What is OpenSEO?
OpenSEO is an open-source SEO platform that covers the work the big subscription suites do — keyword research, rank tracking, competitor insight, backlink analysis, site audits and AI-visibility checks — but changes the commercial shape. It sits in the SEO & AI Search Visibility category of the AI Productivity & Writing tools and is open-source, written in TypeScript and licensed MIT.
Overview
OpenSEO is an open-source SEO platform that covers the work the big subscription suites do — keyword research, rank tracking, competitor insight, backlink analysis, site audits and AI-visibility checks — but changes the commercial shape. The README calls it "an SEO tool for the people": you bring your own DataForSEO API key and pay DataForSEO directly for the data you pull, instead of paying a monthly seat price to a vendor sitting in between.
The AI angle is not a chat box bolted on the side. OpenSEO exposes an MCP server, so agents such as Claude Code, OpenClaw and Hermes can query your SEO data directly — pull the keyword set, read the audit findings, check where a page ranks — and act on it in the same session where they are editing the site. Reusable workflows are packaged as Agent Skills.
It is MIT-licensed and written mainly in TypeScript, and the repository documents three ways to run it: local development, self-hosting with Docker, and self-hosting on Cloudflare. A hosted instance is also available at openseo.so for anyone who would rather not operate it.
What it does
- Keyword research, rank tracking and competitor insight
- Backlink analysis and site audits
- AI-visibility tooling for tracking how a site surfaces in AI answers
- MCP server so agents like Claude Code, OpenClaw and Hermes can query your SEO data directly
- Agent Skills packaging reusable SEO workflows
- Bring-your-own DataForSEO key — pay the data provider directly, with no subscription in between
- Self-hostable with Docker or on Cloudflare
Getting started
OpenSEO needs a DataForSEO API key for its data. The repository documents local development plus two self-hosting paths; pick the one that matches where you want it to run.
Get the source
Clone the repository — the setup guides live in its docs directory.
git clone https://github.com/every-app/open-seo.git
cd open-seoFollow the setup guide for your target
Local development is documented in docs/LOCAL_DEVELOPMENT.md, Docker self-hosting in docs/SELF_HOSTING_DOCKER.md, and the Cloudflare deployment in docs/SELF_HOSTING_CLOUDFLARE.md.
Add your DataForSEO key
OpenSEO does not resell data: create a DataForSEO account, add the key to your environment, and you are billed by DataForSEO for the queries you run.
Wire it into an agent
Point an MCP-capable agent at the OpenSEO MCP server to query your data from a coding or writing session. Individual skills can also be installed on their own.
npx skills add every-app/open-seo --skill simple-issue-descriptionCommands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.
When to use it
- Reach for it when Semrush or Ahrefs seat pricing is out of proportion to how much SEO data you actually pull
- Use it when you want an agent to read audit findings and rankings while it edits the site, rather than copying numbers out of a dashboard
- Good for agencies or teams that need the SEO stack self-hosted on their own infrastructure
- Useful for tracking AI visibility alongside classic keyword and backlink work
How OpenSEO compares
OpenSEO alongside other open-source seo & ai search visibility tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| OpenSEO | ★ 26.8k | Self-hostable SEO workbench that also serves its data to agents over MCP |
| Open SEO MCP Skills | ★ 8.9k | Eight MIT-licensed SEO and GEO skills for Claude — site audit, keyword research, rank tracking, competitor gap, backlinks, AI visibility — that run on your own Search Console, GA4 and ads data through Ryze's hosted MCP connector. |
| new-term-radar | ★ 2.1k | Python CLI, Agent Skills and MCP server that catches new AI names on X, Hugging Face, GitHub and sitemaps each day and turns them into a keyword table with search volume, trends and page-one checks. |
| DATA HIT Tools | — | Five browser-based analytics tools: AI Answer Monitor and AI Answer Stability measure how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI answers name your brand, alongside GA4 and search-demand charts. |