Connect an AI assistant

Copilot SEO runs an MCP server: a standard way for AI assistants to use another app's data. Once connected, you can ask questions in plain English and the assistant fetches the numbers from your account. It can also set things up and make changes for you, if you let it.

The quickest way

On Connect AI assistant, copy the starter prompt into your assistant. It reads our guide for agents, tells you which steps need you, and walks you through connecting and setting up. For routines to give it afterwards, see Agentic SEO.

The rest of this article is the connection steps, if you would rather do them yourself.

The server's address is on the Connect AI assistant page. It ends in /mcp.

Claude.ai and Claude Desktop

1. In Claude, add a custom connector and paste the server address.
2. Claude sends you to Copilot SEO. Sign in if you need to, and confirm your password.
3. Check the app name and the address it will return you to, then press Authorise.

Claude keeps the connection fresh on its own. If it goes unused for 90 days, you sign in again.

Claude Code

Run this, with the server address from the Connect AI assistant page:

claude mcp add --transport http copilot-seo https://your-copilot-seo-address/mcp

Then type /mcp in Claude Code, choose copilot-seo and sign in through the browser.

Other assistants

Signing in through the browser works for Claude.ai, Claude Desktop and assistants running on your own computer, such as Claude Code. Any other assistant or script connects with a personal access token, if it lets you set a header:

1. On Connect AI assistant, give the token a name.
2. Tick Allow writes only if the assistant needs to change things for you.
3. Press Create token and copy it. It is shown once.
4. Set your client to send it as Authorization: Bearer <token> to the server address.

A token lasts a year. Keep it out of shared config files: put it in an environment variable where your client allows it.

The same token works for the REST API, for code and scheduled jobs. See REST API.

An assistant that cannot connect at all can still read our guide and walk you through the app.

What the assistant can do

It acts as you, across every team you are in, and sees the same sites you do.

It can read	It can change (needs write access)
Your teams and sites, and how far each site's data reaches	Add a site and start its import
How far your setup has got, and what is left	Set your brand terms (team owners and admins)
The Search Console sites your Google accounts can see	Move an action between Now, Next and Later, or dismiss it
Clicks, impressions, CTR and position by query, page or date	Mark an action implemented, which starts its review
All your sites side by side	Add or update an annotation on a site
Your Action plan, and each action's diagnosis	Delete a site's annotation (not team-wide ones or Google updates)
The reviews of changes you marked implemented	Start an experiment
Annotations, including Google updates	Create a URL group
Experiments and their results
URL groups and their totals
Recent alerts

An assistant connected by signing in can read and change. A personal token can only read unless you ticked Allow writes.

It cannot create your account, connect Google, pay, start an import or end an experiment. Those stay with you, in the app.

An experiment started by an assistant counts towards your plan's experiment limit, the same as one you start yourself.

Questions to try

• "Which queries on example.com are on page two of Google with the most impressions?"
• "Which pages have high impressions but a low CTR for their position?"
• "What is at the top of my Action plan, and why?"
• "How did the changes I marked implemented last month do?"
• "How is the experiment on the pricing page doing?"
• "Did anything change around the last Google update?"
• "Add an annotation for today on example.com: launched the new category navigation."

The numbers lag about two days, as everywhere else in Copilot SEO. Query-level answers leave out anonymised queries, so they add up to less than page-level answers. See Why the numbers differ from Search Console.

Disconnect

On Connect AI assistant:

• Connected apps lists assistants you signed in to. Disconnect ends that app's access at once.
• Personal access tokens lists your tokens. Revoke stops one working straight away.

Resetting your password ends every connection and token.