Gemini connects to your site as a custom Connected App: you give it one URL and approve once on a WordPress consent screen. There is no token to copy and no config file to edit.
Updated: this page previously said consumer Gemini could not take custom MCP servers and sent you to the CLI. That is no longer true — gemini.google.com now supports them through Connected Apps, and that is the path most people want.
There are three places Gemini can reach an MCP server:
- Gemini on the web — a consumer Google account, through Connected Apps. Start here.
- Gemini CLI — if you work in a terminal, or your site is only reachable from your own machine.
- Gemini Enterprise — provisioned by an admin through its own console, and quite different from the other two.
You will find your MCP URL on MCP → your server → How would you like to connect? → Connectors/Integrations/Plugins → Gemini. It looks like https://example.com/wp-json/acrossai/mcp.
Gemini on the web
- In Gemini, open Settings → Personal Intelligence.
- Open Connected Apps, then the Connectors tab.
- Click + Custom to open the Connect to an MCP server dialog.
- Paste your MCP URL into MCP Server URL. The dialog asks for nothing else — there is no name field.
- Leave Additional settings alone. Client ID and Client secret stay blank, because Gemini registers itself.
- Click Next, then approve the consent screen on your WordPress site.
Your site must be reachable from Google’s servers over https://, with a valid certificate. The dialog says as much: make sure your URL starts with https://.
Gemini CLI (terminal)
The CLI runs on your own machine, so unlike the web flow it can reach a local development site.
- Install the CLI as shown on the Gemini tab.
- Run the command the tab gives you, which has your URL already in it.
- Follow the browser sign-in the CLI prints.
If you edit settings.json by hand instead, note that Gemini CLI uses httpUrl for remote HTTP servers, not url. With url the entry parses and the server simply never connects.
Gemini Enterprise
Enterprise is admin-provisioned and behaves differently from both paths above. Every edition requires StreamableHTTP transport — SSE is not supported — and none of them use Dynamic Client Registration, so the OAuth credentials must be entered by hand from Generate credentials on the Gemini tab.
- Business Edition (business.gemini.google) — a Team admin opens Settings & help → your team → Manage team → Connected apps and clicks Add MCP Server.
- Standard / Plus / Frontline — provisioned as Data Store connectors in the Google Cloud Console: Gemini Enterprise → Data stores → Create data store → Custom MCP Server.
On both, saving is not enabling. After the server verifies, open its Actions page, click Reload custom actions, tick the actions you want to expose, then click Enable Actions.
Troubleshooting
There is no + Custom button
Check you are on the Connectors tab of Connected Apps — Discover and Skills sit beside it and neither offers the button. If Connected Apps itself is missing, the account may not have it yet; the CLI works regardless.
Next is greyed out, or the URL is refused
The URL must begin with https://. A local address such as mysite.local cannot work here either, because Gemini connects from Google’s servers rather than your browser — open the URL in a private window on another network to check. Use the CLI for a local site, or a tunnel.
It asks for a Client ID and secret
On the web flow it should not — leave Additional settings blank and let Gemini register itself. If it insists, use Generate credentials on the Gemini tab and paste the pair in. On Enterprise this is always required.
The CLI ignores the server
Check you used httpUrl and not url. Invalid JSON is also ignored silently, so validate the file if nothing appears.
It connects, but there are no tools
Connecting and exposing are separate. Check the server’s Tools and Abilities tabs, and Access Control — a user who is not allowed on this server gets an access-denied response even with a valid connection. On Enterprise, check you ran Enable Actions.