Connect Gemini CLI to Google Search Console

How to connect Google Search Console to Gemini CLI

1. 1

   Install Gemini CLI and sign in

   Install Gemini CLI with npm or Homebrew, or run it without installing through npx @google/gemini-cli. Start it with gemini and choose Sign in with Google when it asks how to authenticate.

   shellCopy

   npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
   # or
   brew install gemini-cli
   
   gemini

2. 2

   Sign in to GSC PAP and copy your token

   Go to gscpap.com and click "Sign in with Google." Approve the read-only access it asks for. The connect page then shows your bearer token once, so copy it now. If you lose it, create a new one at app.gscpap.com/account/tokens; your other tokens keep working.

3. 3

   Register gsc-pap

   Run the command below with your token in place of YOUR_TOKEN. The --scope user flag saves the server in ~/.gemini/settings.json so it works in every folder; without it, Gemini CLI saves it to .gemini/settings.json in the current folder. To edit settings.json by hand instead, add an entry under mcpServers (camelCase) with httpUrl set to https://mcp.gscpap.com/mcp and a headers object that holds the Authorization line.

   shellCopy

   gemini mcp add --scope user --transport http \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
     gsc-pap https://mcp.gscpap.com/mcp

4. 4

   Trust the folder and check the connection

   Gemini CLI connects to MCP servers only in folders you trust. The first time you run gemini in a folder, it asks whether to trust it; choose Trust folder. Then run gemini mcp list from that folder. You want the gsc-pap line to end in Connected. Disabled means the folder is not trusted yet. Disconnected usually means a wrong URL or token.

   shellCopy

   gemini mcp list
   
   # Expected output:
   # ✓ gsc-pap: https://mcp.gscpap.com/mcp (http) - Connected

5. 5

   Ask a Search Console question

   Start gemini in a trusted folder and ask: "List my Google Search Console sites and pull the top 5 queries from last week." Gemini asks you to confirm GSC PAP tool calls, then calls list_sites and search_analytics_query and answers in the terminal. Inside a session, /mcp list shows the server's status.

Gemini CLI MCP config: known issues

• ·The settings key is mcpServers. A block named mcp_servers is ignored, and gemini mcp list reports "No MCP servers configured."
• ·In a hand-written entry, use httpUrl for GSC PAP. A plain url with no "type": "http" tells Gemini CLI to use the older SSE transport instead of Streamable HTTP.
• ·In an untrusted folder, Gemini CLI skips every MCP server, including the ones in ~/.gemini/settings.json. Run /permissions inside Gemini CLI to change the current folder's trust.
• ·To keep the token out of settings.json, write the header value as "Bearer $GSC_PAP_TOKEN" and export GSC_PAP_TOKEN in your shell. Gemini CLI fills in environment variables in settings.json strings when it loads them.
• ·The URL must be exactly https://mcp.gscpap.com/mcp, including the /mcp path.

Frequently asked questions