Configuration¶

Credential resolution uses this priority order (highest to lowest):

1. CLI Argument (Highest Priority)¶

Pass the service account file path directly on the command line:

/path/to/gsc-mcp-go-linux-amd64 --service-account-file /path/to/key.json

2. Environment Variable -- File Path¶

Set GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE to the path of your service account JSON key file:

export GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE=/path/to/service-account.json

3. Environment Variable -- JSON Content¶

Set GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON to the raw JSON content of the service account key:

export GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON='{"type":"service_account","client_email":"..."}'

Useful in environments where secrets are stored as string values rather than files (e.g. containers, CI/CD secrets).

4. `.env` File (Lowest Priority -- Dev Convenience)¶

Create a .env file in the working directory:

GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE=/path/to/service-account.json

Or with inline JSON:

GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON={"type":"service_account",...}

Property URL Format¶

Search Console has two property types. The server accepts flexible input and normalizes automatically, but the underlying API requires a specific canonical form:

Property type	Canonical form	Example
Domain property	`sc-domain:example.com`	`sc-domain:devleader.ca`
URL-prefix property	`https://www.example.com/`	`https://www.devleader.ca/`

The server accepts bare domains, full URLs, or canonical forms as input to site_url parameters and normalizes them. On 403 errors, it automatically retries with property discovery to handle format mismatches.

Use list_sites to see the exact canonical URLs your service account has access to.