Connect Manifold MCP to Claude, then ask where you rank on Google, who ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name, and what a competitor runs. Free to start.
Swipe or tap Next · checked on 2026-10-12
Install Claude Code first if you don't have it (step 1 under “Connect Manifold to Claude Code” below). Then run these lines in your terminal: they make a folder, plug Manifold in for that folder, and start Claude. Inside Claude Code, type /mcp, pick manifold and sign in in your browser. Then paste the prompt. It walks you through the rest and stops before every check that spends credits.
Using the Claude app instead? Do “Or: connect it to the Claude app” below, then paste the same prompt into a new chat with Manifold switched on.
Make the folder, add Manifold, start Claude
cd ~
mkdir seo-check
cd seo-check
claude mcp add --transport http manifold https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp
claudeThe setup prompt (copy all of it) · lines 1-1 of 34. Copy all copies the whole prompt; read it in full on the page.
About me: I run a small business and I'm not technical, so use plain words and short sentences.This is the manual way: every step, every command and every price. Claude follows it too.
Next month, ask the exact same questions and compare. One run is a snapshot; the trend is the part worth reading.
aeo_ (answer engine optimization, the AI cousin of SEO).yoursite.com.AI answers are live and change from run to run, and Manifold's own docs say every AI-answer run is a single snapshot. So say “when I asked it today, ChatGPT named…”, never “ChatGPT recommends…”. Asking the same questions next month is how you find out whether anything is actually moving.
Run this on your own website. If you share a screenshot of the results, blur the other businesses' names. And never post a snapshot as a fact about a competitor (“ChatGPT says we're better than them”). One run on one day doesn't prove anything, and it's their name on the line.
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.
Install (Mac, Linux, WSL)
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
# open a NEW terminal window, then:
claude --versionInstall (Windows PowerShell)
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iexYour to-do lists and your rules file land in here, not all over your computer. If the folder's already there, mkdir complains; ignore it.
Make the folder and go into it
cd ~
mkdir seo-check
cd seo-checkseo-check folder. Not inside Claude Code.That's the one command from the video. It adds Manifold for this folder only (Claude Code calls that the local scope). Want it in every folder on your computer instead? Use the second line. Pick one, not both.
This folder only
claude mcp add --transport http manifold https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcpOr: every folder
claude mcp add --transport http manifold --scope user https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcpclaude first, then /mcp.Pick manifold in the list and follow the steps in your browser: sign in to Manifold with Google or email, and approve Claude Code. Your first sign-in creates your Manifold account and a workspace with 250 free credits. No card.
Type this in Claude Code
/mcpclaude mcp remove manifold deletes it. The first time Claude uses each Manifold tool, Claude Code asks your permission.At the plain terminal prompt, claude mcp list shows manifold. If it says ! Needs authentication, do the sign-in step again. Or just ask Claude: “What Manifold tools do you have?” You should see names starting with seo_, aeo_, ads_, facebook_, instagram_, console_ and analytics_.
Check from the terminal
claude mcp listHere's something worth knowing: Manifold charges the moment a tool runs. It doesn't ask 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 is max_credits: Manifold's own server refuses any call priced over it.
CLAUDE.md · Part 1 of 2 · Copy copies all 24 lines
# Where my business shows up
This folder is for checking my own website on Google and in AI answers with Manifold MCP (read-only).
## My business
- Website: <yoursite.com>
- What I sell, and where: <your service> in <your city or area>
- The one competitor I look at: <their website, or their Facebook page name>
## My questions (the same ones every month)
1. <question 1>
2. <question 2>
3. <question 3>CLAUDE.md · Part 2 of 2 · Copy copies all 24 lines
## Every Manifold call
1. Dry run it first (dry_run: true), show me the credits for the whole step, and wait for my yes.
2. Run it with max_credits set to the dry-run price. Tell me what it actually cost (credits_charged).
3. AI answers: chatgpt, claude, gemini and perplexity only, unless I ask. Say "when I asked on <date>", never "ChatGPT recommends".
## Never
- Never invent a ranking, an answer, a number or a business name. Only what the results show.
- Never put customer names, phone numbers or private details into a Manifold call.
- Never rerun a check that came back empty (NoData). It costs a credit each time.
- Never ask me for, print or save a key, token or password.Works in Claude on the web and in the desktop app, including on the free Claude plan, which allows one custom connector. No folder and no CLAUDE.md here, so the rules ride along in the setup prompt.
Claude's help center says Customize, then Connectors. Manifold's own page says Settings, then Connectors. Use whichever your app shows you.
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.
The connector address
https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcpUnder 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 in the window that opens (Google or email) and approve Claude. If no window opens, find Manifold in your connectors and click Connect.
Start a new chat, click the + button at the lower left, then Connectors, and make sure Manifold is 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 checks I'd keep saying yes one at a time.
An Owner adds it once for everyone: Organization settings, Connectors, Add, hover over Custom, pick Web, then the same name and address. Everyone else goes to Customize, Connectors, finds Manifold and clicks Connect.
Manifold's AI-readiness check is free, and so is any dry run. So the first test spends zero credits. Paste this into Claude Code (or your Claude chat with Manifold on).
Prompt: the free first test
Use Manifold. Run the free AI-readiness check (aeo_get_site_readiness) on <yoursite.com>. Explain what failed in plain words, the worst first, and what each one means for showing up in AI answers.
Then do a dry run only (dry_run: true) of one AI-answers check for the question "Who's the best <your service> company in <your city>?" on chatgpt, claude, gemini and perplexity. Tell me what it would cost. Don't run it.What the free check looks at: whether your robots.txt (the file that tells crawlers what they may read) lets the AI crawlers in, whether your hosting's firewall turns them away, whether your words are in the page without JavaScript, noindex tags, freshness, redirects, your sitemap, your title and description, structured data and llms.txt.
Failing checks come first. The labels tell you how much each one matters: blocks_citations means an AI engine documents that this stops it citing you. llms.txt gets reported, but it never counts as a fail; the check itself notes no engine has confirmed reading it.
Good: a plain-English list of what passed and failed, a price of 16 credits for the dry run, and nothing charged (every result says what it cost in credits_charged). Bad: Claude says it has no Manifold tools, or the result says it needs a sign-in. See “When it breaks”.
When I ran the readiness check on our own site, it cost 0 credits and the dry run priced the four-app check at 16. Your results will be your own.
These are the four things I asked about our own site, as prompts. Each one dry-runs first and waits for your yes. Swap in your own site, service and town.
Two checks: the domain overview (5 credits: how strong Google's data thinks your site is, and a traffic estimate) and the keywords you rank for in the top 100 (6 credits for the top 20, 10 for 100). The location defaults to the United States.
Optional: one search you care about (6 credits each)
Use Manifold. Where does <yoursite.com> rank on mobile for these searches: <search 1>, <search 2>, <search 3>? Try the location "<your city>". Dry run first. If it isn't in the top 100, just say so.Prompt: my Google rankings
Use Manifold. Where does <yoursite.com> show up on Google? Get the domain overview and the keywords it ranks for, the top 20 by estimated traffic. Dry run both first and tell me the credits. After my yes, show me a table: keyword, position, page, monthly searches. Then tell me in three sentences what stands out. Only what the data shows.This is the one from the hook. One question across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity is 16 credits. Leave the apps unnamed and it also asks Google's AI Overview, which makes it 18. Up to 10 questions and 10 business names per run. It runs in the background: Claude gets a task number and checks back for free until the answers are in. Results are kept 30 days and never cached, so asking again costs again.
Optional: the questions people actually ask (45 credits for 50)
Use Manifold's aeo_search_prompts with the keyword "<your service> <your city>". Dry run first. Show me the 15 questions with the highest volume, and tell me which of them already name a business or cite a site.Prompt: who the AI apps name · Part 1 of 2 · Copy copies all 5 lines
Use Manifold's AI-answers check. First, write three questions a customer would ask an AI app when they need <your service> in <your city>, like "Who's the best <your service> company in <your city>?". Show them to me and wait.Prompt: who the AI apps name · Part 2 of 2 · Copy copies all 5 lines
After I approve them, dry run one run with those questions on chatgpt, claude, gemini and perplexity only, looking for these names: <your business name>, <yoursite.com>, <competitor>. Tell me the credits. After my yes, run it, check back on the task until it's done, and show me a table: question, AI app, was I named (and where in the list), who was named, which sites it cited.
Say "when I asked today". No conclusions from one run.One credit per page of ads, one for a profile, one per page of posts. The ad libraries publish spend and reach as ranges, so that's what you get. Google ads work too: Claude finds the advertiser first (1 credit), then lists their ads (1 credit a page, or 25 if you want the ad text).
Prompt: a competitor's ads and social
Use Manifold to look at <competitor's website or Facebook page name>: their active ads in the Facebook ad library (one page), and their Facebook and Instagram profiles and latest posts (one page each). Dry run first and tell me the credits. After my yes, sum it up: what they're offering, the hooks they repeat, how often they post and what gets comments. Spend and reach come as ranges; say so. Don't guess anything the results don't show.Free: no Manifold call, just Claude working from what's already in the chat. This is the part that makes the other three worth the credits.
Prompt: the to-do list
Turn everything we found today into a to-do list for my own website and listings: no more than seven items, most useful first. For each one: what to do, which result it comes from, and who could do it (me, the office, our web developer). Nothing that copies the competitor's words. No numbers that weren't in the results. Put today's date at the top and call it a snapshot. In Claude Code, save it as a new file with today's date in the name.Keep the three questions in CLAUDE.md under “My questions” (the setup prompt does that for you) and ask the exact same ones next month. Different wording gets a different answer, and then you're comparing two different things.
Optional. If your site's in Google Search Console or Google Analytics, Manifold reads them for 0 credits, because it's your own data. They're rate limited instead of charged.
Connect Google. Google asks to let Manifold view your Search Console data and your Google Analytics data: leave both ticked. If the page later marks the account No Analytics, choose Reconnect. Bing Webmaster Tools connects on the same page, with a sign-in or an API key from Bing's Settings, then API access. That key goes into Manifold's page, never into a chat.
Prompt: my Google Analytics
Use Manifold's Google Analytics tools (they're free). List my properties, then show me sessions by landing page for the last 28 days, top 20.Prompt: my Search Console
Use Manifold's Search Console tools (they're free). List the sites I can read. Then for <yoursite.com>, show me the 20 searches that got the most clicks in the last 28 days: clicks, impressions, average position. Then the 10 with the most impressions but the fewest clicks, and what that might mean.Checked 2026-10-12 on manifoldmcp.com/pricing and claude.com/pricing. Manifold's launch post said 500 free credits; its pricing page says 250, so plan on 250. Plan credits reset every month. There's no overage: when credits run out, calls stop. Prices change: check before you buy.
aeo_get_site_readinessdry_run: trueconsole_*, analytics_*get_taskseo_get_serpseo_get_domain_overviewseo_get_ranked_keywordsseo_get_positionseo_get_keyword_gapaeo_run_ai_answersaeo_search_promptsads_get_advertiser_adsfacebook_get_profile, instagram_get_profilefacebook_get_posts, instagram_get_postsNoData)From Manifold's credits page and each tool's own description, checked 2026-10-12 (the 16, 5 and 6 are dry runs I ran that day). 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 full run of this guide (estimates from the price list): readiness check 0, domain overview 5, top 20 keywords 6, three AI questions 48, a competitor's Facebook ads, profiles and posts about 5, the to-do list 0. That's about 64 credits, so the free 250 covers it three times with room to spare, and Pro's 2,500 a month covers it many times over. The AI questions are most of the bill, which is why the prompts ask you to approve them first.
How the charge works: Manifold 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.
command not found: claude, or 'claude' is not recognizedOpen a new terminal window after installing. Still missing? The install folder isn't on your PATH yet: Claude Code's install troubleshooting page has the fix for your system.
claude mcp list says ! Needs authentication, or Claude says it has no Manifold toolsYou added it but didn't sign in. Start claude, type /mcp, pick manifold and finish the sign-in in your browser.
Copy the address Claude Code shows and open it yourself. If the browser lands on a connection error after you sign in, copy the full address from its address bar and paste it into the box Claude Code shows.
The plain claude mcp add only adds it to the folder you ran it in. Start claude in that folder, or add it for every folder with the --scope user line from the setup.
OAuth token is invalid or expiredSign in again. In Claude Code: /mcp, pick manifold, then Re-authenticate. In the Claude app, remove the connector and add it again (that's how Claude's help center says to change one).
InsufficientCreditsYour balance is below that call's price. Nothing was charged. The free 250 come once, so it's a Pro plan, a top-up or next month's renewal. Claude should stop and show you the link the error carries.
BudgetExceededThe call was priced over your max_credits cap, so Manifold refused it and charged nothing. That's the cap doing its job. Ask for fewer rows or fewer questions, or raise the cap once you've said yes to the price.
NoDataThe data provider had nothing for that input, and that still costs 1 credit. Don't run the same thing again: it charges again. Check the spelling of the domain, or try a different search.
It runs in the background. Claude gets a task number and checks back with get_task, which is free. If Claude gives up, ask it to check the task again. Results stay there for 30 days.
Normal. That's the snapshot thing. Compare the same questions month to month, and don't treat one run as a verdict on anyone, you or the competitor.
The location defaults to the United States. The tools take a location by name, so ask Claude to dry-run with your city. If the tool rejects the name, that costs nothing; fall back to the country.
Claude Code warns when a tool sends back more than 10,000 tokens (chunks of text) and caps it at 25,000 by default. Ask for fewer rows: the top 20, not 1,000.
ConcurrencyLimitToo many calls at once (Manifold allows 5 at a time per kind of data). Nothing was charged. Ask Claude to run them one at a time.
NotConnected on a Search Console or Analytics questionYour Google account isn't connected, or Analytics wasn't ticked. Open the link in the error (or Manifold's Connections page) and connect, or choose Reconnect.
Click + at the lower left, then Connectors, and switch it on for that chat. On the free Claude plan you get one custom connector, so if you already have another one, this one doesn't fit until that one's gone.
Different company, same name. This one is manifoldmcp.com, and the address you add is https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp.
Claude Code: claude mcp remove manifold, which also deletes the sign-in it stored. Claude app: Customize, Connectors, then Remove (or the three dots) next to Manifold. Manifold says it deletes your account data within 30 days of you deleting the workspace or asking it to close your account.
It only reads, and it logs every call with the domain or keyword you asked about. Its main data provider, DataForSEO, gets each call's domains, keywords and questions. Cached results stay from an hour to 90 days. It's a one-person business in the UK (a sole trader, trading as Manifold), and its privacy page lists every provider it uses.So keep customer names, phone numbers and anything private out of your prompts. You'd do that anyway.
What each page backs up is listed at the end of the full guide.
One plug, four questions and a to-do list for your own site, with the price of every check before it runs. Today's snapshot, not a verdict.
Would you rather have someone work that list 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).