LinkedIn Intelligence MCP Server

Connect Claude Desktop to LinkedIn for feed monitoring, people search, and messaging.

The LinkedIn MCP Server connects Claude Desktop to LinkedIn, enabling natural language conversations to browse your feed, search for people and companies, and manage messages—all without leaving your AI assistant.

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What Works Today

Feature	Status	Example
Browse your feed	✅ Working	"Show me posts from my network about AI"
Get your profile	✅ Working	"What does my LinkedIn profile say?"
Search for people	✅ Working	"Find software engineers with 'VP' in their title"
Search for companies	✅ Working	"Search for fintech companies"
View conversations	✅ Working	"Show my recent LinkedIn messages"
Send messages	✅ Working	"Send a message to [connection]"
Create posts	✅ Working	"Post this to LinkedIn"
Send connection requests	✅ Working	"Send a connection request to [person]"

Known Limitations

Important: This uses LinkedIn's unofficial API which has significant limitations:

Feature	Status	Notes
Get other profiles	⚠️ Unreliable	Often fails with API errors
Get anyone's posts	❌ Broken	LinkedIn API returns errors
Analyze post engagement	❌ Broken	Depends on profile posts
Region/location filters	❌ Not working	Returns empty results
Connection list	❌ Broken	API endpoint issues
Pending invitations	❌ Broken	Redirect loop errors
Contact info	❌ Broken	Redirect loop errors

The underlying linkedin-api library has known issues with many endpoints. This MCP exposes what's available, but LinkedIn frequently changes their internal APIs.

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Realistic Use Cases

🔍 Feed Monitoring & Content Discovery

What actually works:

• Browse your LinkedIn feed with natural language
• Filter posts by topic or keyword
• See what your network is talking about

Example prompts that work:

• "Show me the latest 10 posts from my feed"
• "What are people in my network posting about AI?"
• "Find posts mentioning 'product launch' in my feed"

Tools used:

• get_feed() - Retrieve your home feed
• get_my_profile() - Get your own profile data

🎯 People & Company Search

What actually works:

• Search for people by keywords and job title
• Search for companies by name or industry
• Basic filtering by title keywords

Example prompts that work:

• "Search for people with 'Product Manager' in their title"
• "Find engineers who work in fintech"
• "Search for companies in the AI space"

What doesn't work:

• Location/region filtering (returns empty)
• Getting detailed profiles of search results
• Viewing posts from people you find

Tools used:

• search_people(keywords, keyword_title) - Find people
• search_companies(keywords) - Find companies

💬 Messaging

What actually works:

• View your conversation threads
• Send messages to connections
• Read message history

Example prompts that work:

• "Show me my recent LinkedIn conversations"
• "Send a message to [connection name] saying..."
• "What was my last conversation with [person]?"

Tools used:

• get_conversations() - List message threads
• send_message(profile_id, text) - Send a message

✍️ Content Creation

What actually works:

• Create and publish LinkedIn posts
• Draft content for review

Example prompts that work:

• "Post this to LinkedIn: [your content]"
• "Create a LinkedIn post about [topic]"

What doesn't work:

• Scheduling posts (scheduler exists but untested)
• Analyzing your past post performance
• Seeing engagement on your posts

Tools used:

• create_post(text, visibility) - Publish a post

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv (recommended) or pip
• Claude Desktop
• LinkedIn account

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/southleft/linkedin-mcp.git
cd linkedin-mcp

# Set up environment
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Create data directory
mkdir -p data

Authentication

Export your LinkedIn cookies from an active browser session:

1. Log into LinkedIn in Chrome/Firefox
2. Open DevTools → Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox)
3. Find Cookies → https://www.linkedin.com
4. Copy li_at and JSESSIONID values

Create data/session_cookies.json:

{
  "li_at": "YOUR_LI_AT_COOKIE_VALUE",
  "JSESSIONID": "\"ajax:1234567890123456789\""
}

Note: The JSESSIONID typically includes escaped quotes. Copy exactly as shown in your browser.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config file:

Platform	Config Location
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "linkedin-mcp"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/linkedin-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LINKEDIN_API_ENABLED": "true",
        "LOG_LEVEL": "INFO"
      }
    }
  }
}

Important: The cwd must be an absolute path to the project directory.

Restart Claude Desktop and verify with: "Use debug_context to check LinkedIn MCP status"

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Working Tools Reference

Verified Working ✅

Tool	Description
debug_context()	Check server status
get_my_profile()	Get your own profile
get_feed(limit)	Browse your feed
search_people(keywords, keyword_title)	Search for people
search_companies(keywords)	Search for companies
get_conversations()	List message threads
send_message(profile_id, text)	Send a message
create_post(text, visibility)	Create a post
send_connection_request(profile_id, message)	Send connection invite

Unreliable/Broken ⚠️

These tools exist but may not work reliably due to LinkedIn API limitations:

Tool	Issue
get_profile(profile_id)	Often returns API errors
get_profile_posts(profile_id)	LinkedIn API blocks this
get_connections()	Missing parameter bug
get_pending_invitations()	Redirect loop
get_profile_contact_info()	Redirect loop
analyze_* functions	Depend on broken endpoints

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Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
LINKEDIN_API_ENABLED	false	Enable the LinkedIn API client
LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Logging level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)
DATABASE_URL	sqlite+aiosqlite:///data/linkedin_mcp.db	Database connection URL

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Troubleshooting

"LinkedIn client not initialized"

1. Ensure LINKEDIN_API_ENABLED is set to "true" (as a string) in Claude Desktop config
2. Verify data/session_cookies.json exists with valid cookies
3. Check that cookies haven't expired (re-export from browser if needed)
4. Verify the cwd path is absolute, not relative

Cookies expire frequently

LinkedIn session cookies typically last 1-2 weeks. If you're getting authentication errors:

1. Log into LinkedIn in your browser
2. Re-export the li_at and JSESSIONID cookies
3. Update data/session_cookies.json
4. Restart Claude Desktop

View server logs

# macOS
tail -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-linkedin.log

# Windows (PowerShell)
Get-Content -Path "$env:APPDATA\Claude\logs\mcp-server-linkedin.log" -Wait

# Linux
tail -f ~/.config/Claude/logs/mcp-server-linkedin.log

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Security & Responsible Use

Important: This server uses the unofficial LinkedIn API which accesses LinkedIn's internal Voyager API.

• Use a secondary LinkedIn account for testing
• Respect rate limits (~900 requests/hour)
• Don't spam or automate engagement excessively
• Your account may be restricted if LinkedIn detects automation
• Never commit your data/ directory or cookie files

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Development

# Run tests
pytest tests/ -v --cov=linkedin_mcp

# Linting
ruff check src/ && ruff format src/

# Type checking
mypy src/linkedin_mcp

# Run locally
uv run linkedin-mcp

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License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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Acknowledgments

• tomquirk/linkedin-api - Unofficial LinkedIn API
• FastMCP - MCP SDK for Python
• Model Context Protocol - AI tool protocol