MCP Setup

Connect LinkupAPI to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible LLM in under 2 minutes.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets LLMs call LinkupAPI directly — all social platform and B2B intelligence tools become native capabilities of your AI assistant.

Endpoint

https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp

Two ways to authenticate:

• OAuth 2.1 (recommended) — approve access from the LinkupAPI dashboard, no key to paste. Supported by Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, VS Code, and most modern MCP clients.
• API key — pass your key via the x-api-key header. Works everywhere, useful for headless setups or clients without OAuth.

Get your API key at app.linkupapi.com.

Claude (Desktop / Code)

Option 1 — OAuth (recommended)

claude mcp add --transport http linkupapi https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp

On first use, Claude opens app.linkupapi.com/mcp/authorize in your browser. Sign in and click Authorize — Claude is connected.

Option 2 — API key

claude mcp add --transport http linkupapi https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp --header "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Restart Claude — all LinkupAPI tools are now available.

ChatGPT (Custom Connectors)

In ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector:

• Name: LinkupAPI
• Server URL: https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp
• Authentication: choose OAuth to authorize from the dashboard, or Custom header with x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY

Save and enable the connector in your chat.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkupapi": {
      "url": "https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Cursor auto-discovers OAuth on first use and opens the LinkupAPI authorize page. To skip OAuth and use an API key, add "headers": { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" }.

Gemini (gemini-cli / Gemini Code Assist)

Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkupapi": {
      "httpUrl": "https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Restart Gemini — it triggers the OAuth flow automatically. For API key auth, add "headers": { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" }.

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "linkupapi": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Click Auth above the server entry to trigger OAuth in your browser. Tokens are stored in the OS keychain.

Windsurf / other clients without OAuth

Windsurf’s Cascade doesn’t implement the MCP OAuth flow natively. Use API key auth:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkupapi": {
      "url": "https://mcp.linkupapi.com/mcp",
      "transport": "http",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or wrap the server with mcp-remote to get OAuth via a stdio bridge.

Verify it works

Ask your LLM: “Validate the email [e-mail] using LinkupAPI”. It should call the validate_email tool and return a result.

Support

Issues? Reach us at [e-mail] or via the dashboard support page.