Quickstart

Before you begin

Two things set you up for the paths below: an account with an API key, and a project for CompetLab to monitor. (The six free scan tools run against any public URL without either — but to see your own competitive intelligence, you need both.)

Create your account and key. Create a free account  if you don’t have one, then generate a key in the dashboard under Settings → API Keys — you’ll need the Owner or Admin role. Every key starts with cl_live_ and is 40 characters; copy it when it’s shown, because only a short hint is stored afterward. The same key works for all three paths below — the MCP server, the REST API, and the Agent Skills. Treat it like a password, and keep it in a secret manager or environment variable rather than committing it. Full detail: Authentication.

Set up your first project. A project is your own domain plus the competitors you want to track. Create one in the dashboard — add your domain, then a handful of rivals — and CompetLab starts monitoring the five monitored dimensions for that set and researching the eight more behind the monthly Strategic Briefing. Every project-scoped API call and every skill needs a projectId, so this is the step that turns the paths below from empty responses into your data. New to the vocabulary? Core concepts has it.

Choose your path

Three surfaces, same underlying data — pick the one that matches who’s calling. If an AI assistant or agent is the caller, use the MCP server or the Agent Skills; if your own code is the caller, use the REST API.

Connect an AI assistant

Point any MCP client at https://mcp.competlab.com/mcp and authenticate with your API key, and the assistant gets 33 tools — your monitored dimensions, competitors, alerts, and the Strategic Briefing, plus the free scan tools — right inside a conversation. Claude Code is the quickest client to wire up.

claude mcp add --transport http \
  --header "CL-API-Key: YOUR_COMPETLAB_API_KEY" \
  competlab https://mcp.competlab.com/mcp

claude mcp list

Full walkthrough, per client: Connect to the MCP Server.

Call the REST API

Send your key as a CL-API-Key header to https://api.competlab.com/v1 and you’re making requests. Every resource endpoint is an HTTPS GET that returns JSON, wrapped in { item } for a single resource or { items } for a collection.

curl https://api.competlab.com/v1/projects \
  -H "CL-API-Key: YOUR_COMPETLAB_API_KEY"

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "65a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1",
      "name": "Acme",
      "domain": "acme.com",
      "status": "active",
      "competitorCount": 4,
      "lastMonitoredAt": "2026-07-07T09:12:00.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

curl https://api.competlab.com/v1/projects/65a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1/pricing \
  -H "CL-API-Key: YOUR_COMPETLAB_API_KEY"

Prefer TypeScript? The @competlab/sdk wraps these same endpoints. Full walkthrough: REST API Quickstart.

Install the Agent Skills

The Agent Skills are packaged competitive-intelligence workflows for Claude Code — a weekly briefing, a competitor battlecard, a CMO report — that trigger on plain-language requests. They reach your data through the MCP server, so connecting that server is the one hard prerequisite.

npx skills add competlab/competlab-ci-skills --all

Give me a weekly briefing for my Acme project.

Install paths, the optional GitHub token, and every skill: Agent Skills Setup.

Next steps

• Core concepts → — the AI Visibility Score, the Strategic Briefing, and the 13 dimensions CompetLab tracks.
• Methodology → — how CompetLab collects and computes AI-visibility, and where the limits are.