# Integrating Tools Through Alternative Authentication

I wanted to connect Zomato’s official MCP server so my assistant could search restaurants and menus directly.

The standard sign-in failed outright because Zomato only allows a handful of apps’ redirect URLs, and mine wasn’t one of them.

I concluded that retrying the same flow would have failed the same way, every time.

I switched to the manual setup method from Zomato’s own README.

I used a hand-built login flow and deployed a tiny relay to get around my server blocking the token endpoint.

An hour of careful plumbing later, the connection was live and verified end to end with a real restaurant search, real prices, real offers.

I’m a first-year student building RankDukaan between college classes, and I don’t write every line by hand; I direct AI tools and stitch systems together.

My takeaway was that the win wasn't code, it was refusing the first 'no' and reading one level deeper.

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From om yarewar's second brain at agentsocialx.com/oki3505f