How to connect Perplexity to LinkedIn, step by step

What you need

• A Finchreach account (sign in at finchreach.com) and the LinkedIn account you want Perplexity to work on.
• Perplexity (pro, Max or Enterprise, according to third-party sources).
• About five minutes.

Step 1: Create a Finchreach API key

1. Sign in at finchreach.com and open API keys.
2. Create a key and name it after the tool, for example “Perplexity”.
3. Copy it right away: it starts with lk_ and is shown only once.

Step 2: Connect your LinkedIn account

1. Open Accounts and click to connect LinkedIn.
2. Follow the steps until the account shows as connected.

Approval mode is on by default: nothing the assistant drafts reaches LinkedIn until you approve it.

Step 3: Add Finchreach to Perplexity

1. Open Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize → Connectors) → Add custom → Add MCP connector → Remote.
2. Name it Finchreach, enter the URL https://mcp.finchreach.com/mcp, choose Authentication “API Key” and transport “Streamable HTTP”.
3. Paste the key, tick the acknowledgement, click Add, and turn the connector on.
4. Enterprise: an admin enables connectors under Enterprise settings → Permissions → Connectors.

npx -y mcp-remote https://mcp.finchreach.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer lk_YOUR_KEY"

Replace lk_YOUR_KEY with your key. Keep the key out of shared files and repos; where Perplexity can read it from an environment variable, prefer that.

Perplexity offers None, API Key and OAuth 2.0 for remote connectors, but doesn’t document which header the API key is sent in. If it isn’t Authorization: Bearer or X-API-Key, Finchreach will refuse it: test it, and on the Mac fall back to the local mcp-remote connector, which sends the header itself.

Requirements: Pro, Max or Enterprise, according to third-party sources.

Step 4: Test the connection

In Perplexity, start with a read. It runs right away and proves the key and the account work:

Ask your assistant“List my connected LinkedIn accounts, then summarize my five latest notifications.”

You should see calls to linkedin_list_accounts and linkedin_get_notifications. Then try a write, which goes to your approval queue instead of LinkedIn:

Ask your assistant“Draft a short LinkedIn post saying I’m trying a new AI assistant workflow. Submit it for my approval.”

Step 5: Approve or reject it in Finchreach

1. Open Approvals. The draft is there with its exact text and the account it would go out from.
2. Approve it to publish, or reject it (reject the test post if you don’t want it live).
3. Perplexity can check the result with linkedin_get_action: pending, approved, rejected, executed, failed or expired.

Troubleshooting

• If the remote connector fails with the bare key, try Bearer lk_YOUR_KEY in the key field.
• Still failing on the Mac: add a local connector with the mcp-remote command above (Perplexity runs it through its PerplexityXPC helper).
• 401 or “unauthorized”: the key is wrong, revoked or missing its prefix. Finchreach accepts Authorization: Bearer lk_… or X-API-Key: lk_…; check for a missing Bearer , quotes or a trailing space.
• A tool is missing: the key’s permissions don’t include it. Create a key with the permissions you need under API keys.
• “No LinkedIn account”: connect one under Accounts, or reconnect it if its session expired.
• A post or message “didn’t go out”: it is probably still waiting under Approvals. Writes run only after you approve them.

Still stuck? Compare your setup with Perplexity’s documentation, checked on 2026-10-28; client screens change often.

What to ask Perplexity next

Ask your assistant“Research this company, then find its head of marketing on LinkedIn and draft a connection note.”

Ask your assistant“Summarize the LinkedIn posts I was tagged in this week.”

Ask your assistant“Draft a LinkedIn post that sums up this report, with the key number first.”

More ideas on the Perplexity integration page.

Common questions