Install Beaconed and configure yourself.
This page is written for an AI agent to read and follow. If a human sent you here by pasting a setup prompt, work through the steps below in order. Install the package, get an API key from the human, register the MCP server in this client’s config, then verify the connection.
If you are the agent:
Follow these steps in order. Ask the human before editing any config file or running install commands. You cannot create the human’s Beaconed account for them — when you reach the API-key step, point them to the dashboard and wait for them to paste the key back.
Install the package
Beaconed ships as two separate npm packages that share the same API key. Install the MCP server to operate Beaconed from a chat client. Install the CLI if you also want plain commands you can script or pipe. Most setups only need the MCP server.
npm install -g @beaconed/mcp
npm install -g @beaconed/cli
Get an API key
Beaconed authenticates with an API key that starts with bcn_live_. This is the one step the agent can’t do alone — the human creates the account and copies the key.
- a. If the human doesn’t have a Beaconed account yet, send them to beaconed.ai/signup to create one and connect their Shopify store.
- b. Ask them to open their API keys page, create a key, and paste it back to you.
- c. Keep the key out of any file the human will commit. It goes only in this client’s MCP config (next step) or an environment variable.
Register the MCP server
Wire the Beaconed MCP server into whichever client you’re running in. Ask the human before editing a config file. Pick the matching client below.
Claude Code
One command registers the server — substitute the real key:
claude mcp add beaconed -e BEACONED_API_KEY=bcn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx -- npx -y @beaconed/mcp
Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Zed
Add this block to the client’s MCP config file (for Claude Desktop that’s claude_desktop_config.json; other clients use the same shape). Replace the placeholder with the real key, then restart the client.
{
"mcpServers": {
"beaconed": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@beaconed/mcp"],
"env": {
"BEACONED_API_KEY": "bcn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
}
}
}
Verify the connection
Once the server is registered, confirm it’s wired up by calling a read-only tool — nothing that changes the store. Listing products or pulling the catalog’s readiness scores is a safe check. If it returns data, you’re connected and can start working.
When the read-only call succeeds, tell the human Beaconed is connected and ask what they’d like to do — for example, find products scoring below 60 and queue rewrites for them.
Ground rules while you work
- Optimizations stay as drafts in Beaconed until they’re approved and applied. Generating a rewrite never changes the live store on its own.
- Apply, revert, and webhook-delete are flagged destructive. Confirm with the human before calling them, and name the exact tool you intend to use.
- The full tool reference — every tool, its inputs, and its destructive flag — lives on the docs site.