Native vs official MCP

mureo native tools vs. official MCP providers (Google, Meta & Amazon)

Status: 2026-09-17. The official ad-platform MCPs are in beta and their tool surface changes over time — re-verify before relying on a specific capability. See also architecture.md and byod.md.

Summary

mureo ships its own native tool families for three platforms: Google Ads, Meta Ads and Search Console (mureo/google_ads, mureo/meta_ads, mureo/search_console in this repository). GA4 is not native — mureo installs Google’s official Analytics MCP as the ga4-official provider (mureo providers add ga4-official; see integrations.md). Every other platform arrives as a separately distributed, pip-installable plugin that mureo discovers through the provider registry (the mureo.providers entry-point group); see plugin-authoring.md. The ad platforms now also publish official MCP servers, and mureo can install and register those as drivers. They are not mutually exclusive: mureo is the control plane, and an official MCP is a thin driver onto the platform’s own API.

There are three connection models in mureo today:

Model	Who holds the credentials	Who is in the request path	Example
mureo-native	mureo (`~/.mureo/credentials.json`)	mureo → platform API	Google Ads, Meta Ads, Search Console
Official, host-registered	the AI host / connector	client → platform MCP (mureo is bypassed)	`google-ads-official`, `meta-ads-official`, TikTok’s hosted MCP
Official, mureo-mediated bridge	mureo (`~/.mureo/credentials.json`)	mureo → platform MCP	Amazon Ads

The third model matters because the second one costs you mureo’s safety layer: a host-registered official MCP never reaches mureo’s dispatcher, so its calls cannot be hard-gated, audited, or promoted into action_log. The bridge keeps those properties for a platform mureo has no native client for. See Amazon Ads — the mureo-mediated bridge below.

The practical differences for Google and Meta:

	Google Ads	Meta Ads
Official MCP	`googleads/google-ads-mcp` (pipx, ADC)	hosted `https://mcp.facebook.com/ads` (OAuth)
Official tool count	3 — read-only	29 — read + write
Official can mutate?	No	Yes (direct to live account, no undo/draft/confirm)
mureo native tool count	92	90
mureo native can mutate?	Yes	Yes
Safety (rollback, action_log, strategy gating)	native only	native only
BYOD / `mureo demo` (CSV, no live API)	native only	native only

Native tool counts are approximate and shift between releases. The authoritative list is mureo/mcp/_tools_google_ads_*.py and mureo/mcp/_tools_meta_ads_*.py.

Google Ads

Official MCP — `google-ads-official`

Package googleads/google-ads-mcp, installed via pipx, ADC auth (GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS; optional GOOGLE_ADS_LOGIN_CUSTOMER_ID for MCC access and optional legacy GOOGLE_ADS_DEVELOPER_TOKEN).
Exposes 3 tools, all read-only:
- search — run a read-only GAQL query
- get_resource_metadata — schema/metadata for a resource type
- list_accessible_customers — list accessible account IDs
Cannot create or change anything. No campaign / ad group / ad / keyword / budget creation or edits, no status changes, no applying recommendations, no conversion setup.

mureo native — Google Ads (92 tools)

Full read and write, exposed as opinionated, task-level tools:

Campaigns, ad groups, ads (incl. display + image upload)
Keywords & negative keywords (add / pause / audit / suggest / dedupe)
Budgets (get / update / create / reallocate / efficiency)
Conversions (list / create / update / tag / performance)
Search terms (report / analyze / review), sitelinks, callouts
Recommendations (list / apply), auction insights, bid adjustments
Device / location / schedule targeting, change history
Performance analysis, cost-increase investigation, health checks, RSA asset audit
B2B optimizations, landing-page & creative research
Monitoring goals (delivery / CPA / CV / zero-conversions), screenshot capture
Cross-cutting control plane: rollback plan/apply, action_log, STRATEGY/STATE awareness, learning insights

Google — what you can do in each

Capability	Official MCP	mureo native
Read performance data	Yes	Yes
Arbitrary raw GAQL query	Yes	Partial (via report tools, not free-form GAQL)
Create / update campaigns, ad groups, ads	No	Yes
Keyword & negative-keyword management	No	Yes
Budget create / update / reallocate	No	Yes
Conversion setup & tagging	No	Yes
Apply recommendations	No	Yes
Diagnosis / health checks / monitoring	No	Yes
Rollback / audit log / strategy gating	No	Yes

Bottom line (Google): the official MCP is a read-only reporting window (useful if you want to write your own GAQL). Every operation — and all safety — comes from mureo native.

Meta Ads

Official MCP — `meta-ads-official`

Hosted at https://mcp.facebook.com/ads (Meta Ads AI Connectors, open beta since 2026-04-29). Registered as a claude.ai connector via browser OAuth (Meta Business Login). It does not support dynamic client registration, so it cannot be added as a Claude Code user-scope server.
29 tools, read + write, in five groups:
- Campaign management (5): create campaign / ad set / ad, update entity, activate entity
- Product catalog for commerce (10): catalogs, feeds, product sets, products, feed-quality diagnostics
- Accounts, pages & assets (3): account / entity / page lookups
- Datasets & tracking (4): Pixel & Conversions API diagnosis (event quality, stats, errors) — read-only
- Insights & performance (7): reporting, benchmarks, anomalies, trends, opportunity scoring
Writes apply directly to the live account — no undo, no draft, no confirmation. Meta’s own mitigation advice: use read-only permission for the first few days, or set an account-level budget cap.
Documented gaps (the official Meta MCP cannot): create audiences / custom / lookalikes; send Conversions API events (diagnosis only); create or retrieve lead forms & leads; set up A/B tests; automated rules; create creative assets (copy, images, carousels, collections, dynamic ads); Instagram-specific actions.

mureo native — Meta Ads (90 tools)

Covers the same operational class as the official MCP plus every documented gap above:

Campaigns, ad sets, ads (CRUD + pause / enable) — including bid strategy, bid constraints (min-ROAS), and promoted_object (conversion optimization)
Page discovery (pages_list)
Audiences + lookalikes
Targeting discovery — interest search + category catalogues (behaviors / demographics / etc.) that resolve Meta’s internal targeting IDs
Creatives — single image or video / carousel / collection / dynamic / lead — + image/video upload, video processing-status polling and thumbnail selection
Insights + breakdowns; analysis (performance / audience / placements / cost / compare / suggest creative)
Pixels (list / get / stats / events / create) and Conversions API send (purchase / lead)
Catalogs / products / feeds
Lead forms + lead retrieval + CSV export
Split tests, automated rules, page-post boost, Instagram (accounts / media / boost)
Cross-cutting control plane: rollback, action_log, strategy gating, learning insights, BYOD

Meta — what you can do in each

Capability	Official MCP	mureo native
Read performance / benchmarks / anomalies	Yes	Yes
Create campaigns / ad sets / ads	Yes	Yes
Edit budgets / targeting	Yes	Yes
Product catalog / feed (shopping)	Yes (10 tools)	Yes
Pixel & CAPI signal diagnosis	Yes	Partial (pixel stats/events)
Audiences & lookalikes	No	Yes
Conversions API event sending	No (diagnosis only)	Yes
Lead forms / lead retrieval / CSV export	No	Yes
Creative asset creation (carousel / collection / dynamic / lead)	No	Yes
Split tests / automated rules	No	Yes
Instagram-specific actions	No	Yes
Rollback / audit log / strategy gating	No	Yes
Undo / draft / confirmation guardrails	No (none)	Yes

Bottom line (Meta): the official MCP can run live campaigns and catalogs, but with no guardrails and several capability gaps (audiences, creatives, CAPI send, leads, tests, rules). mureo native closes those gaps and adds the safety / audit / strategy layer.

Amazon Ads — the mureo-mediated bridge

mureo has no native Amazon Ads client. Amazon publishes an official MCP, and mureo connects to it on your behalf instead of handing it to your AI host:

Claude  →  local mureo MCP  →  Amazon hosted MCP endpoint

Why the bridge exists

Credentials never enter the host config. The Login with Amazon (LwA) client id / refresh token / client secret stay in the amazon_ads section of ~/.mureo/credentials.json (0600). A host-registered official MCP would need them in the host’s own MCP configuration instead.
Token auto-refresh requires mureo in the path. LwA access tokens expire in ~60 minutes. mureo mints one before the first forwarded call and performs exactly one refresh-and-retry when a call fails on expiry — it is what observes the failure, exchanges the refresh token, and retries. Nothing outside the request path can do that for you.
Full participation in the safety layer. Because the call goes through mureo’s dispatcher, Amazon tools are audited, throttled, strategy-gated, and successful mutations are promoted into STATE.json action_log under platform="plugin:mureo-amazon-ads-bridge:amazon_ads" with an observation window — exactly what a host-registered official MCP cannot offer.

What that costs, and what it does not buy

	mureo-native (Google / Meta)	Official, host-registered	Amazon bridge
Credentials stay in `~/.mureo/credentials.json`	Yes	No	Yes
Automatic token refresh by mureo	Yes	No	Yes
Audit log / `action_log` promotion	Yes	No	Yes
Hard guardrail enforcement before dispatch	Yes (exact argument keys)	No	Yes on the 13 money-carrying tools (exact argument paths mureo declares), with the pattern scan applied underneath as a floor; best-effort (pattern-matched argument keys) alone on the rest of the surface
Rollback	Allow-listed operations are auto-reversible	No	Automatic before-state capture on eight paired campaign/ad/ad-group/target/portfolio updates; best-effort, see amazon-ads.md
mureo tool names / taxonomy	mureo’s	the platform’s	the platform’s (`campaign_management-`, `account_management-`)
Deep mureo analytics (anomaly baselines, RSA audit, CV-mismatch)	Yes	No	Not yet (#120)
Works while the mureo MCP server is stopped	No	Yes	No
BYOD / `mureo demo` (CSV, no live API)	Yes	No	No (out of scope by design)

Setup, environment variables, and the full caveat list: amazon-ads.md.

How they coexist

When you install an official provider for a platform mureo also serves natively, mureo sets MUREO_DISABLE_<PLATFORM>=1 on its own MCP server block so the two do not expose duplicate tools. Per issue #102 / PR #265, mureo configure does not disable native tools until the official provider is actually credentialed (every one of its required_env names resolved to a stored value), so that path never leaves you with zero working tools; the mureo providers add CLI sets the flag as soon as it registers the provider. Removing the official provider clears the flag and re-enables native tools.

Switch native → official: mureo providers add <provider> (or the configure dashboard toggle)
Switch back: mureo providers remove <provider>
Search Console has no official MCP — mureo native remains canonical and is never disabled.

When to use which

Stay on mureo native when you need: write operations with rollback/audit, strategy-driven automation, BYOD/demo on CSV, audiences / creatives / leads / tests / rules (Meta), or any Google Ads mutation.
Add the official MCP when you want: the platform’s first-party data surface (raw GAQL on Google), or to drive Meta live operations through Meta’s hosted connector — ideally alongside mureo native for the gaps and guardrails.
Use the mureo-mediated bridge when mureo has no native client for the platform but you still want the credentials, audit trail, and gating to stay with mureo. Amazon Ads is the current example, and it is the only way mureo supports Amazon today.