Do I need a paid FishOut plan to use the MCP server?

No. The MCP server is on every plan, including Free. The plan governs how many keywords you track and how far back history goes, not whether an assistant can reach the API.

Why does Claude Code say it cannot find the command?

Almost always a missing --transport http. Claude Code supports stdio, SSE and HTTP, and defaults to stdio, so without the flag it treats the URL as a local executable to spawn. Remove the server with claude mcp remove fishout and add it again with the flag.

Can I give Claude Code read-only access?

Yes, and it is the setup we recommend for a terminal. Approve only read access on the FishOut consent screen when you sign in. The server checks every call against that grant and your current membership, so a read-only connection can search and summarise but cannot add keywords, reply or archive.

Has this been tested with Claude Code?

Yes. On 19 October 2026, Claude Code 2.1.303 registered with FishOut, completed the sign-in and consent, and called list_organizations, list_projects, get_inbox_counts, list_mentions and list_labels against production, plus a saved view it created and deleted.

Where does the configuration live?

Local scope, the default, writes to ~/.claude.json against the current directory. User scope writes to the same file but applies everywhere. Project scope writes a .mcp.json in the repository root, which is checked in and shared.

MCP · CLI

Connect FishOut to Claude Code (MCP setup)

Claude Code takes a remote MCP server in a single command and signs in through your browser — no key to create, no config file to hand-edit. The one flag people miss is the transport.

Tested with Claude Code 2.1.303 on 19 October 2026

Start free Read the MCP docs

Setup steps checked against Claude Code's own documentation on 20 October 2026.

[01] CONNECT IT/ SETUP

Add FishOut to Claude Code

https://mcp.fishout.ai/mcp, on every plan.

Add the server

Claude Code defaults to the stdio transport, so --transport http is required — leave it off and it will try to run the URL as a local command and fail. Add --scope user to make FishOut available in every project, or --scope project to write a .mcp.json your teammates get when they clone the repo; it holds no secret, because each person signs in for themselves.

bash

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user fishout https://mcp.fishout.ai/mcp

Run /mcp inside Claude Code, choose fishout and pick Authenticate. Your browser opens on FishOut: sign in, pick the organization and the projects Claude Code may reach, and approve its permissions. A read-only grant is the right default for a terminal you share screens from.

claude code

/mcp

Or use an API key, for automation

Where nobody is around to click through a browser — CI, a headless box — create a key under Settings → API & MCP and send it as a header instead. Export it first so it stays out of your shell history.

bash

claude mcp add --transport http fishout https://mcp.fishout.ai/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $FISHOUT_API_KEY"

Check it worked. Run claude mcp list and look for fishout, or type /mcp inside a session to see the server and the tools it exposes. Then ask it something small — "how many mentions came in yesterday?" — before you trust it with a write.

[02] WORTH KNOWING FIRST/ LIMITS

Before it bites

Stated before you hit them.

Tool results are capped at 25,000 tokens. A broad query over months of mentions will be truncated, so ask for a date range or a minimum relevance rather than "everything".

With 115 tools, Claude Code loads them on demand through tool search rather than all at once — in our run on 19 October it found list_mentions and get_inbox_counts without being told their names.

If you use a key rather than OAuth, header values are passed through exactly as written. A stray space after Bearer is the usual cause of a 401 that looks like a bad key.

A project-scoped server in .mcp.json is shared with anyone who clones the repository. With OAuth that is safe; if you switch it to a key, reference an environment variable rather than pasting the key.

[03] WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE/ CLAUDE CODE

A question in Claude Code

Invented brands; a real call.

Claude Code · terminalfishout · mcp

Before I write the changelog: what did people say about the 3.0 release on HN and GitHub?

list_mentionsread-onlyarguments

{
  "filter": {
    "platforms": [
      "hackernews",
      "github"
    ],
    "from": "2026-10-14T00:00:00Z",
    "query": "3.0",
    "sort": "best"
  },
  "limit": 8
}

Hacker Newslattice_ops1d

The 3.0 migration guide skips the config rename entirely

Reply nowHas a problem

harborline/deploy-toolsissue #572d

Upgrade to 3.0 worked after renaming the config key

WatchQuestion

Mostly one thing: the config key rename is missing from the migration guide, raised on HN and worked around in a GitHub issue. I can add a "Breaking changes" note to CHANGELOG.md now and draft a reply to the HN comment pointing at it.

[04] WATCH ANY PLATFORM/ SAME SERVER