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MCP, Agent API, or Optimly Agent?
Choose how to use Optimly from an agent, build it into software, or run the workflow with your team in Slack.
Choose based on where you want Optimly to work and who should run the workflow.
MCP lets you use Optimly from your agent. The API lets you build Optimly into your software. The Optimly Agent runs the workflow with your team in Slack.
| Optimly MCP | Optimly Agent API | Optimly Agent in Slack | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | People using an MCP-compatible agent | Teams building a product, integration, or automation | Teams that want Optimly to keep the work moving |
| Where it runs | In your MCP client, such as Claude or Codex | In your application, service, or agent harness | In a shared Slack channel, backed by Optimly |
| Who operates it | You and your agent | Your engineering team and software | Optimly, with your team providing context and approvals |
| What it enables | Conversational access to authorized brand evidence and tools | Versioned, programmatic access to capabilities and governed actions | Ongoing research, prioritization, preparation, coordination, verification, and measurement |
| Control model | The client discovers the tools your account can use | Your software discovers capabilities and handles orchestration | Optimly proposes the next step; your team reviews consequential decisions and controls publication |
| Paid access | Optimly Platform for non-action tools; Execution Program for action workflows | Optimly Platform for non-action capabilities; Execution Program for action workflows | Included with the AI Brand Execution Program |
| Start here | Connect Optimly MCP | Use the Agent API | Book an Optimly Agent onboarding call |
Access and pricing
MCP and Agent API credentials require paid access. The free AI Brand Index does not include either credential.
| Plan | Price | MCP and Agent API access | Optimly Agent in Slack |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Brand Index | Free | No credentials; includes the public Business Profile, one AI Brand Snapshot, and one recommendation | Not included |
| Optimly Platform | $800/month | Read and non-action capabilities for measurement, evidence, monitoring, the prioritized queue, and recommendations | Not included |
| AI Brand Execution Program | From $4,000/month | Platform capabilities plus governed action workflows | Included; Optimly works through twelve delivered actions a month with your team |
Review current pricing and plan details. Paying never changes factual accuracy, ranking, citations, or recommendations. It changes the ongoing measurement, access, and execution services available to the account.
Action access is not permission to publish automatically. The authenticated account must have the required permissions, and consequential actions still require the documented human approval and execution-ledger workflow.
Agent-assisted setup
An agent can guide and verify this setup, but it must stop for an authorized user at payment, authorization, and secret-handling checkpoints.
- Choose the interface. Use the comparison above to select MCP, the Agent API, or the managed Optimly Agent in Slack.
- Establish the brand. Ask the user to sign in to Optimly, claim or select the correct brand, and confirm its Business Profile. Do not guess which organization or brand to use.
- Choose access. Use Optimly Platform for MCP or API access to non-action capabilities. Use the AI Brand Execution Program when the team wants governed action workflows or the Optimly Agent in Slack.
- Hand off payment or onboarding. Show the user the current pricing page. The user must choose the plan and personally confirm any purchase. For the Execution Program, book an onboarding call. Do not enter or submit payment details on the user's behalf.
- Confirm activation. Continue only after Optimly shows the paid access on the correct account and brand. A receipt or completed form is not proof that access has been provisioned.
- Authorize the connection. For MCP OAuth, configure
https://scout.optimly.ai/mcpand ask the user to complete sign-in, consent, and brand selection. For a manual MCP or Agent API connection, ask the user to authorize creation of a brand-scoped key in Optimly under Scout → Advanced setup and API keys. Treat the key as a secret and never place it in a prompt, log, screenshot, browser bundle, or source control. - Verify before working. Call MCP
tools/listor Agent API/capabilities, confirm the returned organization and brand, and use only the tools or capabilities advertised for that credential. - Stop on missing access. If the server returns
401or403, or an expected tool is absent, do not bypass the restriction or try another customer's credential. Ask the user to confirm the plan and brand permissions or contact Optimly.
Use MCP when
Use Optimly MCP when a person wants to work with Optimly through an MCP-compatible agent. The client handles the conversation and orchestration; Optimly supplies the authorized evidence, tools, and governance boundaries available to that account.
For example, a brand team could connect Optimly to Claude or Codex and ask it to:
- retrieve the brand's verified Business Profile before writing positioning;
- inspect the latest authorized audit, monitoring, or competitive evidence;
- prepare governed recommendation work using the tools returned by
tools/list.
MCP is the fastest path when the experience already lives inside an agent and you do not need to build or maintain an integration.
See the complete MCP tool reference.
Use the Agent API when
Use the Optimly Agent API when software—not a person in an MCP client—needs to call Optimly. Your application owns the user experience, scheduling, orchestration, retries, and error handling. Optimly enforces brand scope, permissions, approval requirements, and the execution ledger.
For example, a product team could build a service that:
- reads the API's advertised capabilities for the authorized brand;
- brings Optimly evidence or recommendation state into an internal product or workflow;
- proposes and tracks approved actions through a durable, versioned integration.
Choose the API when the integration must run predictably in your own system or serve a custom interface.
Use the Optimly Agent in Slack when
Use the Optimly Agent when the goal is not to build an integration, but to have the workflow run with your team. Optimly keeps research, preparation, coordination, verification, and measurement connected while your team supplies context, reviews work, and controls consequential approvals and publication.
For example, a brand team could use a shared Slack channel to:
- see the next evidence-backed brand action and why it matters;
- answer questions or review a prepared change without learning a new tool;
- approve what should move forward and follow the result through verification and measurement.
Book an Optimly Agent onboarding call.
You can combine them
These options are not mutually exclusive. A team can use MCP for ad hoc work in an agent, the API for a durable internal integration, and the Optimly Agent in Slack to keep the human approval and execution loop moving.
For one team, that could mean exploring evidence with MCP, syncing approved state into an internal system through the API, and coordinating decisions with the Optimly Agent in Slack. Optimly remains the source of record for permissions, recommendation state, approvals, and execution history across those surfaces.