Connect MCP clients

Before you connect

• Use a paid SearchChamp plan. Trial and lapsed-trial organizations receive 402 Payment Required for every MCP tool.
• For OAuth, your organization must have MCP beta access enabled under Settings → Connect your AI apps.
• For a bearer token, an owner or account admin creates it under Settings → MCP Tokens.
• Choose the endpoint for the environment that holds your data: production https://mcp.searchchamp.com/mcp or development https://mcp-dev.searchchamp.dev/mcp.

OAuth: Claude

OAuth: ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, add SearchChamp as a custom connector, paste the connector URL from Settings → Connect your AI apps, and complete the same SearchChamp sign-in/organization-consent flow. Developer mode may be required for inline action confirmations; where it is unavailable, approve from the SearchChamp app.

Bearer token: create once

The examples below use production. Replace the host with mcp-dev.searchchamp.dev only for a token created in the SearchChamp development environment.

Claude Desktop with a token

Claude Desktop's JSON file uses local stdio servers, so the remote bearer connection runs through the third-party mcp-remote bridge. Put this in claude_desktop_config.json, replace the placeholder, and restart Claude Desktop.

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searchchamp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.searchchamp.com/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer atl_mcp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

The missing space after Authorization: in args is intentional; the AUTH_HEADER value contains the safe space after Bearer and avoids argument escaping failures on Windows.

Cursor

Add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json or the project's .cursor/mcp.json, then reload MCP settings. Cursor's schema takes url and headers without a type field.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searchchamp": {
      "url": "https://mcp.searchchamp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer atl_mcp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI

Keep the plaintext out of arguments and committed configuration:

export SEARCHCHAMP_MCP_TOKEN='atl_mcp_your_token_here'
codex mcp add searchchamp \
  --url https://mcp.searchchamp.com/mcp \
  --bearer-token-env-var SEARCHCHAMP_MCP_TOKEN

Codex stores the environment-variable name, not the bearer value. Make sure the variable exists in the shell that launches Codex.

Claude Code, VS Code, and generic HTTP clients

Use this Streamable-HTTP shape in Claude Code's .mcp.json (or ~/.claude.json for every project), VS Code's MCP settings, or another client that reads mcpServers. These clients require "type": "http".

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searchchamp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.searchchamp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer atl_mcp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If an otherwise compatible client rejects this entry, check whether its schema follows Cursor (omit type) or generic Streamable HTTP (require type: http). Do not change the URL path or move the bearer into a query parameter.

Verify the connection

Ask the client:

Use SearchChamp to list the sites I can access, then get the latest site snapshot for example.com.

A connected client should call list_sites, learn the exact address, and then call get_site_snapshot. For a user token, only tools in its curated catalog appear; get_site_snapshot is OAuth-only, so a token client should instead try get_rankings or get_ai_visibility.