# Quickstart: FreshlyCited MCP in 5 minutes

This guide connects an AI client to FreshlyCited, checks a few of your pages and pushes the ones Google can't see yet.

## 1. Get access

[Request an invite](https://freshlycited.com/sign-up) (FreshlyCited is invite-only for now; with your invite you sign up with Google or an email link, and new accounts start on Free: 10 free links to try, then 100 free checks a month). To use an API key instead of signing in through OAuth, open **API keys** in the app and create one. It's shown once and starts with `ipk_`.

## 2. Connect your client

The MCP server URL is the same everywhere:

```text
https://freshlycited.com/mcp
```

For Claude Code, one command does it:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http freshlycited https://freshlycited.com/mcp
```

Then type `/mcp` in Claude Code and choose FreshlyCited to sign in. Other clients: [Claude Desktop](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/claude-desktop), [Claude.ai](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/claude-ai), [ChatGPT](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/chatgpt), [Cursor](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/cursor), [VS Code](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/vscode), [Windsurf](https://freshlycited.com/docs/clients/windsurf).

## 3. Ask for a starting point

Ask your agent: *"Use FreshlyCited's get_started tool and tell me what to do first."* It returns your role, workspace, credit balance and tailored next steps.

## 4. Check a few pages

> A visibility check costs 1 check credit per URL and tells you, per URL, whether Google shows it.

```json
{ "name": "check_index", "arguments": { "urls": ["https://example.com/new-post", "https://example.com/pricing"] } }
```

The same with the REST API:

```bash
curl -X POST https://freshlycited.com/api/v1/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ipk_YOUR_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls":["https://example.com/new-post","https://example.com/pricing"]}'
```

Standard checks can take a few minutes. Poll `get_job_status` with the returned `id` until the outcome says how many are seen.

## 5. Push the invisible ones

```json
{ "name": "send_unindexed_to_indexer", "arguments": { "job_id": "job_…" } }
```

That starts a push with only the URLs Google can't see; FreshlyCited re-checks them on day 1, 3 and 7. You can also push any list directly with `submit_index_job` and `smart: true`.

## 6. Optional: notify Bing too

[Verify your site for IndexNow](https://freshlycited.com/docs/recipes/verify-site-indexnow) once. From then on every push also notifies Bing, Copilot and the other IndexNow engines, free.

## Next

- [MCP tool reference](https://freshlycited.com/docs/tools) and [REST API reference](https://freshlycited.com/docs/api)
- [Recipes](https://freshlycited.com/docs/recipes) for common workflows
- [AGENTS.md snippet](https://freshlycited.com/docs/agents-md) so your coding agent uses FreshlyCited after it ships pages


---
Source: https://freshlycited.com/docs/quickstart