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Quickstart.

Two ways to connect: from Claude with your AdTAO sign-in, no API key needed, or with an API key for Claude Code, Cursor and scripts. Either way, nothing changes in your Google Ads account until a signed-in person approves it.

From Claude · ~1 minute

Connect from Claude, no API key needed

Works in Claude on the web and in Claude Desktop, on every plan including free.

  1. 01 In Claude, open Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector.
  2. 02 Enter https://mcp.adtao.io/mcp and click Connect.
  3. 03 On the AdTAO sign-in page, enter your AdTAO email and password. If your AdTAO account uses Google sign-in, click Continue with Google instead.
  4. 04 Leave Let your AI app propose changes for your approval ticked if you want Claude to line up changes for you. Untick it for a read-only connection.
  5. 05 Click Sign In & Connect. Then ask Claude "List my Google Ads accounts" to check it works.

How a change gets approved

  1. 01 Ask Claude for a change, for example "pause the worst keyword in account X". Claude proposes it; nothing is applied.
  2. 02 Claude gives you a link to the AdTAO approval page. Open it while signed in to AdTAO and check exactly what will change.
  3. 03 Click Yes, apply this — show me the code and give the code to Claude. The code works once, for 15 minutes, and only for the changes shown. Claude cannot get it through AdTAO's tools.

You can approve changes one at a time or several at once. Saying no needs no code.

Step 01 · ~30 seconds

Or use an API key (Claude Code, Cursor, scripts)

  1. 01 Log in to your AdTAO account.
  2. 02 Go to Settings → Security & Privacy → API Access.
  3. 03 Click Create Key. Copy it, it looks like adtao_… and you'll only see it once.

Keep it secret. Treat it like a password.

Free users: creating a key needs a paid plan. Free users can use every AdTAO tool from Claude with their AdTAO sign-in (above), see access for what each plan's level includes.

Step 02 · ~2 minutes

Connect your host

Pick your host. The endpoint is always https://mcp.adtao.io/mcp.

Claude Code (CLI)

One line

claude mcp add --transport http adtao https://mcp.adtao.io/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Claude Desktop

MCP config JSON

Add to your Claude Desktop MCP config and restart Claude:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adtao": {
      "transport": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.adtao.io/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adtao": {
      "url": "https://mcp.adtao.io/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the key from step 1. Never commit the real key to source control.

Step 03 · ~10 seconds

Verify it's connected

Ask your agent:

"List my accessible Google Ads accounts."

If you see your accounts, you're connected. If you see an auth error, re-check the Authorization header.

Step 04 · ~1 minute

Get the skills package

The skills package is a small set of ready-made playbooks that teach your agent the best way to use AdTAO, weekly reporting, health scans, budget checks, and safe bulk approvals.

The skills package is in private beta and ships with your AdTAO subscription. Get in touch for access during the rollout. Once loaded, ask:

"Run my weekly portfolio report."

and the agent will follow the weekly-portfolio-report skill end to end.

What's in the package

4 skills

  • weekly-portfolio-report

    Full portfolio read across every account: budget pacing, impression share, CPA and ROAS movement, and the actions worth taking this week.

  • account-health-scan

    Scans one account for wasted spend in the search terms report, learning period risk, and conversion tracking gaps, then summarises the issues found.

  • budget-pacing-check

    Flags every account that is over- or under-pacing its budget for the month.

  • safe-bulk-approval

    Walks the pending approval queue with you and applies only what you approve.

Skills ship incrementally, more are added with each release. See changelog.

Step 05 · now you're flying

Try a real workflow

Once the package is loaded, good first prompts:

  • "Give me the read on all my accounts this week: budget pacing and impression share."
  • "Scan account X for wasted spend in the search terms report and any learning period risk."
  • "Which accounts are off their budget pacing right now?"
  • "Build me a negative keywords list from my search terms report, and show me what it recovers."

Troubleshooting

If something's off

Auth error
Re-check the Bearer token; regenerate the key if needed.
Your AI says it can read but not propose changes
The connection was made with "Let your AI app propose changes" unticked. Remove AdTAO from your connectors, add it again and leave the box ticked on the sign-in page.
"Account still syncing"
A newly connected account takes a short while to load its history; the agent will tell you when it is ready.
Tool not found
Make sure your host finished loading the MCP server; restart the host after editing config.

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