Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Anthropic introduced MCP in November 2024 as an open standard. It defines one way for an assistant, the client, to ask a program, the server, what it offers and then use it. A server describes its tools, such as "query search analytics" or "get page", with their inputs. The assistant decides when to call one, the server runs it and returns the result, and the assistant carries on with its task.

Servers run in one of two ways. A local server runs on your machine and talks to the assistant over stdio, its standard input and output. A remote server runs elsewhere and is reached over streamable HTTP, usually with a key or a sign-in. The same server works with any client that speaks the protocol, which is why one server can serve Claude Code and Cursor alike.

A coding agent sees your code and nothing about how search engines treat it. MCP is how the missing half gets in. With a Search Console server connected, the agent can look up which queries /pricing is shown for, then rewrite that page's title in the same session. With a report exposed over MCP, it can read one finding and make the change it describes.

The server does not make the data better. Search Console through MCP still omits rare queries, still lags a few days and still knows nothing about who else ranks. What changes is that the agent no longer works from guesses.

In Claude Code, servers are added with claude mcp add. Cursor reads them from .cursor/mcp.json.

# a local server (stdio)
claude mcp add <name> -- <command> [args]

# a remote server (streamable HTTP)
claude mcp add --transport http <name> <url> --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Servers added with project scope in Claude Code are stored in .mcp.json at the repository root, a file you commit. That is useful for sharing a server with a team, and the wrong place for any secret.

• Scope: does it ask for read-only access? A server that reads your search data has no need to write to it.
• Tokens: where does it store them? Keep them in environment variables or a file outside the repository, never in .mcp.json.
• Operator: who runs it? A remote server holds your token on someone else's machine. A local one runs code you should have read.
• Tools: what can it do? List its tools after connecting, and remove any server you do not use.