Connecting an AI tool

You can connect an outside AI tool to BrightSite and have it work on your site directly, creating pages, importing posts, auditing SEO and fixing links. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and any other tool that supports MCP will work.

This is available to everyone. There is no waiting list and nothing to enable.

Pick your tool

The rest of this page is the background that applies whichever you choose, and the problems that come up regardless of tool.

What MCP is

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an AI tool use another product's features. A product publishes a set of actions it can perform; a tool that speaks MCP connects to that product and can then call those actions on your behalf. Instead of the AI describing how to edit a page and leaving you to do it, the AI edits the page. BrightSite publishes an MCP server, so any tool that speaks the protocol can work on your site.

The endpoint

The address to connect to is:

https://onbrightsite.com/api/mcp

That is the same for every account. You do not put your own domain in it. Where you enter it depends on your tool. The pages above have the specifics.

Two ways to authenticate

BrightSite needs to know who is connecting. There are two options.

• Signing in through the tool. Your tool sends you to BrightSite in a browser, you sign in and approve the connection, and the tool receives its access. Nothing is copied and pasted, and there is no key to store. This is the better option wherever it is offered.
• An API key. You create a key in BrightSite and give it to your tool. This suits tools that run without a browser, scripted jobs, and anything running on a server. See API keys.

First thing after connecting: list your accounts

Once the connection is live, ask your tool to list your accounts. This is not optional housekeeping. It is a required first step.

Your login can reach more than one organization: your own, plus every client or team you have been added to. Almost every other action needs an account id to say which one to act on, and listing accounts is what gives you those ids.

Get into the habit of naming the account in your first message: "using the account for Riverside Plumbing, list the pages." Otherwise the tool has to ask, or worse, guesses. Agencies should be careful here, because the wrong id means working on the wrong client's site.

What a connected tool can do

Your role in each organization applies to everything the tool does. A connection cannot do anything you could not do yourself in the app, and the check runs on the server on every call, so it holds regardless of what the assistant is asked to do. An active subscription is also required for the account you are working on.

See What AI tools can do for the full list of available actions.

What it costs

Nothing on the BrightSite side. Work done through an outside tool is paid for by that tool's own subscription. Your organization's AI wallet only pays for Lumi, inside BrightSite. See Topping up AI credits.

Problems that apply to every tool

An error about a missing or unknown account

Ask your tool to list your accounts, then repeat the request. If an account you expect is missing from the list, you are not a member of it. Ask its owner to invite you. See Roles and permissions.

The account is refused because of billing

An account whose subscription has lapsed, paused, or ended its trial cannot be used through an AI tool. The error names the reason. Fix it under Billing in that account's settings and try again. See Plans and billing.

The tool says it is not allowed to do something

Your connection carries exactly the permissions your BrightSite role has, no more. If you are a viewer, the tool can read your site but cannot publish it. That is deliberate. Ask an admin to change your role if you need more.

Requests start failing after heavy use

Requests are rate limited to keep the service stable for everyone. Normal interactive work will not come close, but bulk jobs can. Generating hundreds of pages or importing a large blog will be slowed down or asked to wait. A well-behaved tool retries after a pause. If a long job stalls, break it into smaller batches rather than running it all at once.

Related

• API keys
• What AI tools can do
• Working safely with AI