DataForSEO MCP Server

This is the new v3 MCP server. The previous v2+ MCP server is deprecated and lives at dataforseo/mcp-server-typescript-deprecated.

MCP server and CLI for LLM agents to browse DataForSEO API documentation and make authenticated API requests. By default the binary starts an MCP server on stdio; CLI commands are an optional second mode.

Quick Start

Start the MCP server on stdio (default mode; set DATAFORSEO_LOGIN / DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD):

npx dataforseo-mcp-server@latest

HTTP transport (port 3000; override with PORT):

npx dataforseo-mcp-server@latest --mode http

Authentication

OAuth 2.0 (default for HTTP MCP): works out of the box. MCP clients discover the DataForSEO authorization server via Protected Resource metadata and send Authorization: Bearer tokens.

Fallback: API login/password via environment variables (HTTP Basic). Required for CLI and stdio MCP; on HTTP it is used when no Authorization header is present.

# bash / macOS / Linux
export DATAFORSEO_LOGIN="your_api_login"
export DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD="your_api_password"

# PowerShell
$env:DATAFORSEO_LOGIN="your_api_login"
$env:DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD="your_api_password"

REM CMD
set DATAFORSEO_LOGIN=your_api_login
set DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD=your_api_password

DATAFORSEO_USERNAME is accepted as an alias for DATAFORSEO_LOGIN. Get API keys at https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access.

MCP Server

The same tool implementations power both the MCP server and the CLI. One binary serves both modes; MCP is the default.

How the binary chooses a mode:

• MCP stdio — default when no CLI command is passed
• MCP HTTP — pass --mode http (Streamable HTTP on port 3000; override with PORT)
• CLI — when the first command is docs or request, or when --cli / --help / --version is passed

MCP stdio (default):

npx dataforseo-mcp-server

MCP HTTP:

npx dataforseo-mcp-server --mode http

CLI:

npx dataforseo-mcp-server docs index

MCP client config (Cursor, Claude Desktop, and similar clients that use mcpServers):

Via URL — use the hosted remote MCP server, or start a local HTTP server (npx dataforseo-mcp-server --mode http) and point the client at it. OAuth works out of the box; env credentials are optional fallback only.

Public remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dataforseo": {
      "url": "https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local server (default port 3000):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dataforseo": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Via command (stdio) — the client starts the binary itself (stdio is the default mode). OAuth is not used on this transport — set env credentials (or pass them in the MCP client env block):