Rebrandly’s link shortener MCP: seamless URL management for AI applications

Companies are increasingly leaning into AI-first workflows. Shopify, Amazon, and Klarna are now making AI usage a baseline expectation, with marketing teams building agents for content creation, campaign management, and lead generation. These applications frequently need to generate links as part of their workflows.

The problem is that traditional APIs weren’t designed for conversational AI. Current link shortening APIs force developers into complex authentication flows and rigid request structures that break the natural conversation flow of AI applications.

That’s why we built Rebrandly’s link shortener MCP integration. It lets AI applications create branded short links through conversational requests without complex API management. Instead of forcing AI tools to work around traditional REST endpoints, MCP enables direct protocol-level communication that matches how AI applications process information.

What is Model Context Protocol for link shortening?

Model Context Protocol is an open protocol that lets AI applications access external services through structured dialogue rather than traditional API calls. Instead of building REST integrations with authentication flows and request formatting, your AI tools can request services using the same conversational interface they use for everything else.

For link shortening, this means your AI application can request a branded short link by describing what it needs: “Create a short link for this campaign URL with UTM parameters for our email newsletter.” The MCP server handles the technical implementation while your AI focuses on the business logic.

For developers, this means:

• Direct integration with AI reasoning. Your application can make decisions about when to use branded links based on context, like choosing different domains for different campaigns or skipping link shortening for internal URLs.
• Natural error handling. When something goes wrong, your AI gets human-readable error messages it can work with, not HTTP status codes that break conversational flow.

Introducing Rebrandly’s link shortener MCP

We built a Go-based MCP integration that connects AI applications directly to Rebrandly’s link management platform. When your AI application needs a branded link, it simply asks: “Create a short link for this product page with campaign tracking.” The integration processes the request, generates the link, and returns a branded short URL—all through simple text-based requests.

Setup requirements:

• Go 1.20 or higher
• Rebrandly API key
• Compatible with platforms like Claude Desktop, VSCode, Cursor

The MCP integration is available at mcphub.com/mcp-servers/rebrandly/rebrandly-mcp.

We built this specifically for AI application developers working on marketing agents and chatbots, developer tool builders creating marketing automation platforms and content management systems, and automation engineers building campaign automation and lead generation systems. Basically, anyone building AI tools that need to generate professional, trackable links as part of their workflow.

Why we’re building this: preparing for the AI-first future

This MCP integration shows how we’re evolving Rebrandly for the next generation of AI-powered marketing tools. As marketing teams increasingly deploy AI agents for campaign management, content creation, and lead generation, they need infrastructure that works intelligently with these tools rather than against them.

Kyle Polar recently shared insights about GTM AI agents becoming standard in marketing workflows. As this trend accelerates, marketing teams need vendors who understand how AI agents actually work. Traditional API integrations force AI tools into rigid patterns that break their natural reasoning flow. MCP changes that.

This MCP integration gives you immediate value for conversational AI applications while setting the framework we’re building on top of. We’re planning to expand MCP functionality to include webhooks, advanced tagging, campaign automation, and other features that make sense for conversational AI interfaces.

The bigger question we’re asking: how can Rebrandly become the preferred infrastructure for AI agents? Supporting MCP is a meaningful step toward that goal. Instead of thinking about API features in the traditional way—adding endpoints and managing authentication flows—we’re evolving toward MCP functionality that matches how AI applications work.

This is the first addition to our Rebrandly for Developers portfolio, specifically designed for AI applications. We’re moving beyond the historic approach of building complex API integrations toward conversational interfaces that AI agents can use intelligently.

Get started with Rebrandly’s MCP integration

The link shortener MCP integration eliminates the overhead that slows down AI application development. Your AI tools can generate branded links through conversational requests, make context-aware decisions about when to use them, and maintain brand consistency across marketing channels.

Next steps:

1. Download the MCP integration
2. Set up your Rebrandly API key and configure the integration
3. Connect it to your AI application platform (like Claude Desktop)
4. Start generating branded links through simple conversational requests

This is the foundation for more AI-focused tools we’re building. If you’re developing AI applications for marketing teams, this MCP integration gives you professional link management without the API complexity.