An MCP Server for Your Short Links

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard introduced by Anthropic in late 2024. It gives AI assistants a universal, secure way to call external tools and read data — think of it as a USB-C port for AI: one protocol, any tool. MiniLy ships a native MCP server, so instead of clicking around a dashboard you simply tell your assistant what you want, and it acts on your account.

That puts MiniLy in a small group of link platforms that are genuinely AI-native. If you live inside Claude, Cursor or Codex, you can shorten URLs, build QR codes and pull analytics without ever leaving your chat window.

Under the hood, MiniLy exposes a Streamable-HTTP MCP endpoint at /api/mcp. Your AI client connects with a personal API key and discovers the available tools automatically:

• Authentication: create a key in Settings → API keys. It is sent as a Bearer token and stored only as a SHA-256 hash — revocable and expirable.
• Tool discovery: the client lists 20+ minily_* tools (links, tags, QR codes, analytics) with typed inputs.
• Acting: when you ask in plain language, the assistant picks the right tool, fills in the parameters and shows you the result.

The dashboard generates a copy-paste config for each client, so setup takes about two minutes.

The point of an MCP server is to remove busywork. A few things you can say:

• Campaigns: “Create UTM links for the newsletter, X and LinkedIn, and tag them launch-q3.”
• Reporting: “Which links got the most clicks this week, and from which countries?”
• Clean-up: “List my inactive links so I can decide what to delete.”
• QR on the fly: “Make a branded QR code for my pricing link.”

Because the assistant reads the same analytics as the dashboard, it can summarise trends, compare links and draft reports — grounded in your real data, not guesses.

A few honest limits. The MCP server is scoped to your own account: it is not an admin backdoor, and tools respect your plan (per-link analytics, tags and custom domains stay Pro features). ChatGPT can't connect yet because it requires the full OAuth flow, which is on the roadmap — for now use Claude, Cursor, Codex or any client that accepts a Bearer header. Finally, QR images are rendered on the client side, so the MCP returns the QR configuration rather than a finished PNG. For everything else — links, tags and the full analytics suite — it is the fastest way to run MiniLy without touching the dashboard.