AI tools

Connect an AI tool

Lookout runs an MCP server, so an AI tool such as Claude Code, Cursor or Codex can read your projects’ problems, scans and search data and answer questions about them.

What your AI tool can do

Your AI tool can read what Lookout has already stored for every project on your account: problems and their evidence, scans, search ideas and totals, URL Inspection reports and speed results.

Access is read-only. Your AI tool can’t change a project, start a scan or change your website, and Lookout doesn’t call Google or Bing on its behalf.

Set it up

Step 1: Create a key

Go to Settings, then API & MCP. Give the key a name you’ll recognise, such as the tool and computer it’s for, and choose when it expires: in 30 days, in 90 days, in 1 year or never. You can have up to 10 active keys.

Settings, API and MCP: the Create a key step with a name field and an expiry menu.

Step 2: Copy it somewhere safe

Lookout shows the key once. Keep it in your password manager or as an environment variable named LOOKOUT_API_KEY. Lookout keeps only a fingerprint of it, so a lost key can’t be shown again: revoke it and create another.

Step 3: Add Lookout to your tool

Each snippet reads the key from LOOKOUT_API_KEY, so the key stays out of your files.

Setup for each tool

The server address is https://lookoutseo.app/mcp.

Claude Code

Run in a terminal. Claude Code saves the key in its own settings; use .mcp.json with ${LOOKOUT_API_KEY} to keep it out of a project.

claude mcp add --transport http lookout https://lookoutseo.app/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LOOKOUT_API_KEY"

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then reload Cursor.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lookout": {
      "url": "https://lookoutseo.app/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:LOOKOUT_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

Codex

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml.

[mcp_servers.lookout]
url = "https://lookoutseo.app/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "LOOKOUT_API_KEY"

CI or scripts

Store the key as a CI secret named LOOKOUT_API_KEY. Never commit it.

curl -sS https://lookoutseo.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOOKOUT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "MCP-Protocol-Version: 2026-07-28" \
  -H "Mcp-Method: tools/call" -H "Mcp-Name: list_sites" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_sites","arguments":{},"_meta":{"io.modelcontextprotocol/protocolVersion":"2026-07-28","io.modelcontextprotocol/clientCapabilities":{}}}}'

Lookout signs AI tools in with an API key. The connectors in claude.ai, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT usually sign in with OAuth instead, which Lookout doesn’t offer yet.

Look after your keys

A key reads every project on your account. You can’t limit a key to some projects.
Settings, API & MCP lists your keys with when each was last used. Revoke stops a key working at once; revoked and expired keys stay listed.
Every tool and its inputs are in the MCP tool reference.