Bitly MCP Server

Official Bitly-hosted MCP server for creating short links and QR codes, updating destinations, and pulling click and scan analytics from any AI agent.

Data & Enrichment by Bitly OAuth2 active

Connect (Remote Server) Docs

Overview

The Bitly MCP server is an official, provider-hosted remote MCP endpoint that lets AI agents manage Bitly link assets and analytics through natural language. It exposes Bitly's link shortening, branded domain, QR code, and analytics APIs as MCP tools, so an agent can create a tracked short link, generate a QR code, or pull a click breakdown without writing any API code.

The server covers roughly 27 tools across five areas: creating short links and QR codes, customizing existing links and codes, analyzing click and scan performance, searching and organizing links inside groups (workspaces), and accessing account, organization, and custom domain details. Analytics tools support time-series metrics plus breakdowns by country, city, device, referrer, and referring domain.

It is hosted at https://api-ssl.bitly.com/v4/mcp and supports OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration (recommended) or a static Bitly API token from bitly.com/settings/api. Bitly lists Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, and Windsurf as confirmed compatible clients.

Tools

Tool	Description
`create_short_link`	Create a compact, shareable short link with options for custom domain, title, tags, group, keyword, and deeplinks.
`get_short_link_details`	Get full metadata for a short link (title, destination, created date, creator, tags, custom domain).
`update_short_link`	Update the destination URL, title, archive state, tags, or deeplinks of an existing short link.
`delete_short_link`	Permanently delete an unedited short link.
`expand`	Return the original long URL and basic metadata for a short link.
`link_metrics`	Return time-series click metrics for a link over a chosen unit and range.
`link_clicks_summary`	Return total clicks for a link in a given time window.
`link_countries`	Click breakdown by country.
`link_cities`	Click breakdown by city.
`link_devices`	Click breakdown by device type.
`link_referrers`	Click breakdown by referring source.
`link_referring_domains`	Click breakdown by referring domain.
`create_qr_code`	Create a new QR code for a Bitly link.
`get_qr_code`	Get QR code metadata.
`get_qr_code_image`	Return a URL to download the QR code image.
`update_qr_code`	Update a QR code's title or archived status.
`get_group_qr_codes`	List QR codes in a group with filtering and pagination.
`get_user`	Get the authenticated user's profile.
`get_organizations`	List organizations the user can access.
`get_groups`	List groups (workspaces), optionally filtered by organization.
`get_group_details`	Get a group's details.
`get_group_short_links`	List links in a group with rich filtering by date, tag, domain, keyword, deeplinks, campaign, and more.
`get_group_short_links_sorted`	List group links sorted by click performance.
`get_custom_domains`	List custom branded domains available to the user.
`get_custom_link_details`	Get custom link metadata and override history.

Setup Guide

Prerequisites

A Bitly account (free or paid). Custom domains and branded links require a paid plan.
Either OAuth (handled by your client) or an API token from bitly.com/settings/api.

HTTP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, Cline)

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bitly": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api-ssl.bitly.com/v4/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_BITLY_AUTH_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Stdio-only clients (via mcp-remote proxy)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Bitly": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://api-ssl.bitly.com/v4/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer ${AUTH_TOKEN}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_TOKEN": "YOUR_BITLY_AUTH_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

OAuth setup

For clients that support OAuth 2.1, point them at the server URL and complete the standard sign-in flow. Bitly's OAuth endpoints are:

Authorize: https://bitly.com/oauth/authorize
Token: https://api-ssl.bitly.com/v4/oauth/access_token
Scope: mcp.all

Verify

After restarting your client, ask: "What Bitly tools are available?" to confirm the server is connected.

Use Cases

Shorten campaign URLs at scale with UTM tags and a custom domain, then store them in a doc or spreadsheet for a marketing launch.
Generate branded QR codes for print, packaging, or event collateral directly from a chat prompt.
Pull a click summary plus country, city, device, and referrer breakdowns for a specific Bitlink to drop into a weekly performance report.
Find the top-performing links in a workspace over the last 7 or 30 days using get_group_short_links_sorted for content prioritization.
Bulk update destination URLs or tags on existing Bitlinks when redirecting traffic after a site migration or rebrand.

Example Prompts

"Create a Bitly short link for https://example.com/launch with our custom domain, title 'Spring Launch', and tags ['spring2026','email']."
"Generate a QR code for bit.ly/spring-launch and give me the image download URL."
"Show me total clicks, top 5 countries, and device breakdown for bit.ly/spring-launch over the last 30 days."
"List the top 10 best-performing links in my marketing workspace this week."
"Update bit.ly/old-promo to point to https://example.com/new-promo and add the tag 'q2-refresh'."

Pros

Officially hosted and maintained by Bitly, no self-hosting or local install required.
Broad tool coverage including link creation, QR codes, analytics breakdowns, and workspace/organization navigation.
Supports OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration and automatic token refresh, plus an API token fallback for clients without OAuth.
Works with any MCP-compatible client (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf) over HTTP or via the mcp-remote stdio proxy.

Limitations

Branded short domains, advanced QR customization (brand colors, logos), and some analytics depth require a paid Bitly plan.
No source code is published, so tool behavior and rate limits are only knowable through Bitly's docs.
Analytics tools are scoped per Bitlink; cross-link aggregate analytics need to be assembled by the agent from multiple calls.

Alternatives

Dub.co MCP for an open alternative link management platform with an MCP integration.
Short.io or Rebrandly via custom MCP wrappers around their REST APIs for branded short links.
Building a thin MCP server directly against the Bitly v4 REST API if you need custom tool shapes.