement date and source. In get_portfolio, values older than 30 days are marked stale.
Publishing to your website
- publish_article publishes an article, or updates a live one with its latest text (the same as “Update on your site” in the app). It needs both ticks.
- It uses the site connected in Rankfender: WordPress (Rankfender plugin) or Modern Web (webhook).
- The first call says what will happen, on which site, and the cost (about 1 credit, for the publish check). Nothing is sent until the app calls again with confirm: true.
- Rankfender's publish check runs first, as in the app. If it holds the article, nothing is published: the app gets the reasons and a link to fix them in Rankfender. “Publish anyway” stays in the app.
- It never unpublishes. After publishing, the answer gives the live URL, or says the page is not live yet.
Read tools
Read tools use no credits and never measure anything new. When you can see several projects, the app passes the project id or domain to each tool.
| Name | What it gives |
|---|---|
list_projects | The projects this connection can read; search by name or domain. |
get_portfolio | One row per project: organic trend, AI visibility trend, open alerts and the Strategy's next move, each with its date. |
get_project_overview | The project at a glance: keywords, articles, competitors, backlinks, AI visibility and suggested next moves. |
get_organic_overview | Google rankings and estimated organic traffic from Rankfender's own search data, as on Home. |
get_performance_data | Search Console and Analytics data, when the project has connected them. |
search_keywords | All tracked keywords, or those containing a word, with volume, difficulty, position and ranking URL. |
list_articles | Every article with its status, dates, live URL, quality score and word count. |
get_article | One article in full: text, meta, keywords, outline, FAQs, links, quality check and publish status. |
list_scheduled_articles | The content calendar between two dates. |
get_ai_visibility_summary | Visibility score and trend, mention rate per AI engine, topics, share of voice and the last check's status. |
get_ai_visibility_detail | The AI answers in detail, with the sources they cite and the competitors they name. |
list_tracked_prompts | The questions Rankfender asks AI engines for the project. |
list_competitors | Tracked competitors with authority and shared keywords. |
get_competitor_intel | Measured competitor data: landscape, keyword gap, top pages, backlink gap, site profile. |
get_backlink_profile | Backlinks, referring domains, domain rank, spam score and change since the last snapshot. |
get_site_audit | The latest technical audit: score and top issues with how to fix them. |
check_page | Fetches one page of the site now: status, title, meta, headings, schema, images without alt text. |
get_opportunities | Content opportunities with priority, expected gain and why. |
get_weekly_insights | This week's summary: wins, areas to improve and top actions. |
get_alerts | Recent alerts with a suggested action each. |
get_current_strategy | The Strategy page: headline, north star and moves. |
list_tasks | Tasks on the Planning board and tasks waiting for review. |
get_task | One task in full: what, why, steps, expected outcome and linked article. |
get_credits | The account's credits: available, used this month and reset date. |
get_search_console | Search Console per query, page or day: clicks, impressions, CTR, position weighted by impressions, vs the period before; paged. |
get_search_engines | Google (Search Console) vs Bing (Bing Webmaster Tools): totals, per query or page, where one ranks better; visits from other engines. |
get_keyword_clusters | Groups tracked keywords that are variants of one search, with the page that targets each group and articles competing for it. |
get_refresh_plan | For one published page: queries and positions now vs before, decay, searches the text does not answer, quality notes, and a refresh plan. |
get_internal_link_suggestions | Links to add between the project's published articles, with the anchor text found in each article. |
get_ai_citations | The sites and pages AI engines cite most, and which ones do not link to you yet (an outreach list). |
suggest_competitors | Brands AI answers name that the project does not track, how often and in which engines. |
get_cross_signals | Broken pages that still get searches, issues on the pages with the most clicks, articles to improve, AI-cited sites not linking to you. |
Change tools
Change tools appear only when “Let … make these changes” was ticked; publish_article also needs “Let … publish to your website”. The app asks you before each one. Credits come from the project owner's account. The figures below are Rankfender's current estimates; each paid tool gives the exact estimate and the balance before it acts.
| Name | What it does | Credits |
|---|---|---|
add_keywords | Adds keywords to tracking (restores removed ones); the plan's keyword limit applies. | Under 1 |
remove_keywords | Stops tracking keywords; they are hidden, not deleted. | None |
schedule_article | Adds an article idea to the calendar (at most 2 per day, one article per keyword). | Under 1 |
reschedule_article | Moves an article to another date. | None |
unschedule_article | Takes an article off the calendar; a written one goes back to drafts with its text. | None |
update_article_details | Changes title, target keyword, meta, slug (not once published) or angle. | None |
edit_article | Replaces the text, whole or one section; the previous text is kept and the quality check runs again. | None |
create_article_from_opportunity | Turns a content opportunity into an article idea. | Under 1 |
generate_article | Has the content engine write an article (3–5 minutes). | About 30 |
regenerate_article | Rewrites an article, optionally with instructions; the previous text is kept. | About 30 |
publish_article | Publishes an article on your website or updates a live one, after the publish check (needs the publish tick). | About 1 |
create_task | Adds a task to the Planning board, marked as coming from an AI app. | None |
update_task_status | Marks a task done, in progress, planned, approved, backlog or dismissed. | None |
add_competitor | Tracks a competitor. | None |
remove_competitor | Stops tracking a competitor; its data is kept. | None |
replace_competitor | Swaps a tracked competitor for another. | None |
measure_competitor | Measures a competitor view now (site profile 3, top pages 4, keyword gap 16, backlink gap 29, landscape 38 credits) when it is missing or over a day old. | 3–38 |
add_tracked_prompts | Adds buyer questions to AI visibility tracking. | None |
update_tracked_prompt | Rewords, moves or pauses a tracked prompt. | None |
run_ai_visibility_check | Asks the tracked prompts to the AI engines again (5–15 minutes). | About 25 |
run_site_audit | Crawls and audits the site now (50–300 pages by plan). | None |
generate_report | Builds the project report and returns a share link valid for 90 days. | None |
score_keywords | Rates tracked keywords 0–3 for relevance to your brand, with intent and a short reason. | Under 1 |
label_keywords | Adds or removes your own labels on keywords, to group and filter them. | None |
merge_tasks | Merges duplicate tasks into one; the others are closed with a link to it, nothing is deleted. | None |
update_project_settings | Changes the project's language, country, industry, business type or brand description (owners and project admins only). | None |
generate_technical_fix | Writes a ready-to-paste fix for one page (title, meta description, FAQ, definition, schema); changes nothing. | Under 1 |
run_on_projects | Runs one of seven actions on up to 25 projects; the first call shows every project and the total cost. | Per action |
Ready-made prompts
The server offers four prompts that guide the app through the tools. Apps that support MCP prompts list them in their prompt menu.
| Name | What it gives |
|---|---|
weekly_report | Weekly SEO and AI visibility report with the next three actions. |
quick_wins | Keywords close to page one, weak AI topics and fixable pages, cheapest first. |
audit_content_plan | Off-intent keywords, near-duplicates, low quality scores and missing topics in the content plan. |
seo_director | Reviews all projects, picks where to act and proposes the first articles. |
Send a Planning task to an AI app
On the Planning board, Send to AI on a task opens Claude or ChatGPT with a ready prompt, or copies it for Claude Code or Cursor. The app reads the task with get_task, does the work with the Rankfender tools (asking you before each change), then marks it done with update_task_status. If the chat box opens empty, paste: the prompt is already copied. Shown on projects whose owner is on the Professional plan or above.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Tool calls | 60 per minute and 2,000 per day, per user and project |
| Changes | 10 per minute and 100 per day, per user and project |
| Articles written or rewritten from AI apps | 7 per project in 24 hours |
| Articles per calendar day | 2 |
| Competitor measurements | One per view per day |
| AI visibility checks | One at a time |
Disconnect, data and support
To stop an app, open Settings → API Keys → Connected AI apps and click Disconnect: it loses access at once, and your projects and data stay as they are. Rankfender sends project data only to the app you connected, when it calls a tool; the privacy policy describes what is stored. Questions or problems: support@rankfender.com or the support page.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “available on the Professional, Business and Enterprise plans” | The project owner's plan is below Professional. | Upgrade the owner's plan. |
| “This sign-in link has expired”, or the sign-in page keeps coming back | The consent page stayed open more than 10 minutes, or the app started a new sign-in. | Close it and connect again from the app. |
| “this app is not registered with Rankfender” or “the return address does not match” | The app's registration changed. | Remove the connector in the app and add it again. |
| Answers about the wrong project | The connection can read several projects. | Name the project (domain or name) in your question; list_projects shows the ones it can read. |
| “This connection can only read”, or no change tools | “Make changes” was not ticked, or a project API key is used. | Connect the app again and tick it on the consent page. |
| “This connection may not publish to the website” | The publish tick is off. | Connect again and tick “publish to your website”, or publish from the article in Rankfender. |
| You are a viewer on this project | Changes need editor rights. | Ask the owner for editor access. |
| Rate limit / Daily limit reached | Too many calls or changes. | Wait and try again. |
| 7 articles were already written or rewritten | Daily article cap from AI apps. | Try tomorrow or use the Content page. |
| Not enough credits | The owner's balance is below the cost. | Buy credits or wait for the monthly reset. |
Note
The AI app writes the answers and can be wrong. Check important numbers in Rankfender before acting. Rankfender sends your project data only to the app you connected, when it calls a tool.