MCP Server

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol lets AI tools call external APIs as tools during a conversation. NearIQ supports two MCP connection modes:

Hosted Streamable HTTP endpoint at https://app.neariq.io/api/mcp for clients that support remote MCP servers.
Local stdio package via npx @neariq/mcp-server for clients that run local MCP servers.

Prerequisites

A NearIQ account on the Growth plan or above.
A NearIQ API key from Settings > API Keys.
Node.js 18+ only if you use the local npm package.

Hosted endpoint

Use this when your AI tool supports remote MCP servers or Streamable HTTP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neariq": {
      "url": "https://app.neariq.io/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer niq_live_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Hosted endpoint tools are read-only in the first release:

Tool	Description
`list_competitors`	Tracked competitors with rating, review count, health, momentum, and financial signals
`get_business_overview`	Business profile, category, contact fields, coordinates, and place ID
`get_rankings`	Local search rank checks, average rank, top-3 percentage, and grid results
`get_reviews_summary`	Cached competitor reviews, rating distribution, sentiment, and response-rate context
`get_ai_visibility`	AI search mention rates per engine, average position, top queries, and recommendations
`get_gap_analysis`	Latest competitive gap analysis — where you lead and where competitors are ahead
`get_citations`	Directory citation listings, name/address/phone/website match, and a citation health score
`list_content`	Content Studio drafts (GBP posts, social posts, FAQs, landing copy, blog outlines), newest first
`get_market`	Market trends, keyword/theme mention counts, sentiment, gaps, and area-wide benchmarks
`get_hiring_signals`	Verified local competitor job postings with a derived hiring signal (quiet, watch, hiring, expanding)
`get_behavioral_signals`	Your engagement report card vs competitors, with per-signal grades and an overall score
`get_brand_mentions`	Recent web mentions of your brand with source, snippet, URL, and sentiment
`get_alerts`	Recent alerts (rating drops, new competitors, review spikes) with severity and recommendations
`get_reports`	Intelligence reports with their lenses, date, and export state
`get_my_reviews`	Your own Google reviews with rating distribution, response rate/speed, sentiment, and summary
`get_leaderboard`	Ranked leaderboard of businesses in a market by rating, reviews, health score, or review velocity

The hosted endpoint uses the same Growth+ API access, API-key scopes, org permissions, plan gates, and rate limits as the public REST API.

Local package

Use the local package when your AI tool only supports stdio MCP servers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neariq": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@neariq/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "NEARIQ_API_KEY": "niq_live_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Optional environment variable:

Variable	Required	Description
`NEARIQ_API_KEY`	Yes	Your NearIQ API key
`NEARIQ_BASE_URL`	No	API base URL, default `https://app.neariq.io`

The local package exposes the broader API-backed tool set for competitors, reviews, rankings, AI visibility, content, reports, alerts, market data, and chat.

Troubleshooting

Invalid or missing API key Confirm the key starts with niq_live_ and is passed as Authorization: Bearer ... for the hosted endpoint or NEARIQ_API_KEY for the local package. API 403 Your plan or API-key scopes do not allow the requested tool. Create a key with the required read scopes or upgrade to a plan with API access. Tools not appearing Restart your AI tool after saving the MCP config. For the hosted endpoint, confirm your client supports remote MCP servers.

Getting started

Dashboard

Reference

What is MCP?

Prerequisites

Hosted endpoint

Local package

Troubleshooting

​What is MCP?

​Prerequisites

​Hosted endpoint

​Local package

​Troubleshooting

What is MCP?

Prerequisites

Hosted endpoint

Local package

Troubleshooting