Choose the fastest Expand setup path for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, or any MCP client.
Choose the fastest setup for your agent. Expand gives agents Fetch through hooks, the Expand Skill, and MCP. Most local setups authenticate once with expandai login, then your agent can fetch web context when it needs it.
If you want your agent to wire itself up, paste this prompt:
Read https://expand.ai/start.md and set up Expand.The prompt is a shortcut, not a requirement. Pick your agent in the matrix below and follow its setup page directly.
Need the CLI? Start with Quickstart or CLI Commands, then come back to configure your agent. expandai login and expandai mcp run both come from the Expand CLI.
Each row routes to a dedicated setup page. Supported modes are shown as , , and .
HookSkillMCP| Agent | Start with | Supported modes | Auth | Set up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Hook | Hook Skill MCP | expandai login | Set up Claude Code |
For Claude Code and OpenCode, the hook is the recommended full setup: one command installs the hook and registers the MCP server, so you do not configure MCP separately. Cursor and Codex have no hook path; they use the Expand Skill alongside MCP tools.
You will see four setup modes across the agent pages. Here is when each one applies.
A hook lets Expand intercept or enhance an agent's native web-fetch behavior, so existing fetches return rendered Markdown instead of raw HTML. The hook install also registers the MCP server in the same command.
First-class hook agents:
The Expand Skill installs agent-readable instructions for when and how to use Expand: when to fetch, when to run Highlights over a snapshot, how to read State JSON, and how to return citations. Use it for agents that load skills or custom instructions.
See Expand Skill for installation, contents, and lifecycle.
MCP gives the agent native Fetch tools over stdio. Use it when your agent or assistant supports Model Context Protocol.
MCP is an agent integration mechanism, not a separate Expand product.Tool and resource names live in MCP Tools & Resources.
For MCP-compatible clients without a first-class installer, put the server command in the client's MCP config:
expandai mcp runThe client launches that command over stdio. Full configuration shapes for JSON and TOML clients are in Other MCP Clients.
For local agent setup, run expandai login once. The agent reuses the same local Expand credentials as the CLI, so no API key is written into agent config.
expandai loginUse EXPAND_API_KEY for CI, servers, direct API calls, or non-interactive environments. Keep keys out of local agent config unless you are deliberately running an advanced, non-interactive setup.
After setup, ask your agent:
Use Expand to fetch https://news.ycombinator.com.
Show me the first 10 lines of Markdown and confirm the Fetch succeeded.Each setup page also lists an MCP-specific check so you can confirm the native tool is visible to the agent.
Point an agent at these when you want it to understand Expand setup or reference docs without browsing the human docs UI.
Major AI crawlers do not fetch llms.txt on their own. It is for agents and tools you explicitly point at it.
Agents that work through the Expand Skill rather than a first-class installer live on Skill-Based Agents. Those pages route back to Expand Skill for installation.
| Cursor | Skill + MCP | Skill MCP | expandai login | Set up Cursor |
| Codex | Skill + MCP | Skill MCP | expandai login | Set up Codex |
| OpenCode | Hook | Hook Skill MCP | expandai login | Set up OpenCode |
| Other MCP clients | Manual MCP | MCP | local login or client auth | Configure MCP client |