Rivalize README

Rivalize MCP Server (@rivalize/mcp)

Give Claude, Cursor, Cline, or your own agent cited competitor intelligence as JSON, over the Model Context Protocol.

The Agent plan ($70 a year or $9 a month): API and MCP only, for your own AI. Rivalize collects; your own Claude, Cursor or agent does the thinking. No dashboard and no AI analysis, so it costs a few dollars.

• 3 competitors at once, refreshed every 7 days
• Everything Rivalize collects about each, as JSON, with sources and collection dates
• Reads Rivalize's database of companies already collected (list_universe_companies, get_universe_company)
• 500 API and MCP calls a day (up to 250 an hour)

Get the Agent plan at rivalize.ai/pricing. Developer and API documentation: rivalize.ai/developers.

What it does

This server connects Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client to Rivalize. Your assistant can tear down a competitor's positioning, pricing, ads, social presence, reviews, hiring and momentum in one call, search the Rivalize universe of tracked companies, and read the projects, reports, battlecards, timelines and evidence in your own Rivalize account. Every answer comes from data Rivalize has collected, with dates and sources, rather than from a model's memory.

The server is read-only by default. Three write tools, add_competitor, run_report and set_agent_competitor, are available when you opt in with RIVALIZE_MCP_ALLOW_WRITES=1. run_report starts a real report that uses your credits, so it asks you to preview first and confirm.

Quick start

Requires Node.js 22 or newer (node --version).

1. Choose a plan at rivalize.ai/pricing: the Agent plan ($70 a year or $9 a month) is built for API and MCP use. A 14-day Growth trial is arranged with the Rivalize team; see the pricing page.
2. Create an API key under Settings → API Keys in the Rivalize app. Keys start with rk_live_. A key from any plan works, including the free plan, which gets rate-limited reads.
3. Add the server to your client using one of the blocks below.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows), then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rivalize": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@rivalize/mcp"],
      "env": { "RIVALIZE_API_KEY": "rk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add rivalize -e RIVALIZE_API_KEY=rk_live_... -- npx -y @rivalize/mcp

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rivalize": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@rivalize/mcp"],
      "env": { "RIVALIZE_API_KEY": "rk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Cline

In Cline, open the MCP Servers panel, choose Configure, then Configure MCP Servers. This opens cline_mcp_settings.json. Add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rivalize": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@rivalize/mcp"],
      "env": { "RIVALIZE_API_KEY": "rk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Save the file. The rivalize server appears with a green dot after about 10 to 15 seconds (the first start downloads the package). On Windows, if it does not start, use "command": "cmd" and "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "@rivalize/mcp"].

If you ask Cline to install it for you, point it at llms-install.md.

Any MCP client (stdio)

The server speaks MCP over stdin and stdout. Configure your client to launch:

On Windows, some clients cannot launch npx directly because it is npx.cmd. Use cmd as the command and /c npx -y @rivalize/mcp as the arguments instead.

Plans and limits

Prices and limits are always current at rivalize.ai/pricing.

Tools

Sixteen read-only tools are always available: fourteen for dashboard plans and two for Agent plans. The three write tools (add_competitor, run_report and set_agent_competitor) are registered only when RIVALIZE_MCP_ALLOW_WRITES is set to 1, true or yes; without it, they do not exist for the client.

Agent plans cannot run work that needs a model (battlecards, teardown prose, reports): the API refuses those calls with an agent_* code and the tool shows you the API's sentence unchanged. run_report and the dashboard reads are for dashboard plans; the Free and Agent plans are refused by the API with PLAN_REQUIRED or agent_model_work_not_in_plan.

project_id and competitor_id are UUIDs from list_projects and list_competitors. Tools that read your account only ever see your own data.

Report sections

get_report takes a section so your assistant can read the part a question needs instead of the whole report:

A report has only the sections it has data for; asking for any other name returns an error that lists the sections it does have. section combines with competitor, so section: "pricing" with competitor: "Acme" returns Acme's pricing. A figure the report's fabrication check could not match to a source is kept and marked (not confirmed in the pages read); a name or citation the check found to belong to another entity is taken out with its sentence, exactly as in the report.

Long responses

Every response stays under 25,000 characters, and nothing is cut silently:

• Markdown (get_report, get_strategic_timeline, get_competitive_landscape) is split into pages at section boundaries. Each page starts with Page N of M, how much remains, and the exact call for the next page.
• Lists (list_universe_companies, list_competitors, list_reports) return pagination.next_offset; continue from it until it is null.
• Objects (get_universe_company, and timeline or landscape JSON) cap long arrays and record the cap in _capped. A field that still does not fit is listed in _omitted with the call that fetches it.

Example prompts

• "Tear down linear.app." (teardown_competitor)
• "Who are the players in AI developer tools?" (list_universe_companies)
• "Summarize my latest report, then show me what my competitors charge." (list_reports, get_report with section: "pricing")
• "Which of my competitors moved most this quarter, and what did they do?" (get_competitive_landscape, get_strategic_timeline)
• "Give me sales talking points against my top competitor." (list_competitors, get_battlecard)
• "Where does that pricing claim come from, and how fresh is it?" (get_evidence, get_freshness)

Configuration

Troubleshooting

"Connection closed"

When the server cannot start, many clients show only "Connection closed" or a failed status. The server prints the reason as the first line of its stderr, prefixed rivalize-mcp:, and most clients keep stderr in their MCP log. The usual causes:

1. RIVALIZE_API_KEY is missing or invalid. The log reads rivalize-mcp: RIVALIZE_API_KEY is required, or says the key does not look like a Rivalize API key (it must start with rk_live_). Put the key in the server's env block and restart the client.
2. Node.js is older than 22. Run node --version and install Node.js 22 or newer. Your client uses whichever node and npx come first on its own PATH, which can differ from your terminal's.
3. No network access. npx downloads the package on first run, and every tool call goes to https://rivalize.ai (or RIVALIZE_API_URL). Behind a corporate proxy, set HTTPS_PROXY. A network error names the server and the cause code, such as ECONNREFUSED or ENOTFOUND.

To see the message directly, run the server in a terminal with the same key:

RIVALIZE_API_KEY=rk_live_... npx -y @rivalize/mcp

A healthy server prints rivalize-mcp-server connected via stdio to stderr and waits for input (press Ctrl+C to stop). Anything else is the reason your client could not connect.

Every call returns 401

The key was rejected by the server it was sent to, and the error names that server. Check that the key has not been revoked, and that RIVALIZE_API_URL is unset unless the key was issued by a different Rivalize server.

A tool says it needs a higher plan

Reads are available on every plan. Some capabilities, such as battlecards and full timeline or landscape history, need a higher plan; the error says which and links to rivalize.ai/pricing.

Docker

The repository includes a Dockerfile that builds the same stdio server on Node 22 and runs it as a non-root user.

docker build -t rivalize-mcp .

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rivalize": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "RIVALIZE_API_KEY", "rivalize-mcp"],
      "env": { "RIVALIZE_API_KEY": "rk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Run the container with -i and without a TTY, since MCP uses stdin and stdout. -e RIVALIZE_API_KEY with no value passes the key through from the client's environment, so it never appears on the docker run command line. Add -e RIVALIZE_API_URL or -e RIVALIZE_MCP_ALLOW_WRITES the same way if you need them.

Privacy Policy

This server is a thin client for the Rivalize API.

• What it sends, and where. Each tool call becomes an HTTPS request to the Rivalize API at https://rivalize.ai, or the origin you set in RIVALIZE_API_URL. A request carries your API key as a Bearer token, a User-Agent of rivalize-mcp/<version>, and the tool's arguments: for example a company domain, a search term, a project, report or competitor id, and, with writes enabled, the competitor URLs you add. If you set HTTPS_PROXY or HTTP_PROXY, requests go through that proxy. Nothing is sent anywhere else.
• What it does not send. No telemetry, analytics or crash reports. It does not read files on your machine, your conversation, or other tools' output; it sees only the arguments your MCP client passes to its own tools.
• What it stores locally. Nothing. It writes no files, keeps no cache and holds no state between runs. Your key lives in your MCP client's configuration, not in this server. Diagnostic messages go to stderr, which your MCP client may log; they never include your API key.
• What Rivalize does with requests. The API processes them under the Rivalize Privacy Policy at rivalize.ai/privacy. Rivalize is operated by Downshift LLC, the data controller for that data. Privacy questions go to privacy@rivalize.ai.

Security

Please report vulnerabilities privately to support@rivalize.ai with "security" in the subject line, not in a public issue. Include the package version (npm view @rivalize/mcp version, or the User-Agent above), what you did, and what happened. We will acknowledge your report and keep you updated until it is resolved.

Treat your API key as a credential. Keep it in your client's env block or your shell environment, never in a shared or committed file, and revoke a leaked key under Settings → API Keys.

Contributing

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome at github.com/Downshift/rivalize-mcp/issues. For account and billing questions, email support@rivalize.ai.

To work on the server locally:

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run build      # emits dist/, which the rivalize-mcp bin runs
npm test           # offline: every API call is mocked or served by a local fixture

server.json is the MCP Registry entry. The tests validate it against the official schema (vendored in schema/) and check that its name, version and package match package.json.

Changelog

0.5.1

• README, llms-install.md, directory listings and server.json now lead with the Agent plan ($70 a year or $9 a month: 3 competitors at once, refreshed every 7 days, everything collected as JSON, access to the universe of already-collected companies, 500 API and MCP calls a day). No change to the tools.

0.5.0

• New run_report, a write tool (opt-in with RIVALIZE_MCP_ALLOW_WRITES=1). It starts a real report that uses your credits, so it works in two steps: without confirm it starts nothing and returns a preview of the depth, competitors, credits it will use and what you have left; with confirm: true it starts the run. The API limits runs to 3 a day per account and returns the run already started for the same request within 10 minutes.
• New get_report_status to check whether a started report has finished.
• get_report now reports figures the fabrication check could not match to a source as (not confirmed in the pages read) instead of removing them.

0.4.0

• Agent plan tools: list_agent_competitors and get_agent_competitor (reads) and set_agent_competitor (a write, opt-in) for the three tracked-competitor slots of an Agent plan.
• Every tool result is marked as AI-generated: a top-level ai_generated and ai_disclosure in JSON results, a closing disclosure line on Markdown results, and _meta.ai_generated on all of them. Errors are left unchanged.

0.3.2

• list_competitors now tells your assistant how to pick a top competitor: by the rival's standing on your Brief (brief.standing) when the API returns it, otherwise by momentum_score. threat_level is described as what it is, the band of the momentum score, and is no longer offered as a ranking.
• When a row's standing is still being read (brief.state is deferred), list_competitors asks for the same page again, up to 4 times, 1.5 seconds apart. Against an API that returns no brief, it makes one request per call as before.
• Clearer wording in the 401 hint for a self-hosted or non-production Rivalize server, and in the add_competitor description.

0.3.1

• The version this repository's history starts from: thirteen read-only tools, the opt-in add_competitor write tool, responses kept under 25,000 characters with explicit paging, proxy support, and the MCP Registry entry in server.json.

License

MIT, © 2026 Downshift LLC. See LICENSE.