Get started with Algolia Productivity MCP

Connect LLM tools to your Algolia account with user-scoped access for internal workflows.

Use Algolia Productivity MCP for exploration and analysis by people in your organization across the Algolia applications and indices allowed by their permissions. To expose a curated set of indices to external or customer-facing AI assistants instead, use Algolia Public MCP. To compare both, see the MCP overview.

Algolia Productivity MCP provides read-only access. It can search and analyze your data, but it can’t create, update, or delete indices, records, or settings.

Before you begin

To use Algolia Productivity MCP, make sure you have:

• An Algolia account with access to the applications and indices you want to work with.
• An MCP client such as ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, VS Code, or OpenAI Playground.

Enable Algolia Productivity MCP

Productivity MCP is enabled once for the account. Each user then signs in separately, and their Algolia permissions determine what they can access.

1. Go to Algolia dashboard > Generative AI > MCP Servers > Productivity
2. Enable Algolia Productivity MCP for your account

Keep the Productivity MCP enabled while you use MCP clients. Disabling it stops connected workflows immediately.

Connect from your MCP client

Open your MCP client and add a new MCP server or connector. Use the Productivity MCP URL from the Algolia dashboard, then sign in when prompted so the MCP can inherit your Algolia permissions.

You don’t need to provide an OAuth client ID or client secret. If your MCP client asks for these fields, leave them empty.

ChatGPT

1. Open Connectors settings, then click Create.
2. Fill in the following:
   • Server URL: https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
   • Label: Algolia
   • Description: add a description that helps the LLM understand the tool’s purpose.
   • Authentication: specify OAuth
3. Check I trust this application.
4. Click Create and sign in when prompted.
5. Enable the Algolia MCP connection from the prompt bar.

Claude

1. Open Connectors settings, click +, then click Add custom connector.
2. Fill in the following:
   • Remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
   • Name: Algolia
3. Click Add and sign in when prompted.
4. Enable the Algolia MCP connection from the prompt bar.

On Claude Team and Enterprise plans, an organization owner adds the connector from Organization settings > Connectors. Other members then click Connect on it in Customize > Connectors.

Claude Code

1. Run the following command in your terminal to register the MCP server:
   claude mcp add --transport http algolia https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
   
2. Start a Claude Code session and run /mcp to authenticate with Algolia.
3. Sign in when prompted to authorize Algolia.

Codex

Configure the Algolia MCP server with the CLI or in ~/.codex/config.toml, then run codex mcp login algolia and sign in when prompted to authorize Algolia.

• Run the following command in your terminal:
  codex mcp add algolia --url https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
  
• Or add the following to your ~/.codex/config.toml file:
  ~/.codex/config.toml

  [mcp_servers.algolia] 
  url = "https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp"
  

Cursor

To add the MCP server manually instead:

1. Open Settings > Cursor Settings, then click Tools & MCPs.
2. Click Add Custom MCP.
3. Paste the MCP server configuration into the mcp.json file that opens, then save your changes.
   .cursor/mcp.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "algolia": { 
         "url": "https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp"
       }
     }
   }
   
4. Click Connect, then sign in when you’re prompted.

Alternatively, you can add the same configuration to ~/.cursor/mcp.json on macOS and Linux, or to %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json on Windows.

VS Code

To add the MCP server manually instead:

1. Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows and Linux) and run MCP: Add Server.
2. Select HTTP as the transport.
3. Enter the Server URL: https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
4. Set the Server ID to algolia (or your preferred name).
5. Choose Workspace or Global as the target.

Alternatively, add the following to your ~/.vscode/mcp.json file on macOS and Linux, or to %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\mcp.json on Windows:

~/.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "algolia": { 
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

Configure the Algolia MCP server with the CLI or in ~/.gemini/settings.json, then sign in when prompted to authorize Algolia.

• Run the following command in your terminal:
  gemini mcp add algolia https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp -s user -t http
  
• Or add the following to your ~/.gemini/settings.json file:
  ~/.gemini/settings.json

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "algolia": { 
        "httpUrl": "https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp"
      }
    }
  }
  

What you can do

Algolia Productivity MCP is designed for internal, user-scoped workflows:

• Run searches across the applications and indices you can access.
• Ask business intelligence-style questions like top searches, no-results queries, and trends.
• Explore index data and validate changes before making updates elsewhere.

Tools exposed by Algolia Productivity MCP

Algolia Productivity MCP exposes a tool per index and analytics-specific tools.

Tool	API
Search
algolia_search_list_indices	List indices
algolia_search_index	Search an index
algolia_search_for_facet_values	Search for facet values
Recommend
algolia_recommendations	Retrieve recommendations
Analytics
algolia_analytics_click_positions	Get click positions
algolia_analytics_no_click_rate	Get no click rate
algolia_analytics_top_searches_without_clicks	Get searches with no clicks
algolia_analytics_top_filters	Get top filter attributes
algolia_analytics_top_filters_no_results	Get top filters with no results
algolia_analytics_no_results_rate	Get no results rate
algolia_analytics_number_of_searches	Get searches count
algolia_analytics_searches_no_results	Get searches with no results
algolia_analytics_top_searches	Get top searches
algolia_analytics_top_search_results	Get top hits
algolia_analytics_number_of_users	Get users count
algolia_analytics_top_countries	Get top countries

ChatGPT requires two extra tools (see OpenAI MCP docs):

Tool	API
search	Search an index
fetch	Retrieve a record

Guidelines

• Authentication required. Productivity MCP uses your Algolia identity and permissions.
• Read-only access. Use it for analysis and exploration. Data changes still happen in the dashboard or APIs.
• Data scope. Anything you can access in Algolia is available to the MCP, so treat prompts and outputs as internal data.