Match the endpoint to the credential
Both MCP servers use Streamable HTTP. Name them separately, such as
lightdrift and lightdrift-docs. An Images MCP OAuth session does not configure the API key used by a standalone Python script.
Find the symptom, then check the configuration
The numeric symptoms above are documented in the Images MCP troubleshooting reference. For a REST failure, inspect the actual HTTP status and response in your private development environment rather than assuming every failure is authentication. Empty results or a degraded ranking response also do not, by themselves, identify a credential problem.
Configure credentials without sharing them
Create or manage a key in API keys. Keep it in your backend secret manager or private client configuration. Do not put it in browser-delivered code, a shared project configuration, a public repository, screenshots, or support messages. Environment variables are one way to pass a secret to a process; they are not a reason to dump that process’s environment into logs. For MCP, follow the canonical Images MCP setup. Placeholder keys in configuration examples must be replaced only in private storage. If a key has been exposed, revoke it in the dashboard and update the affected clients with a replacement.Verify with one REST request
First check your account entitlement and current search pricing. As checked September 26, 2026, a successful search costs $0.005. This example sends one potentially billable search, without retries. It does not establish free credit. Listing MCP tools instead checks tool availability without running a paid image search, but does not prove a search will succeed. Save this ascheck_lightdrift.py and run python3 check_lightdrift.py in a terminal. It uses only the Python standard library, reads LIGHTDRIFT_API_KEY if supplied, and otherwise prompts without echoing the key. It prints no credential, request headers, or response body.