FRED MCP Server

An MCP server for the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API.

Features

• Search for economic data series.
• Retrieve data points for series.
• Explore Categories, Releases, Sources, and Tags.
• Pagination support for large datasets.
• Option to save data as JSON files.

Configuration

Set the FRED_API_KEY environment variable to your FRED API key.

Usage

Run with uvx (if published):

uvx fred-data-mcp

Installation from PyPI

Once published, you can install and run directly:

pip install fred-data-mcp
# or
uvx fred-data-mcp

Claude Desktop Configuration

To use this server with the Claude Desktop app, add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Published Package (Recommended)

If you have published the package to PyPI, you can key off the package name directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fred": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "fred-data-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local Development

If you are running from the source code repository:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fred": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "/absolute/path/to/fred-mcp",
        "fred-data-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

Running the MCP Inspector

To test the server locally with the MCP Inspector:

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:FRED_API_KEY = "your_api_key_here"
.\run-inspector.ps1

Bash:

export FRED_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
./run-inspector.sh

Alternatively, run the command directly:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run fred-data-mcp

## Publication

### Publishing to PyPI
A helper script `publish.ps1` is provided to automate version bumping and publication.

**Requirements:**
- `uv` installed.
- PyPI credentials configured (e.g., via `~/.pypirc` or environment variables `TWINE_USERNAME` and `TWINE_PASSWORD`).


**Usage (Windows PowerShell):**
```powershell
# Bump patch version and publish
.\publish.ps1 patch

Usage (Bash):

# Bump patch version and publish
./publish.sh patch

To test the build process without uploading, use the -DryRun (PS) or --dry-run (Bash) flag:

.\publish.ps1 patch -DryRun
# or
./publish.sh patch --dry-run