How to Connect Promptwatch MCP to Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT
How we add the hosted Promptwatch MCP URL to Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT with OAuth or a read-only API key.
Analysts already work in Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. We do not make them live in the Promptwatch UI for every check. We add the hosted MCP server and they ask the live project. Same data as the login. Fewer screenshots in Slack. The workflow change is small and the time saving is real, because an analyst who can ask the project from their editor asks more questions than one who has to open a second tab and log in.
Essential at $95/mo includes MCP and API. That is the first brand plan where we bother. Explore is free, 10 ChatGPT prompts, and is not an MCP rollout. You can learn the URL there. We do not staff a retainer on it. Professional is $245/mo. Business is $579/mo. Kick-off is $199/mo, unlimited projects and prompts, 10 seats. G2: 4.7/5. Confirm Essential, Professional, Business, or Kick-off so MCP and API are on the plan. Pay for Essential or Kick-off before we add MCP to everyone's editor. The plan gate is the part that decides whether the rollout is possible, and a rollout on a plan without MCP is a rollout that fails at the first connection.
What we add
MCP is hosted HTTP. There is a server URL. We paste that URL into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. Auth is OAuth or an API key (Bearer). We do not run a local MCP process on analyst machines. If their laptop dies, the server is still there. The hosted choice is the part that makes the rollout survivable, because a local process on a laptop is a single point of failure that disappears every time the laptop does.
The ChatGPT plugin and the Claude connector use the same server. Cursor gets the same URL. We are not maintaining three products. If a setup works in Claude and fails in Cursor, the usual miss is the key scope, not a different endpoint. The same-server design is the part that makes debugging simple, because a difference between editors is almost always a key scope problem and almost never a server problem.
OAuth is fine when the person has a Promptwatch login. API key is what we use on shared analyst setups and in Cursor so we can rotate without chasing Google grants. Read-only either way. The rotation story is the reason we prefer keys on shared setups, because a key can be rotated in seconds and a Google grant cannot.
Keys come in project, org, and read-only flavors. We use read-only keys on analyst laptops. Project key when they only touch one logo. Org key on Kick-off when they jump accounts. Write keys stay off these machines. The CMS-connected seat is the only place we keep a write key, and only because publish needs it. See read-only keys. The key flavor is the part that decides what an analyst can break, and a read-only key is a key that cannot break a draft.
Create the read-only key first, project or org, matching who will chat. Then add the hosted MCP URL in Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT. Same URL. OAuth or the key. Ask for mention vs citation on a named prompt and confirm the answer matches the UI before you call it done. That one check catches a bad scope faster than any setup guide. The check is the part that turns a setup into a verified setup, and a verified setup is the only kind that survives a Monday morning.
What we ask it
After GSC import, we ask which imported prompts are mentioned vs cited. That workflow is GSC topics with MCP. The GSC import is the bridge between the keyword world and the prompt world, and MCP is how an analyst walks that bridge without leaving their editor.
Without GSC, we still ask for the last week of visibility, the URL that got cited, and whether a persona row looks different from the default. We do not ask it to invent a client result. We do not ask it to average engines. Google's AI optimization guidance still applies to the pages those citations point at. MCP reads the scoreboard. It does not write the page. The read-only framing is the part that keeps the tool honest, because an MCP that can read is a question-answering tool and an MCP that can write is a draft-pushing tool, and we want the first.
MCP does not replace crawler logs or the review inbox. If the question is "did ChatGPTBot fetch this URL," we open Agent Analytics on Professional, Business, or an agency plan. Essential includes MCP but has no listed crawler-log allowance. If the question is "can we ship this draft," a human accepts in the inbox. Chat is for reading the scoreboard faster. The three surfaces, chat, logs, and inbox, are three different jobs, and MCP is the one that reads, not the one that fetches or publishes.
What we will not wire
We will not put a write key in a shared Cursor config checked into git. We will not add MCP to a contractor laptop on a one-week audit without a read-only project key we can revoke. The two refusals are the two ways an MCP rollout leaks, and each is a leak that a read-only key prevents.
We will not tell a client that ChatGPT's plugin is a different dataset than Claude. Same server. If the answers disagree, the prompt or the model on top changed, not the Promptwatch project. The same-server fact is the part that stops a pointless debate about which editor is more accurate, because the editor is not the variable.
No instant alerts through MCP. Scheduled Slack briefings are a different integration. The alert distinction is the part that sets expectations, because an MCP session is a conversation and a Slack briefing is a push, and they are not the same product.
Revoke laptop keys when someone leaves the account. Revocation is the part that closes the loop, and a key that survives a departure is a key that outlives its purpose.
FAQ
Is the ChatGPT plugin a different dataset than Claude?
No. Same hosted MCP server. If the answers disagree, the prompt or the model on top changed, not the Promptwatch project.
Which plan includes MCP?
Essential at $95/mo is the first brand plan where we bother. Explore is free, 10 ChatGPT prompts, and is not an MCP rollout.
Can we put a write key in a shared Cursor config?
No. We will not put a write key in a shared Cursor config checked into git. Read-only keys on analyst laptops.
If you want the URL and key issued, hello@1001seomedia.com. Say which editors you use. Do not send a write key in email.