One Claude prompt: a competitor's rankings, ads and site, plus 3 gaps

Start here: paste this into Claude Code

Install Claude Code first if you don't have it (step 1 under “Connect both to Claude Code” below), and make your free Context.dev account at context.dev (no card). Manifold makes your account the first time you sign in.

Then run these lines in your terminal: they make a folder, plug both MCPs in, and start Claude. Inside Claude Code, type /mcp, pick manifold and sign in in your browser, then do the same for context. Then paste the prompt. It walks you through the rest and stops before anything spends a credit.

Using the Claude app instead? Do “Or: connect both to the Claude app” below, then paste the same prompt into a new chat with both switched on.

Make the folder, add both MCPs, start Claude

cd ~
mkdir competitor-check
cd competitor-check
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user manifold https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user context https://mcp.context.dev/mcp
claude

The setup prompt (copy all of it) · lines 1-1 of 40. Copy all copies the whole prompt; read it in full on the page.

About me: I run a home-service business and I'm not technical, so use plain words and short sentences.

How the pieces connect

This is the manual way: every step, every command and every price. Claude follows it too.

Words you'll see

• MCP: a cable from Claude into another app, so Claude can use that app's tools and data.
• Claude Code: Anthropic's AI assistant that works in a folder on your computer. You talk to it in plain English inside a terminal (the text-only window where you type commands).
• Connector: what the Claude app calls an MCP you've added.

• Manifold: a read-only MCP for marketing data: Google rankings, AI answers, ad libraries and social profiles.
• Context.dev: a web-data service for AI tools. This guide uses two of its tools: one reads a page, one lists a site's pages.
• Credit: how both of them charge. Every call has a price in credits.

• Dry run: asking a Manifold tool what it would cost without running it. Free.
• max_credits: a spending cap on one Manifold call. If the price would go over it, Manifold refuses the call and charges nothing.
• Domain: a website's address without the https://, like yoursite.com.

• Keyword gap: the searches a competitor shows up for in Google's top 100 that your site doesn't show up for at all.
• Ad library: the public list Facebook and Google keep of the ads a business runs. Anybody can look.
• web-scrape: Context.dev's tool that reads one page and hands it back as plain text.

• web-map (a site map): Context.dev's tool that lists a site's page addresses and titles, without opening every page.
• Snapshot: one run, on one day. AI answers and rankings move.
• CLAUDE.md: a notes file in your folder that Claude Code reads at the start of every session. Your rules go in it.

The Google numbers are estimates from a data provider (DataForSEO), the ad libraries publish spend as ranges, and ChatGPT's answer can change from run to run. So treat the three gaps as good questions to work on, not facts about their business.

Connect both to Claude Code

Install Claude Code (skip if you have it)

Skip this if claude --version already prints a version. You need a paid Claude plan: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. The free plan doesn't include Claude Code. The first time you run claude, it sends you to your browser to log in.

Make your free Context.dev account

Click Create a free account. The free plan is 1,000 credits a month, one request at a time, and no card. You don't need to do anything like this for Manifold: your first sign-in makes the account, with 250 free credits and no card.

Make a folder for this

Your rules file and your gap lists land in here, not all over your computer. If the folder's already there, mkdir complains; ignore it.

cd ~
mkdir competitor-check
cd competitor-check

Plug both in

Two lines, one per MCP. --scope user adds each one for every folder on your computer. That's how Context.dev's own instructions do it, and Manifold's say to add --scope user if you want it everywhere. Already set one of these up from my Manifold guide or my Context.dev guide? Then Claude Code says that server already exists. Fine: skip that line.

Sign in to both

Pick manifold in the list and follow the steps in your browser: sign in to Manifold with Google or email, and approve Claude Code. Then open /mcp again, pick context, sign in to Context.dev and pick your organization on the consent screen. Rather skip the menu? At the plain terminal prompt, claude mcp login manifold and claude mcp login context run the same sign-ins.

Check they're there

At the plain terminal prompt, claude mcp list should show manifold and context, both ✔ Connected. If one says ! Needs authentication, do its sign-in again. Or just ask Claude: “What Manifold and Context.dev tools do you have?” You should see Manifold names starting with seo_, aeo_, ads_, facebook_ and instagram_, and Context.dev's web-scrape, web-map and get-usage among the rest.

Write CLAUDE.md: the rules Claude follows every time

Here's the part nobody mentions: both of these charge the moment a tool runs. Neither one asks first. So the asking is Claude's job, and this file is where you tell it. Claude Code reads it at the start of every session. It's an instruction, not a lock, though. The lock on the Manifold side is max_credits: Manifold's own server refuses any call priced over it. On the Context.dev side, watch the first few calls and say no if Claude skips the price.

CLAUDE.md · Part 1 of 2 · Copy copies all 30 lines

# Competitor teardown

This folder is for researching one competitor with public data, using Manifold MCP (marketing data, read-only) and Context.dev (reads websites), and turning it into three gaps for this week.

## My business
- Website: <yoursite.com>
- What I sell, and where: <your service> in <your towns or area>
- The competitor: <theirsite.com>
- Their Facebook page: <page name or link>
- Their Instagram: <@handle>

## My ChatGPT questions (the same ones every month)
1. <question 1>
2. <question 2>
3. <question 3>

CLAUDE.md · Part 2 of 2 · Copy copies all 30 lines

## Every call
1. Price it first: dry run every Manifold call (dry_run: true, free), add Context.dev's price (web-scrape 1, web-map 1), show me the total and wait for my yes.
2. Run Manifold calls with max_credits set to the dry-run price. Run Context.dev calls one at a time.
3. Tell me what each call cost (Manifold: credits_charged; Context.dev: credits_consumed and credits_remaining).
4. ChatGPT checks: chatgpt only, unless I ask. Say "when I asked on <date>", never "ChatGPT recommends".

## Never
- Never look up a person or an email: no leads_ tools, no people-enrich. Leave names, emails and phone numbers out of everything.
- Never use web-crawl, web-answers, submit-batch or create-monitor unless I ask.
- Never invent a ranking, an ad, a number or a business name. Only what the results show. Never guess their sales, leads or close rate.
- Never rerun a call that failed or came back empty (NoData). Stop and tell me.
- Never say a gap will get me ranked or get me calls.
- Never copy the competitor's words, ads or titles into my plan.
- Never ask me for, print or save a key, token or password.

Or: connect both to the Claude app (no terminal)

Works in Claude on the web and in the desktop app. You're adding two custom connectors, and Claude's free plan allows one, so plan on Pro or up for both. (Context.dev's install page says it's also in Claude's connector directory; Claude's help page doesn't say whether a directory connector counts toward that free limit.) No folder and no CLAUDE.md here, so the rules ride along in the setup prompt.

Open Connectors

Claude's help center says Customize, then Connectors. Manifold's own page says Settings, then Connectors. Use whichever your app shows you.

Add Manifold as a custom connector

Click + Add, then Add custom connector. Name it Manifold, paste the address below and click Continue. Claude shows the sign-in settings it detected; click Continue again.

https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp

Pick the sign-in and finish

Under Authentication, pick Sign in now. Under OAuth client, pick Use Claude's published identity (Recommended). Leave Request headers empty: that's for API keys, and you're signing in through the browser instead. Click Add. Then sign in to Manifold (Google or email) and approve Claude. If no window opens, find Manifold in your connectors and click Connect.

Add Context.dev the same way

Back in Connectors: + Add, Add custom connector, name it Context, paste the address below, and make the same choices: Sign in now, Claude's published identity, no request headers, Add. Then sign in to Context.dev and pick your organization. (Context.dev's own page shortens all this to: +, Add custom connector, the address, Connect.)

Switch both on in a chat

Start a new chat, click the + button at the lower left, then Connectors, and make sure Manifold and Context are both on. Then paste the setup prompt from “Start here”. Claude asks before it uses a tool. Claude's help center says to pick Allow always only for tools you trust to run unsupervised. On the paid calls I'd keep saying yes one at a time.

On a Team or Enterprise plan

An Owner adds them once for everyone: Organization settings, Connectors, Add, hover over Custom, pick Web, then the same names and addresses. Everyone else goes to Customize, Connectors, finds each one and connects.

First test: both cables, zero credits

Three calls that cost nothing: Context.dev's balance check, Manifold's free snapshot of one page, and a dry run of the biggest Manifold call in the teardown. If all three come back, both cables work. Paste this into Claude Code (or your Claude chat with both on).

Prompt: the free first test

Use Context.dev's get-usage (it's free) and tell me my credit balance and when it refills.

Then use Manifold's seo_get_page (it's free) on <https://theirsite.com>. Tell me the page title, the main headings and, in one sentence, what they seem to sell.

Then do a dry run only (dry_run: true) of Manifold's seo_get_keyword_gap with <yoursite.com> as the target and <theirsite.com> as the competitor, 100 rows. Tell me what it would cost. Don't run it.

Good: your Context.dev balance and refill date, their page title and headings, a price of 10 credits for the keyword gap, and nothing charged. (Manifold's answers say what they cost in credits_charged; Context.dev's say credits_consumed.) Bad: Claude says it has no Manifold or Context.dev tools, or the answer says it needs a sign-in. See “When it breaks”.

The one prompt from my video

Here's the prompt, with the guardrails written in. Swap in your site, what you sell, the competitor and your three questions. Claude prices the whole thing first and waits for your yes.

Prompt: the teardown · lines 1-4 of 11. Copy all copies the whole prompt; read it in full on the page.

Research this competitor and give me three gaps I can go after this week.

Me: <yoursite.com>, <your service> in <your towns or area>.
Them: <theirsite.com>. Facebook page: <name or link, or find it>. Instagram: <@handle, or skip>.

Prices from Manifold's and Context.dev's docs, checked 2026-10-13. That's about 26 Manifold credits and 3 Context.dev credits. The dry run gives you the real Manifold total before anything runs, and an answer that comes from Manifold's cache costs less.

How the gaps come together: the keyword gap says which searches they show up for and you don't, and the page they show up with. Your own site map says whether you even have a page for that town or service. Put the two side by side and you get the one from the video: a town where they rank and you've got no page.

Their ads show what they're pushing, their home page shows how they say it, and the ChatGPT questions show who got named when you asked. Claude has to tie every gap to one of those results. If it can't point to one, it's not a gap, it's a guess.

Check one gap against Google (6 credits)

Before you build anything, see where you stand for the search behind a gap. One search, one location.

Turn a gap into a page plan (free)

No Manifold or Context.dev call, just Claude working from what's already in the chat.

Prompt: the page plan

Take gap 1 and write me a plan for the page: the town, the service, the page address following my own site's pattern, the headings, and the questions a customer in that town would want answered. My words, not theirs. No numbers I didn't give you, and no promise that it will rank.

Optional: their Google ad text (25 credits a page)

The teardown skips the ad text to keep it cheap. If their Google ads look worth a closer read, this adds it, at 25 credits a page instead of 1.

Same time next month

The same teardown again, about the same price. The change is what tells you something.

Prompt: what changed

Run the same teardown on <theirsite.com> with the same three ChatGPT questions from CLAUDE.md. Price it first and wait for my yes. Then compare with the file from <date>: new searches they show up for, ads that started or stopped, pages they added, and which of my three gaps I've closed.

What it costs

Checked 2026-10-13 on manifoldmcp.com/pricing, context.dev/pricing and claude.com/pricing. Manifold's launch post said 500 free credits; its pricing page says 250, so plan on 250. Manifold's plan credits reset every month, and there's no overage: when credits run out, calls stop. Context.dev also lists bigger plans (Growth, Scale, Enterprise), says yearly billing saves two months, and its docs say unused credits on paid plans generally don't roll over. Prices change: check before you buy.

From Manifold's credits page and tool docs and Context.dev's credits page, checked 2026-10-13. Manifold's cached answers cost a quarter of the live price (at least 1 credit), and nothing if your workspace already paid for them. AI-answer runs are never cached.

Rough math for one teardown (from the price lists, not a bill): Manifold about 26 credits (domain overview 5, keyword gap 10, Facebook page 1, Facebook ads 1, Google advertiser 1, Google ads 1, Instagram 1, three ChatGPT questions 6).

Context.dev 3 (their home page 1, two site maps 2). So Manifold's free 250 covers about nine teardowns, and Context.dev's free 1,000 a month won't be the thing you run out of. Add the 6-credit Google check for each gap you want to test.

How Manifold charges: it holds the most a call could cost, then charges for what actually came back, never more than the estimate. If your balance is too low, the call fails and costs nothing. An empty answer (NoData) still costs 1, which is why the prompt says don't rerun it.

When it breaks

The official docs behind every claim

• Manifold MCP
• Manifold: Pricing
• Manifold: Credits
• Manifold: Errors and limits
• Manifold: Authentication
• Manifold: Claude Code
• Manifold: Claude
• Manifold: SEO tools
• Manifold: AI answer tools

• Manifold: Ad library tools
• Manifold: Facebook tools
• Manifold: Instagram tools
• Manifold: Shared parameters
• Manifold: Privacy
• Manifold MCP on Product Hunt
• Context.dev
• Context.dev: Pricing
• Context.dev Docs: Install the MCP

• Context.dev Docs: Credits
• Context.dev Docs: Map
• Context.dev Docs: Scrape
• Context.dev Docs: Rate limits
• Context.dev Docs: Troubleshooting
• Context.dev on Product Hunt
• Claude Code: MCP
• Claude Code: Advanced setup
• Claude Code: Memory (CLAUDE.md)

• Claude Help: Custom connectors
• Claude: Plans and pricing

What each page backs up is listed at the end of the full guide.

That's the setup

One prompt, two cables, three gaps, and it turns out your competitor's been doing your homework.

Would you rather have someone build those pages on a site you own? That's our Custom SEO.

Want help setting this up? Receipts Group builds these systems.

Open the full guide as a page (every file in full, plus the table of contents).