fred-mcp-server

<div align="center"> <h1>@cyanheads/federal-reserve-mcp-server</h1> <p><b>Search and fetch ~800K Federal Reserve economic time-series from the FRED API via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.</b> <div>8 Tools</div> </p> </div>

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Tools

Five FRED tools plus three DataCanvas tools for querying spilled observation results via SQL:

| Tool | Description | |:-----|:------------| | fedreserve_search_series | Full-text search across FRED series titles, units, frequency, and tags — returns matching series IDs with metadata | | fedreserve_get_series | Fetch metadata for one or more series (title, units, frequency, seasonal adjustment, observation range) | | fedreserve_get_observations | Fetch date+value observation data for one or more series with date-range filtering and unit transformations | | fedreserve_browse_categories | Navigate the FRED category tree; drill into a category to see child categories and a series sample | | fedreserve_get_release | Look up a FRED release by ID or name search — returns release metadata and its associated series list | | fedreserve_dataframe_describe | List active DataCanvas dataframes registered by this server (canvas IDs, row counts, schemas) | | fedreserve_dataframe_query | Run a SELECT query against a registered DataCanvas dataframe | | fedreserve_dataframe_drop | Drop a DataCanvas dataframe by name (opt-in via FRED_DATAFRAME_DROP_ENABLED=true) |

fedreserve_search_series

Search for FRED series by free-text query across titles, tags, and notes.

• Full-text and series-ID search modes
• Post-search filtering by frequency, units, or seasonal adjustment status
• Tag-name filtering (semicolon-delimited list)
• Pagination via limit and offset
• To find series for a specific release, use fedreserve_get_release instead

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fedreserve_get_series

Fetch metadata for one or more FRED series.

• Accepts up to 50 series IDs in a single call
• Returns title, units, frequency, seasonal adjustment, observation range, popularity, and notes
• Fires parallel upstream requests (no FRED batch endpoint exists); partial success reported per ID

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fedreserve_get_observations

Fetch observation data (date + value pairs) for one or more series.

• Accepts up to 10 series IDs; fires one upstream request per series in parallel
• Date-range filtering with ISO 8601 dates (observation_start, observation_end)
• FRED's native unit transformations: lin, chg, ch1, pch, pc1, pca, cch, cca, log
• Frequency downsampling with configurable aggregation method (avg, sum, eop)
• Multi-series or >500-row results spill to a DataCanvas table; response includes a dataset.name handle for SQL querying via fedreserve_dataframe_query
• Degrades gracefully when DataCanvas is unavailable — returns inline preview with row count

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fedreserve_browse_categories

Navigate the FRED category hierarchy.

• Omit category_id to start at the root (ID 0)
• Provide a category_id to see child categories and a series sample for leaf categories
• Covers all FRED domains: Money & Banking, National Accounts, Employment, Prices, Housing, Trade, and more

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fedreserve_get_release

Inspect a FRED data release and its associated series.

• Look up by release_id (integer) or release_search (case-insensitive substring match)
• Name search fetches all releases and filters client-side (FRED has no server-side release search)
• Returns release name, link, scheduled dates, and a paginated series list
• Use series_limit and series_offset to page through large releases

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

• Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
• Unified error handling across all tools
• Pluggable auth (none, jwt, oauth)
• Swappable storage backends: in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1
• Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
• STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

FRED-specific:

• Read-only access to the St. Louis Fed's FRED API (api.stlouisfed.org/fred)
• Parallel multi-series fetching via Promise.allSettled with partial success reporting
• DataCanvas spillover for multi-series or large observation results — spilled tables queryable via fedreserve_dataframe_query
• Retry with backoff and 429 rate-limit detection against FRED's 120 req/min limit
• FRED's native unit transformations delegated server-side for precision against the full series history

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file. Obtain a free FRED API key at research.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "federal-reserve-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/federal-reserve-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "federal-reserve-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/federal-reserve-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "federal-reserve-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "-e", "FRED_API_KEY=your-api-key",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/federal-reserve-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 FRED_API_KEY=... bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.3.2 or higher.
• A free FRED API key from stlouisfed.org. The key grants 120 requests/minute.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/federal-reserve-mcp-server.git

1. Navigate into the directory:

cd federal-reserve-mcp-server

1. Install dependencies:

bun install

1. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set FRED_API_KEY

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts.

| Variable | Description | Default | |:---------|:------------|:--------| | FRED_API_KEY | Required. API key from stlouisfed.org. | — | | FRED_BASE_URL | Override the FRED API base URL. | https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred | | FRED_DATASET_TTL_SECONDS | Sliding TTL for DataCanvas-registered observation tables (seconds). | 86400 | | FRED_DATAFRAME_DROP_ENABLED | Set true to expose the fedreserve_dataframe_drop tool. | false | | CANVAS_PROVIDER_TYPE | Set to duckdb to enable DataCanvas SQL querying for observation results. | — | | MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Transport: stdio or http. | stdio | | MCP_HTTP_PORT | Port for HTTP server. | 3010 | | MCP_AUTH_MODE | Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth. | none | | MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Log level (RFC 5424). | info | | LOGS_DIR | Directory for log files (Node.js only). | <project-root>/logs | | STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE | Storage backend. | in-memory | | OTEL_ENABLED | Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation. | false |

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild

  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t federal-reserve-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e FRED_API_KEY=your-key -e MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http -p 3010:3010 federal-reserve-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/federal-reserve-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

| Directory | Purpose | |:----------|:--------| | src/index.ts | createApp() entry point — registers tools and inits services. | | src/config | Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. | | src/mcp-server/tools | Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Eight tools across FRED domain and DataCanvas. | | src/services/fred | FRED API service — HTTP client, retry, 429 handling, key injection. | | src/services/canvas-bridge | DataCanvas adapter — table naming, TTL/provenance tracking, SQL gate extras. | | tests/ | Unit and integration tests mirroring src/. | | docs/ | Design and planning documents. |

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
• Register new tools in src/mcp-server/tools/definitions/index.ts
• Wrap FRED API calls: validate raw response → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.