Introducing Ray9

by Ray9 Team

We're launching Ray9 — an AI-first SEO data platform that gives agents and developers instant access to SERP results, keyword metrics, backlink profiles, and AI-search visibility through MCP, REST API, and CLI.

The Problem

SEO data platforms were built for analysts in dashboards, not for AI agents. When an agent needs to check ranking, analyze backlinks, or monitor how a brand is cited in ChatGPT, it hits walls that traditional SEO APIs were never designed to handle:

  • Enterprise-only API access with annual contracts and high minimums
  • Responses shaped for spreadsheets instead of LLM context windows
  • No MCP server — or a community wrapper bolted on after the fact
  • No real CLI for terminal-native agents like Claude Code or Codex
  • Flat per-query pricing that charges the same for a trivial keyword lookup and a full backlink crawl

AI agents need SEO data delivered in a way they can actually use.

Three Ways to Access Ray9

We built Ray9 around three access methods, each designed for a different workflow.

MCP Server

Connect any MCP-compatible agent — Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Goose, or your own — directly to live SEO data. The agent discovers tools progressively, calls them with natural parameters, and gets structured responses it can reason over immediately. No glue code required.

REST API

A clean, conventional REST API for direct integration. Every endpoint returns consistent JSON with typed fields, pagination, and predictable errors. Build rank trackers, content agents, GEO monitors, or programmatic-SEO pipelines with straightforward HTTP calls.

CLI

Query SEO data from your terminal. Pipe output into scripts, combine with other tools, or let Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI call ray9 directly. Designed for developers and agents who think in terminals.

Why AI-First Matters

Being "AI-first" isn't a marketing label — it changes how the product is built.

Progressive tool discovery. Instead of dumping a 50-tool SEO surface on an agent's context window, Ray9's MCP server exposes a small core set first (search, keyword lookup, SERP) and reveals deeper tools (backlink graph, AI-search citations, rank history) as the agent needs them.

Structured output by default. Every response is designed to be consumed by language models — consistent schemas across SERP, keyword, backlink, and GEO tools, clear field names, no HTML cruft.

Per-request-type pricing. Keyword metadata is cheap. A SERP pull costs a bit more. A backlink crawl costs the most. You pay for what you query, with per-key daily and monthly budgets so a runaway agent can't drain your balance overnight.

AI-search visibility built in. Ray9 tracks brand citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — alongside classic SERP data — not as a bolted-on extra.

Getting Started

Get up and running in under a minute:

  1. Sign up at ray9.ai and grab your API key
  2. Install the CLI or configure the MCP server in your agent
  3. Query — pull SERP, keywords, backlinks, or GEO data
# Install the CLI
npm install -g @ray9/cli

# SERP with AI-engine overlay
ray9 serp "best crm" --engine google --ai-engines chatgpt,perplexity,aio

# Or configure MCP in your agent
ray9 mcp setup

What's Next

We're expanding engine coverage, adding deeper backlink crawls, richer GEO signals across more AI engines, and more languages and locales. Rank tracking, content briefs, and competitor overlap reports are on the near-term roadmap.

Star us on GitHub and let us know what SEO data your agents need.