Profound MCP Server: Tools, Setup and Security

The Profound MCP server connects an AI app to Profound's answer engine optimization (AEO) data. It reports how brands appear in AI answers, which pages AI engines cite, and how AI bots crawl and refer traffic to your site. Profound hosts it at https://mcp.tryprofound.com/mcp.

Checked against: Claude's Profound listing, Profound's MCP overview, analytics tools page, authentication page and connection guide on 2 November 2026. eSEOspace did not install or test this server.

At a glance

What it can do

Profound's overview lists these jobs:

• Visibility, sentiment and citation reports for companies within categories.
• Shopping reports on how brands and products appear in ChatGPT shopping results.
• Agent Analytics with bot reports, referral reports and raw analytics data.
• Workflows. Start, create and publish Profound Workflows and poll their runs.
• Prompt management. Create, update, activate, disable or delete tracked prompts in bulk.
• Knowledge Bases, Profound Docs and Projects. Search and add documents, write strategy memos, and manage project tasks.

The analytics page describes a typical flow. The AI calls whoami to confirm access, resolves the brand with list_organizations and list_categories, adds filters such as region or AI model, then runs the report.

Claude's listing shows only search_docs and execute. The names suggest a search-then-run pattern, where the model looks up operations instead of loading every tool at once. Profound's docs do not describe this connector's design. Our explainer on tool search and code mode covers the idea.

How to connect it

Profound's connection guide covers several clients.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http profound https://mcp.tryprofound.com/mcp

Then run /mcp to finish sign-in. Add --scope user to use it across projects.

Claude Desktop: search for Profound in the connectors list (now under Customize > Connectors), select Connect and sign in.

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

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

Profound also has guides for Cursor, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI, Microsoft Copilot Studio, OpenCode, Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) and WRITER AI Studio. Our MCP config generator can format other clients.

Security notes

• Per-user access. With OAuth, "Every tool call runs as the authenticated user and returns only the data that user can access."
• API keys. Profound says to treat a key "like a password," never commit it, set an expiration date and revoke unused keys.
• Bulk prompt changes. Prompt tools can disable or delete tracked prompts in bulk, which can break trend history. Keep approvals on.
• Report hints. Report tools set readOnlyHint and idempotentHint to true, so clients can treat them as safe to retry.

AI answers and cited pages are third-party text and can carry hidden instructions. Read prompt injection through tool results, the MCP project's security best practices and our MCP Security Center.

Alternatives

• Conductor MCP server for AI and traditional search visibility with content tools.
• Botify MCP server for crawl and log data alongside AI visibility.
• Local Falcon MCP server for local and AI visibility by location.

Next step

Start with visibility and citation reports for one category, then build Workflows once the numbers look right. Compare options in best MCP servers for SEO.

Frequently asked questions