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This page is the shortest path from zero to a working MCP connection. Install the unified SDK first — Managed Research and Research Factory both use SynthClient().research. For product context, read Managed Research intro or Research Factory.

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1. Sign in and API key

  1. Create or open your Synth account at usesynth.ai.
  2. Create a Synth API key in the product (same key type as other Synth API access).
  3. Expose it to your terminal and MCP clients as SYNTH_API_KEY.
For self-hosted or staging backends, set SYNTH_BACKEND_URL to that base URL. Production MCP defaults to the hosted API; see MCP Quickstart for details.

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2. Install synth-ai and connect MCP

uv add "synth-ai[research]"
export SYNTH_API_KEY="sk_..."
Managed Research MCP is served from the Synth API. Connect from Codex or Claude Code — no separate MCP package required for the hosted HTTP path. 
codex mcp add managed-research --url https://api.usesynth.ai/mcp
Ensure SYNTH_API_KEY is available in the environment Codex uses (shell profile, IDE env, or Codex config), per Codex docs for MCP env inheritance.

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3. Smoke test

In your agent client, ask for something that forces a tool call, for example: 
List my Managed Research projects.
You should see a call to smr_list_projects. An empty list still means auth and connectivity succeeded.

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4. Next steps

Projects in the web app

Navigate the logged-in project hub, runs, resources, and results in the browser.

MCP Quickstart

Start one-off and project-scoped runs and inspect evidence from MCP.

MCP tool reference

Full smr_* tool list grouped by area.

Python SDK quickstart

Script runs with SynthClient().research.
Public automation should use MCP or SynthClient().research, not ad hoc /smr REST calls. See Managed Research intro.