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Introduction to MCP

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol that enables AI assistants to call external tools to obtain contextual information. Linkly AI Desktop has a built-in MCP service that starts automatically upon installation — no additional configuration required. You only need to add Linkly AI’s MCP endpoint to your AI assistant, and the AI can directly search, browse, and read your local documents.

HTTP MCP (Recommended)

Most AI assistants support the HTTP transport protocol. Connect directly to Linkly AI’s MCP endpoint without installing the CLI

Stdio MCP

Some AI assistants only support the stdio transport protocol and require Linkly AI CLI as a bridge
If you’re not sure which method to choose, go with HTTP MCP. You only need the Stdio method when your AI assistant explicitly does not support HTTP transport.

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Prerequisites

1

Install and launch Linkly AI Desktop

Go to linkly.ai to download and install the desktop application. After the first launch, complete the initialization wizard, and the app will automatically begin indexing your documents.
2

Confirm MCP service is running

Linkly AI Desktop automatically runs the MCP service upon startup. You can check the MCP service status and port number in the app settings.Default MCP endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:606060/mcp
If you choose the Stdio MCP method, you also need to install Linkly AI CLI.

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Usage

For AI assistants that support HTTP/StreamableHTTP transport protocol. No CLI installation needed — connect directly.
Run in your terminal:
claude mcp add --transport http linkly-ai http://127.0.0.1:606060/mcp
606060 is the default port number for Linkly AI’s MCP service. If you cannot connect, check the actual port number in the app settings.

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Stdio MCP

For AI assistants that support the stdio transport protocol. You need to install Linkly AI CLI first, then configure linkly mcp as the stdio bridge command in your AI assistant.
Run in your terminal:
claude mcp add linkly-ai -- linkly mcp

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Verify Integration

After configuration, you can send the following prompt in your AI assistant to verify:

Search my documents for content about XX

If the integration is successful, the AI assistant will call Linkly AI’s search tool and return relevant results from your local documents.

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Use with Skills

We strongly recommend installing Linkly AI Skills alongside MCP configuration. Skills teach the AI assistant how to efficiently use Linkly AI’s tools, including when to search, when to browse outlines, when to read full text, and how to handle paginated reading of long documents.

Please install the Agent Skill linkly-ai-skills and complete the LinklyAI tool integration...

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Parameter Reference

The MCP service exposes three tools: search (retrieval), outline (outline), and read (read), forming a progressive document access workflow. Please refer to the tool documentation: Linkly AI MCP Tools Introduction