Before you begin

The Citera API and hosted MCP server are in invite-only beta for Scale and Enterprise accounts. Ask the Citera team to enroll your account and confirm your allowed surfaces and write capabilities.

Your onboarding contact supplies your deployed API base URL and full MCP endpoint. Use the endpoint URLs supplied during onboarding in place of the example values below.

Create a scoped key

In Citera, open Settings → API keys. Choose the API and/or MCP surface, select the brands you own, and grant only the scopes you need. For this first read, use brands:read. Copy the token when it appears: you can only see it once.

Store it in your backend's secret manager. Do not place it in a public website, repository, browser bundle, query string, or cookie.

Configure your environment

Set CITERA_API_BASE_URL to the assigned HTTPS origin, without /v1. Set CITERA_MCP_URL to the full assigned endpoint including /mcp. These are client-side variable names used in our examples.

export CITERA_API_BASE_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_API_HOST"
export CITERA_MCP_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_MCP_HOST/mcp"
export CITERA_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

export CITERA_API_BASE_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_API_HOST"
export CITERA_MCP_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_MCP_HOST/mcp"
export CITERA_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

export CITERA_API_BASE_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_API_HOST"
export CITERA_MCP_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_MCP_HOST/mcp"
export CITERA_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

export CITERA_API_BASE_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_API_HOST"
export CITERA_MCP_URL="https://YOUR_ASSIGNED_MCP_HOST/mcp"
export CITERA_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

Read your brands

curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands?limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands?limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands?limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands?limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

A successful response contains data, has_more, next_cursor, and request_id. Select a brand ID returned by this call; an unbound brand ID returns 404 resource_not_found.

Check what the brand can do

export BRAND="UUID_RETURNED_BY_LIST_BRANDS"
curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands/$BRAND/capabilities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

export BRAND="UUID_RETURNED_BY_LIST_BRANDS"
curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands/$BRAND/capabilities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

export BRAND="UUID_RETURNED_BY_LIST_BRANDS"
curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands/$BRAND/capabilities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

export BRAND="UUID_RETURNED_BY_LIST_BRANDS"
curl --fail-with-body "${CITERA_API_BASE_URL%/}/v1/brands/$BRAND/capabilities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

Capabilities reflect the key, account, brand, and enabled features. Check them before offering generation or publishing actions in your integration.

Connect an assistant

Use a key that allows the MCP surface. In Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http citera "$CITERA_MCP_URL" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

claude mcp add --transport http citera "$CITERA_MCP_URL" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

claude mcp add --transport http citera "$CITERA_MCP_URL" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

claude mcp add --transport http citera "$CITERA_MCP_URL" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CITERA_API_KEY"

Ask the assistant to list your brands. The actual wire tool is rankad_list_brands. Existing rankad_* tool names, the server name rankad, and the rk_live_ key prefix are intentional compatibility identifiers.

Where to go next

• Authentication and access — key lifecycle and enrollment.

• Scopes and permissions — minimum permissions and dependencies.

• REST endpoint index — every customer API route.

• MCP client setup — Claude Code, Cursor and raw requests.

• Generate and publish — production-minded workflows.

• Limits and credits — shared API/MCP allowances.