DataForSEO

Goal

Query DataForSEO's v3 endpoints through a CLI that is easy for agents to script and humans to scan — SERP, keyword research + discovery, domain/competitor analytics, backlinks, App Store / Play data, and one-shot idea validation.

Use this when

• Validating an app/business idea in one scored pass (validate <idea>)
• Checking where a site ranks, or listing the top organic results (serp)
• Finding search volume, CPC, and competition for keywords (volume)
• Discovering keywords — long-tail (suggestions), semantic (ideas), related-search (related), intent (intent)
• Seeing what keywords a domain already ranks for (ranked)
• Finding a domain's organic competitors (competitors)
• Getting a domain's organic/paid rank overview (domain)
• Auditing a domain's backlinks and referring domains (backlinks, refdomains)
• Which apps rank in a store (appsearch); mining app reviews (appreviews)

Do not use this for

• Idle exploration — every command spends DataForSEO credits. Run the narrowest command that answers the question, and use --limit to cap rows.
• Site audits / on-page crawling — not wrapped in v1 (uses async task endpoints).
• Bulk async jobs — this skill only calls synchronous live endpoints.
• Anything outside SEO data (no writes, no account/billing management).

Setup

Requires DataForSEO API credentials (your API login + password from the dashboard — these are not your website login/password).

1. Get them at https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access
2. Export them in ~/.zshenv (not .zshrc, not a repo .env): .zshenv is read by every zsh — interactive and not — so the skill and the DataForSEO MCP subprocess both inherit them, and the secret never lands in a git repo.

   export DATAFORSEO_USERNAME="your_api_login"   # the email login
   export DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD="your_api_password" # plaintext — NOT the base64 token
   

   Then chmod 600 ~/.zshenv and open a fresh shell (or source ~/.zshenv).
3. Use the plaintext password, not the pre-encoded "token" the dashboard shows — the CLI does its own base64 encoding, so a token gives auth failures.

The CLI accepts DATAFORSEO_USERNAME (the DataForSEO MCP's variable name) or DATAFORSEO_LOGIN for the login, so one pair of env vars powers both. It does not read the credentials until a command actually calls the API, so --help works without them.

Preferred workflow

1. Run scripts/cli.py with the narrowest subcommand that answers the task.
2. Default location is New Zealand (nz). For keyword volume, a larger market (--location us) is usually more meaningful than tiny NZ numbers.
3. Use default human output for direct answers; --json when piping to another tool or agent.
4. Keep --limit low to control cost, especially on ranked and refdomains.

CLI

Run with:

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py <command> [flags]

Common flags: --location (alias like nz/us/uk/au or a numeric location_code), --language (default en), --limit, --json.

validate <idea> — one-shot idea scorecard

The flagship for marketing-first validation. Runs discovery + demand + intent + SERP + app-store competition in one pass (~6 API calls, one async) and prints a scored scorecard: seed demand (anchored on the idea's own search volume, not the noisiest discovered term), commercial intent, dominant search intent, whether the SERP is content- or app-dominated, and app-incumbent strength — plus a ready-to-run appreviews command to mine the top incumbent's pain points next.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py validate "fruit tree care app" --location us --store apple

Use a specific seed that names the actual job (e.g. "fruit tree care app", "garden planner app"). Broad/ambiguous seeds pollute the discovery table with off-target semantic matches — the scorecard flags this, and the seed-anchored demand line stays honest regardless, but the discovered-terms table is noisier. It deliberately does not auto-mine reviews (slow + pricey); it hands you the command to do that as the follow-up.

serp <keyword> [--domain <site>]

Top Google organic results for a keyword. With --domain, reports that site's rank position instead of listing results.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py serp "vegetable garden planner"
python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py serp "garden planner app" --domain grovekeeper.app
python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py serp "garden planner" --location us --limit 20

volume <keyword...>

Search volume, CPC, and competition for one or more keywords (Google Ads data).

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py volume "garden planner" "vegetable planner" --location us

suggestions <seed>

Long-tail keyword ideas containing the seed term, with volumes.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py suggestions "companion planting" --location us --limit 25

ranked <domain>

Keywords a domain already ranks for.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py ranked grovekeeper.app --location us --limit 25

competitors <domain>

Domains competing for the same keywords.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py competitors grovekeeper.app --location us

domain <domain>

Organic/paid rank overview: keyword count, estimated traffic, position buckets.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py domain grovekeeper.app --location us

backlinks <domain>

Backlink summary: total backlinks, referring domains, domain rank. (No location.)

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py backlinks grovekeeper.app

refdomains <domain>

Referring domains, ranked by domain rank. (No location.)

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py refdomains grovekeeper.app --limit 25

Discovery commands (counter confirmation bias)

These surface demand you did not seed — the antidote to "I searched my own idea and found some volume, so it's validated." Run these before deciding what a market wants.

ideas <seed...>

Semantically related keywords that need not contain the seed (category match, not text match). The workhorse for finding demand you'd never have typed. Review the output — semantic matching also surfaces adjacent meanings (a "grow a garden" seed can pull in a Roblox game).

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py ideas "companion planting" --location us --limit 25

related <seed>

Google's "searches related to" expansion, walked to --depth (0-4; default 2 — higher is wider and pricier). Lateral exploration of a topic.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py related "raised garden bed" --location us --depth 2

intent <keyword...>

Classifies each keyword as informational / navigational / commercial / transactional (with confidence). Tells "wants a free answer" from "wants to buy" — use it to separate real commercial demand from idle curiosity. (No location.)

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py intent "buy raised garden bed" "how to build raised bed" --language en

App Store / Play commands (async)

⚠️ DataForSEO does NOT provide in-store search volume (App Store / Play ASO keyword demand) — nobody does; Apple/Google don't publish it. For apps you get which apps rank, their ratings/review counts, and review text, so you infer demand and read competition + pain points directly. Web search volume stays your quantified demand signal.

These are async (submit + poll), so they take a few seconds and print after polling — unlike the instant live commands. Raise --timeout if one is slow.

appsearch <keyword> [--store apple|google]

Which apps rank in the store for a query, with ratings and review counts (your incumbent-strength read). Default store apple.

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py appsearch "plant identifier" --store apple --location us

appreviews <app_id> [--store apple|google] [--worst]

Mine an app's reviews for pain points (app_id comes from appsearch). --worst floats the lowest-rated reviews to the top — the store-agnostic way to find what users hate about the incumbent, in their own words. This is the highest-signal, lowest-bias input for spotting a gap. Pull a larger --limit to reach more critical reviews (Apple has no "most critical" API sort).

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/cli.py appreviews 1252497129 --store apple --worst --limit 30

Notes

• Location aliases: nz us uk/gb au ca ie za in. For anything else, pass a numeric location_code (see the DataForSEO locations endpoints).
• Errors surface DataForSEO's status_message and exit non-zero rather than dumping raw JSON. HTTP 401/403 means the credentials are wrong (or you used your website login instead of the API login).
• See references/endpoints.md for the endpoint each command hits and approximate per-call cost.

Testing

python3 skills/dataforseo/scripts/smoke_test.py

Offline checks (--help, arg validation, missing-credential handling) always run. Live API checks run only when DATAFORSEO_LOGIN/DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD are set, and each one spends a small amount of credit.