# Canonry — Free, self-hosted, agent-first AEO platform: tracks AI-engine citations and executes the fixes.

> Source: CitedIndex — https://citedindex.com/canonry (structured, researched, re-verified)
> Facts last verified: 2026-07-23

Canonry is an agent-first, open-source Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) platform that tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and local LLMs cite a domain, then helps execute the fixes to earn more citations. It is the only tool in this index built to be fully self-hosted: install the CLI, run it on your own machine or server with your own AI-provider keys, and get a dashboard, API and MCP adapter that would otherwise be a paid SaaS subscription. A New York-based company of the same name also sells custom-quoted agency services (white-labeled reporting, managed AEO execution) on top of the same free, source-available engine.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Website | https://canonry.ai |
| API | Yes |
| Best for | developer-led or privacy-conscious teams |
| Not for | non-technical marketers who want a zero-setup hosted dashboard, or solo users needing a managed option below agency-scale pricing |

## Verdict

The self-hosted, agent-native alternative to this category's paid SaaS dashboards, free and source-available, and the only tool here that closes the loop from audit to fix, but budget real setup time (your own API keys, a Node.js runtime) and note the license restricts building a competing hosted product on it for two years per release.

## How it works

1. Install the CLI and run it self-hosted with your own AI-provider API keys — everything stores locally in SQLite, no vendor account required.
2. It tracks citation and mention rates across Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and local models on a schedule, and ingests server logs (Cloud Run, Vercel, WordPress) plus GSC/GA4/Bing data to correlate citations with real traffic.
3. A `technical-aeo` command crawls your sitemap and scores every page against 16 AEO factors — structured data, E-E-A-T, citation and authority signals, freshness.
4. On the execution side it can push JSON-LD schema and content fixes directly to WordPress, and a 67-tool MCP adapter lets the whole workflow run from Claude Code, Codex, or another agent instead of a human dashboard.

## Who it's for

- Developer-led or privacy-conscious teams that want a free, self-hosted, agent-native AEO stack under their own control rather than a hosted SaaS subscription.
- Teams already working inside Claude Code, Codex, or another shell-capable coding agent that want AEO monitoring and fixes runnable from that same agent.
- Agencies that want white-labeled AI-visibility dashboards embedded in their own client portal (the paid Canonry Embedded/Managed tiers), built on the same free open engine.

## Strengths and weaknesses

- ✓ Free and source-available (FSL-1.1-ALv2, converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release), the fullest-featured self-hosted alternative to this category's paid SaaS dashboards, with a real dashboard, CLI, API and MCP adapter, not just a script.
- ✓ Genuinely active: 92 GitHub stars, 12 forks, 690+ commits and a push earlier today, not an abandoned side project.
- ✓ Closes the loop other visibility-only tools in this index don't: technical-aeo audit -> JSON-LD/WordPress fix -> citation re-check, in one product.
- ✗ Self-hosting requires your own AI-provider API keys and a Node.js >=22.14 runtime, real setup friction next to a hosted SaaS's zero-install signup.
- ✗ FSL-1.1-ALv2 is source-available, not OSI-approved open source: it restricts using Canonry itself to build a competing hosted AEO product until each version's two-year Apache-2.0 conversion date.
- ✗ The paid agency layer (Embedded, Ads, Managed) has no published pricing, the same opacity as this category's enterprise incumbents, despite the free self-hosted core.
- ⚠ No first-party hosted dashboard for solo users, the only managed/hosted option (Embedded/Managed) is scoped and custom-quoted for agencies, not individuals.
- ⚠ A young project (first commit 2026-03-09, about 4 months old at review) with far less track record than the venture-funded incumbents in this index.

## Key features

- **Multi-engine citation tracking** — Scheduled sweeps across Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and local LLMs, with webhook alerts when a tracked domain drops out of an answer.
- **technical-aeo site audit** — Crawls a sitemap and scores every page across 16 AEO factors (structured data, E-E-A-T, citations, freshness); we ran it live against citedindex.com for this listing.
- **Real traffic correlation** — Ingests Cloud Run/Vercel/WordPress server logs plus built-in GSC, GA4 and Bing Webmaster data to check whether AI citations actually drive referral traffic.
- **Fix execution** — Pushes JSON-LD schema and content changes directly to WordPress and submits URLs for indexing, closing the loop from audit to fix.
- **Agent-native control** — A 67-tool MCP adapter plus the built-in "Aero" agent let Claude Code, Codex or any shell-capable agent run the whole workflow.

## Use cases

- **Free, self-hosted AEO monitoring** — A budget- or privacy-conscious team self-hosts Canonry with its own AI-provider keys instead of paying for a hosted visibility SaaS, keeping all citation data in a local SQLite file.
- **Agency AI-visibility reporting at scale** — An SEO/marketing agency uses the paid Canonry Embedded tier to white-label AI-visibility dashboards inside its own client portal rather than building citation tracking from scratch.
- **Proving AI citations drive real traffic** — A technical marketer wires up server-log ingestion plus GSC to check whether being cited by an AI engine is actually generating referral visits, not just impressions.

## Integrations

ChatGPT · Gemini · Claude · Perplexity · Google Search Console · Google Analytics 4 · Bing Webmaster Tools · Google Business Profile · WordPress · Common Crawl

## Sources

- https://github.com/Canonry/canonry
- https://canonry.ai
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/@canonry/canonry
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47336898
- https://dev.to/arberx/canonry-the-ultimate-agent-first-aeo-monitoring-tool-open-source-1idk
- https://citedindex.com/best-ai-visibility-tools/