How to Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok to Linkilo (MCP)

Linkilo includes a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so an AI assistant can read your site’s internal-linking data (orphan pages, anchors, cannibalization, broken links, Search Console queries, link equity, crawl activity) and answer questions about it in plain English. If you allow it, the assistant can also make changes you confirm. It never gets a WordPress login, only Linkilo access at the level you approve.

Linkilo 3.0.2 turned Linkilo → Manage → MCP Access into a setup screen: turn access on, run the sign-in check, pick your assistant, and follow its numbered steps. The steps below are the same ones, with the reasons behind them.

Before you start

• Linkilo 3.0.2 or later. (The sign-in flow exists from 2.9; the setup screen, the sign-in check and the relay are 3.0.2.)
• Your site is on https and on the public internet. The assistants connect from their own servers.
• Permalinks are not set to “Plain” (Settings → Permalinks). The setup screen warns about both of these.

Step 1 — Turn on access

Under Turn on access, tick Allow AI assistants to connect and click Turn on. Access is off by default, and while it is off every request is refused.

Leave Also allow changes unticked for now. You can turn it on later; without it, every connection can only read.

Step 2 — Run the sign-in check

Every assistant reads your site’s sign-in settings from an address that contains /.well-known/. Some web hosts answer those addresses themselves with a 404 before WordPress sees them, and the connection fails with “Couldn’t register with the sign-in service” (Claude) or “Couldn’t discover OAuth settings” (ChatGPT).

The Sign-in check on the MCP Access page tests this from the outside and shows one of:

• Ready — assistants read your settings directly. Nothing to do.
• Ready (through Linkilo’s sign-in relay) — your host blocks the addresses, so Linkilo points assistants to a relay at linkilo.co, which points them back to your site. You still approve on your own site, and the access key goes straight from your site to the assistant; the relay never sees it.
• Claude ready · ChatGPT needs one extra step — Claude falls back to backup addresses on your site (/register, /authorize, /token) that your host lets through. ChatGPT does not fall back; see its step 3 below.
• Blocked by your web host — see the fix article: Fix “Couldn’t Register with the Sign-In Service” When Connecting MCP.

The default setting, How assistants find your sign-in settings: Automatic, uses your site when it works and the relay when it does not.

Step 3 — Pick your assistant and follow the steps

Your connection address is shown on the page with a copy button. It looks like https://yoursite.com/wp-json/linkilo-mcp/v1/rpc. Paste only the address. Web connectors never use a token or key.

Claude (claude.ai, the desktop app or Cowork)

1. Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors.
2. Name: Linkilo. Remote MCP server URL: your connection address. Leave Advanced settings (OAuth Client ID and Secret) empty.
3. Click Add, then Connect. Claude opens your site: sign in to WordPress if asked, choose the access level and click Approve.
4. In a chat, turn Linkilo on from the tools menu and ask, for example, “Which of my pages are orphaned?”

ChatGPT

1. Settings → Plugins (previously Apps & Connectors). If there is no Add button, turn on Developer mode under Advanced. Custom servers depend on your plan and workspace settings.
2. Add → Add custom MCP server. Name: Linkilo. Server URL: your connection address. Authentication: OAuth.
3. Leave Advanced OAuth settings as they are, tick “I understand and want to continue”, and click Create as a plugin. If ChatGPT says “Couldn’t discover OAuth settings”, your host is blocking discovery: fix step 2 first, or fill the Advanced OAuth settings by hand with the values the setup screen lists (Registration method: Dynamic Client Registration; Token endpoint auth method: none; Default scopes: linkilo; the Auth, Token and Registration URLs; PKCE S256 ticked; OIDC off).
4. Click Connect, sign in to WordPress if asked, choose the access level and click Approve.

Gemini

1. On a computer, gemini.google.com → Settings → Connected Apps (if you don’t see it, open Personal Intelligence first).
2. Under Custom apps, Add a custom app, paste your connection address, click Next.
3. Gemini opens your site: sign in if asked, choose the access level and click Approve.
4. Google currently limits custom apps to personal accounts (18+, US, English) with Keep Activity on. On Gemini Enterprise an administrator adds the server under Connected apps → Add MCP Server.

Grok

1. grok.com/connectors → New Connector → Custom.
2. Paste your connection address as the server URL and continue.
3. Grok opens your site: sign in if asked, choose the access level and click Approve. On Grok Business and Enterprise a team admin adds the connector first in the xAI console.

Claude Code can also sign in through the browser; see How to Connect Claude Code and Desktop MCP Clients.

The approval screen

It names the app asking for access and where it will return to, and warns when that is a program on your own computer. You choose:

• What it may do — View only (reads reports and suggestions, changes nothing), Draft only (proposes changes that wait for an administrator’s approval; scans still run), or Publish (changes go live once you confirm them in the chat). Start with View only.
• Areas it may change — Internal links, Broken links, Redirects. Ignored for View only.
• Stay connected for — 30 days, 90 days (default) or 1 year. After that the assistant asks you to approve again.

Changes also need Also allow changes switched on under MCP Access, and the assistant asks you before each one. See MCP Access Levels, Team Access and the Approval Queue for what each level means in practice.

What can it do once connected?

Ask things like “Which of my pages have the most impressions but no internal links?”, “Show my broken links”, “Which anchor text do I overuse?”, or “Suggest internal links for this post”. With View only the assistant can look but not touch. With Draft only or Publish and the right area, it can add, remove or re-point internal links, fix or ignore broken links, create or switch off redirects, and run scans, each one confirmed by you first.

Managing or removing a connection

Every connection appears under Connected assistants and keys with the person who approved it, its access, when it was last used and when it expires. The owner can change a connection’s level and areas there, or click Disconnect; the app loses access on its next request. The Sign-in activity list shows each step an assistant took while connecting, and Recent MCP activity shows every tool call any assistant made, including refused ones.

Troubleshooting

• “Couldn’t register with the sign-in service” or “Couldn’t discover OAuth settings” — the sign-in check will say why. See the dedicated fix article.
• Nothing happens after Approve — delete the connector in the AI app and add it again; a failed first attempt can cache a bad state. The last line of Sign-in activity shows where it stopped.
• “Your WordPress account is not allowed to connect AI assistants” — you are not an administrator and the owner has not opened team access for your role. Ask them to set it under MCP Access → Team access.

MCP reads data Linkilo has already stored. It never calls your AI provider and never spends the key saved in AI Settings.

Last reviewed for Linkilo 3.0.2 (October 2026).