Get started with Algolia Productivity MCP

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.

Go to Algolia dashboard > Generate AI > MCP Servers > Productivity
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.

Open Connectors settings, then click Create.
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
Check I trust this application.
Click Create and sign in when prompted.
Enable the Algolia MCP connection from the prompt bar.

Open Connectors settings, then click Add Custom Connector.
Fill in the following:
- Remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
- Name: Algolia
Click Add and sign in when prompted.
Enable the Algolia MCP connection from the prompt bar.

Run the following command in your terminal to register the MCP server:

claude mcp add --transport http algolia https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp

Start a Claude Code session and run /mcp to authenticate with Algolia.
Sign in when prompted to authorize Algolia.

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"

To add the MCP server manually instead:

Open Settings > Cursor Settings, then click Tools & MCPs.
Click Add Custom MCP.

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"
    }
  }
}

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.

To add the MCP server manually instead:

Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows and Linux) and run MCP: Add Server.
Select HTTP as the transport.
Enter the Server URL: https://mcp.algolia.com/mcp
Set the Server ID to algolia (or your preferred name).
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"
    }
  }
}

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.

Search and Discovery platform

Optimization and Personalization

AI-powered experiences

Production and scale

Get started with Algolia Productivity MCP

Before you begin

Enable Algolia Productivity MCP

Connect from your MCP client

What you can do

Tools exposed by Algolia Productivity MCP

Guidelines

​Before you begin

​Enable Algolia Productivity MCP

​Connect from your MCP client

​What you can do

​Tools exposed by Algolia Productivity MCP

​Guidelines

Before you begin

Enable Algolia Productivity MCP

Connect from your MCP client

What you can do

Tools exposed by Algolia Productivity MCP

Guidelines