Skip to main content

linkguard-mcp

A stdio MCP server that gives Claude Desktop and Claude Code access to LinkGuard backlink-analysis tools.

What it does

The server exposes three tools:

Tool What it checks
redirect_check Traces the full redirect chain of a URL — every HTTP hop, flags (loops, meta-refresh, JS redirect), and the SEO impact on link equity.
backlink_index_check Checks whether a donor page is in Google's index (INDEXED / NOT_INDEXED / UNKNOWN) and returns the SERP title + description when available.
backlink_health_snapshot Full health audit for one backlink: live status, dofollow/nofollow, indexed in Google, canonical integrity, and a scored verdict with recommendations. May use a real cloud browser for JS-heavy donors (costs 5 tokens).

All three tools require a LinkGuard API key and call the hosted API at https://linkguard.ai. No data is stored locally.

Getting an API key

  1. Create a free account at https://linkguard.ai
  2. Make one paid top-up (any amount) — this is a one-time gate that unlocks MCP access. Redirect-check and index-check are then free per call. Backlink-health costs 5 tokens only when a JS-rendered page is encountered.
  3. Go to Dashboard → API Keys and create a key. Keys start with lg_.

Claude Desktop setup

Add this to your Claude Desktop config file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkguard": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["linkguard-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LINKGUARD_API_KEY": "lg_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. You should see LinkGuard listed in the tools panel.

Claude Code setup

claude mcp add linkguard -- uvx linkguard-mcp

Then set your API key in the environment before starting a session:

export LINKGUARD_API_KEY=lg_your_key_here

Or add it to your shell profile so it is always available.

Environment variables

Variable Required Default Description
LINKGUARD_API_KEY Yes — Your lg_... API key from the dashboard.
LINKGUARD_API_URL No https://linkguard.ai Override the API base URL (for self-hosted or staging).

Manual run (for testing)

LINKGUARD_API_KEY=lg_your_key_here uvx linkguard-mcp

Or after installing locally:

pip install -e .
LINKGUARD_API_KEY=lg_your_key_here linkguard-mcp

License

MIT

Metadata

Release files for linkguard-mcp 0.1.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for linkguard-mcp 0.1.0
File Size Uploaded
linkguard_mcp-0.1.0.tar.gz 15.4 kB Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for linkguard-mcp 0.1.0
File Interpreter ABI Platform
linkguard_mcp-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 28.5 kB

Release files / linkguard_mcp-0.1.0.tar.gz

Download URL linkguard_mcp-0.1.0.tar.gz
Size 15.4 kB
Tags Source
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
216df8df61baebd75e5b7edc28483b12d95107de2278df9c3630b246062a88a3
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
440e22ceccbd93daad05a542f2cc1f66e3da10865317f66bf4af04299ce1c9fa
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via uv/0.9.8

Release files / linkguard_mcp-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL linkguard_mcp-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size 13.1 kB
Tags Python 3
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
f51568ba168859244bfcd8ea7b777b39e6f038007478381a96134dbf71ac6645
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
f0132b275df30470acdaf4867017d8bb652b29852ded8f65e3fb29722142cffe
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via uv/0.9.8

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

This release

0.1.0 This release

2 release files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page