# Set up Limelit

Limelit tracks how AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode) mention and cite a brand against its competitors. These steps connect you, the user's coding agent, to their Limelit account over MCP, so they can ask about their AI visibility without leaving the chat.

## How to follow these steps

- In step 2, follow only the section for the client you are running in.
- Steps marked **You run** are commands you can run yourself. Steps marked **The user does** need a browser or an interactive menu: tell the user exactly what to do, then wait for them to say it is done.
- Never ask the user to paste an API key, password or token into the chat. A key belongs in a config file or a masked prompt on the user's own machine.
- Reading data is free. Tools that start runs or write drafts spend credits. Call them with `dry_run=true` first, show the user the plan and the estimated credits, and run for real only after they confirm.

## 1. A Limelit account with a brand set up

Ask the user whether they already use Limelit. If they do, go to step 2.

**The user does:** open https://limelit.co/signup?redirect_to=/setup, sign in with Google, Microsoft or an email link, and finish the setup steps (website, brand profile, competitors, topics, prompts). Signing up is free. Limelit starts collecting AI answers for their prompts once setup is done.

## 2. Connect the Limelit MCP server

### Claude Code

**You run:**

```bash
claude plugin marketplace add limelit-co/limelit-plugin
claude plugin install limelit@limelit
```

If either command fails (a sandbox can block writes to `~/.claude`), ask the user to type these in Claude Code instead:

```
/plugin marketplace add limelit-co/limelit-plugin
/plugin install limelit@limelit
```

**The user does:**

1. Quit Claude Code and start it again with `claude --continue`. The plugin loads at startup, and `--continue` reopens this conversation so you can finish step 3. Tell the user this before they quit.
2. Type `/mcp` on its own and press Enter. Highlight the Limelit server, press Enter, then highlight Authenticate and press Enter.
3. Their browser opens limelit.co. Sign in and click Allow access, then come back to Claude Code.

No key to copy. The sign-in lasts 90 days and appears in Limelit Settings as a key named Claude Code (signed in), where it can be revoked. The plugin is open source at https://github.com/limelit-co/limelit-plugin.

### Other MCP clients

Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and Windsurf connect to https://api.limelit.co/mcp with a personal API key, and so can any other client that speaks MCP over HTTP.

**The user does:**

1. Create an API key at https://limelit.co/settings/api#api-keys
2. Open https://limelit.co/connect, pick their client, and copy its config snippet.
3. Save the snippet where the page says, with their key in place of the placeholder, then reload the client's MCP servers.

You may help them find the config file. Do not ask them for the key itself.

## 3. Check the connection

**You run:** call `get_active_property`. It names the brand this connection acts in. Then call `analyze_my_visibility`.

- If it reports no answers yet, setup is done but the first answers have not been collected. Say so and report no numbers. Do not start a run unless the user asks for one, because runs spend credits.
- Otherwise, give the user the headline: their visibility, who is ahead, and the number of answers behind each figure. A figure resting on fewer than 20 answers is still settling.

## 4. What to ask next

Suggest one or two of these to the user:

- "How visible are we in AI answers, and who is ahead?"
- "Which prompts do we lose, and what gets cited instead?"
- "Which sources should we earn first?"
- "What should we write next?"

In Claude Code the plugin also adds slash commands:

- `/limelit:visibility`: How visible your brand is in AI answers, who is ahead, and what changed
- `/limelit:lost-prompts`: The prompts where AI answers leave your brand out, and why
- `/limelit:easy-wins`: Sources AI answers cite for competitors but not for you, ranked
- `/limelit:next-post`: The next post to write so AI answers cite you, with a brief

## More

- Every tool, by name: https://limelit.co/mcp-docs
- Pricing: https://limelit.co/pricing