Add ScoutRival to the Gemini CLI.

The Gemini command-line tool speaks MCP, so it can use ScoutRival's tools with Gemini as the model. Add the server to its settings and you're set.

3 min read MCP Updated Jul 2026

The Gemini CLI is Google's open-source command-line agent, and it speaks MCP. Add ScoutRival as a server in its settings, restart, and the CLI can run ScoutRival's tools with Gemini as the model behind them.

Which Gemini this is

This guide is for the Gemini CLI — Google's open-source command-line agent — which lets you add your own custom MCP servers. That's the one that can talk to ScoutRival.

The Gemini consumer app at gemini.google.com is different: it supports pre-built connectors only, so you can't add a custom server like ScoutRival there. If you want to use the Gemini model with ScoutRival outside the CLI, run Gemini as the backend inside another MCP client — see use any model, in any client.

Make a token

The CLI connects with a bearer token, so make one first.

Open Settings → MCP

In ScoutRival, go to Settings and choose MCP. This is a Starter-and-up feature — on the Free plan you'll see an upgrade prompt here instead.

Create a Read-only token

Give it a label you'll recognise (for example, Gemini CLI) and leave the access level on Read-only. That's enough to read your data; you can raise the access later for content and checks.

Copy it once

The token is shown once — we keep only a scrambled copy and can't show it again. Copy it now. If you lose it, revoke it and make a new one. More on this in access tokens.

Add it to settings.json

The Gemini CLI reads MCP servers from a settings.json file, under an mcpServers key. You can use a project file at .gemini/settings.json or your home file at ~/.gemini/settings.json.

Open or create the settings file

Edit .gemini/settings.json in your project, or ~/.gemini/settings.json to make ScoutRival available everywhere.

Add the ScoutRival entry

Add a scoutrival server with the endpoint and your token in the Authorization header.

.gemini/settings.json{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scoutrival": {
      "httpUrl": "https://user.scoutrival.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer sr_mcp_YOUR_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

The Gemini CLI uses httpUrl for a streamable-HTTP server (some other clients call the same field url). If the key name has changed, check the CLI's own documentation.

Restart and confirm

Restart the CLI, or run /mcp inside it, to confirm that ScoutRival's tools have loaded. If nothing shows, see troubleshooting — the usual fix is toggling the connection so the client re-reads the tool list.

Use it

With the server loaded, ask the CLI in plain language:

"List my ScoutRival brands."
"Give me today's brief for <your brand>."
"How visible am I in AI answers?"

Reads are free and return the full dashboard view. Generating content and running checks need a Content or Full token and spend credits — a social post is 2 credits, a full article 10 to 50, an AI-visibility check 2 per answer, and publishing to WordPress always creates a draft. See scopes and access levels to grant a little more.

// THE MODEL DOESN'T CHANGE THE TOOL

Here the model is Gemini, but the tools and their prices are ScoutRival's. The model choice doesn't change what a tool does or what it costs — a brief is a brief, and a 2-credit check is 2 credits, whichever model asks for it.

Still stuck?

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