Gentic Research — Documentation
Give your AI agent live access to consumer conversations and search trends. Mine Reddit for sentiment, pull Google Trends interest curves, and store every run for later — all through the Model Context Protocol.
1. Getting Started
Sign Up & Get Your API Key
Before you can use Gentic Research, you need an API key to authenticate your requests.
- Go to gentic.co/research and create an account.
- Create an organization from your dashboard. API keys and billing are scoped to the organization.
- Generate an API key and use it as a Bearer token in your MCP client.
2. Connecting to the MCP Server
The server is available at https://mcp.gentic.co/research. For Claude Code:
claude mcp add gentic-research \
--transport http \
https://mcp.gentic.co/research \
--header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"For Claude Web and ChatGPT you can also connect via OAuth — no API key needed. See the connect section on the landing page for other MCP clients (n8n, OpenClaw).
3. Agent Skill
For the best results, pair the MCP server with the Gentic Research agent skill. The MCP server gives your agent tool access; the skill teaches it the optimal workflow order. Both the raw SKILL.md and a ready-to-upload .skill bundle are generated on demand from the live manifest, so they always reflect the current tools and pricing.
Add the skill directly via URL:
https://gentic.co/research/SKILL.mdOr upload a .skill bundle to Claude Managed Agents:
https://gentic.co/research/gentic-research.skillDownload this file and upload it wherever Claude Managed Agents asks for a .skill file. It's a zip bundle generated on demand from the latest SKILL.md.
4. When to Apply
- User wants to investigate consumer sentiment, problems, or discussions around a topic, product, or category.
- User asks to compare keyword interest over time, across regions, or spot emerging trends.
- User wants to replay or retrieve a previous research run by run_id, or list recent runs.
- User is building a research brief and needs both qualitative (Reddit) and quantitative (Google Trends) signals in one pass.
5. Workflow
1. Pick the right tool for the question
Qualitative 'what are people saying / complaining about' questions → `search_reddit`. Quantitative 'how popular is X / is X growing' questions → `google_trends`. Retrieval or replay → `get_research_results`. When both qual and quant are useful, run the two in parallel.
2. Write descriptive Reddit queries and tune `limit` carefully
`search_reddit` rewards specificity. 'hair loss treatment side effects' beats 'hair loss'. If the user names a community, pass up to 5 subreddits via `subreddits`; otherwise search globally. Use `sort=top` + `timeFilter=month` for signal, `sort=new` for recency. **Every Reddit result costs 5¢** — default `limit=25` is a good starting point (≈$1.25), bump to 50 for broad scans (≈$2.50), drop to 10 for targeted intelligence. Mention the cost to the user when running >25 results.
3. Compare keywords on Google Trends
`google_trends` works with a single keyword, but it shines with 2–5 keywords compared side by side — that's when you get relative interest curves instead of a flat absolute number. Default `timeRange=12m`, widen to `5y` for long-term shifts. Pass `includeRegions=true` when the user cares about geography.
4. Save the run_id
Every `search_reddit` and `google_trends` call returns a `run_id`. Capture it. Later the agent (or a human) can call `get_research_results` with that id to retrieve the exact same data for free — useful for citations, briefs, or feeding another MCP server.
5. Present results clearly
Don't dump raw JSON. For Reddit: group posts by theme, render a ranked table (title · subreddit · score · link), and quote verbatim user language — that's the whole point of Reddit research. For Google Trends: lead with the overall pattern (flat / rising / seasonal / comparative winner), then call out **rising related queries** as leading indicators. Always end with one concrete next step the user can take (another search, a chained MCP call, a brief).
6. Chain with other Gentic servers
The agentic win is composition: turn Reddit pain points into creative briefs via Gentic Creative, turn Google Trends winners into campaign keywords for Gentic Meta, or pipe either into Gentic Data for structured storage. The MCP surface is the same across all of them.
6. Tool Reference
3 tools, rendered live from the Gentic MCP manifest. Parameter tables come directly from each tool's JSON Schema.
get_research_results
Retrieve stored Reddit research results. Pass a run_id to get full results from a specific search, or omit it to list recent research runs with metadata.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
run_id | string | Specific research run ID to retrieve. Omit to list recent runs. |
limit | number | Max results to return. Defaults to 25. 1 – 100 |
google_trends
Get Google Trends data for keywords — interest over time, related queries, and interest by region. Use this to identify trending topics, compare keyword popularity, and spot emerging market opportunities. Returns trend data and stores results for later retrieval.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
keywordsrequired | string[] | Keywords to analyze (1-5). Multiple keywords are compared against each other, e.g. ['minoxidil', 'finasteride', 'hair transplant']. |
geo | string | Country code to scope results, e.g. 'US', 'GB', 'CA'. Omit for worldwide. |
timeRange | string | Time range for trend data. Defaults to '12m' (past 12 months). enum: 3m, 6m, 12m, 5y |
includeRelatedQueries | boolean | Include top and rising related queries. Defaults to true. |
includeRegions | boolean | Include interest by region/country. Defaults to false. |
search_reddit
Search Reddit for consumer discussions, problems, and sentiment around a product category or topic. Returns structured posts with title, body, score, subreddit, and URL. Results are stored for later retrieval. Billed per result.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
queryrequired | string | Search query — be descriptive for better results, e.g. 'hair loss treatment side effects' rather than 'hair loss' |
subreddits | string[] | Filter to specific subreddits (max 5), e.g. ['tressless', 'HaircareScience']. Omit for global search. |
sort | string | Sort order. Defaults to 'relevance'. enum: relevance, hot, new, top, comments |
timeFilter | string | Time filter for results. Defaults to 'all'. enum: hour, day, week, month, year, all |
limit | number | Number of results to return (1-100). Defaults to 25. 1 – 100 |
7. Pricing
Pricing is pulled live from the Gentic MCP manifest. All prices are per call and deducted from your Gentic credits.
| Tool | Cost |
|---|---|
| get_research_results | Free |
| google_trends | 10¢ / call |
| search_reddit | 5¢ / result (min 5¢) |
8. Notes
- All runs are organization-scoped and persisted in MotherDuck — users only see their own runs.
- `search_reddit` is the only billed tool at 5¢ per result. At 25 results that's $1.25; at 100 it's $5. Mention the cost when running large pulls. `google_trends` and `get_research_results` are free.
- Reddit is routed through ScrapingBee so it works from cloud IPs. Subreddits that return 403/404 are silently skipped instead of failing the whole call.
- Rate limit: 100 requests per minute per API key. Contact support@gentic.co for higher limits.