PainSpotter MCP Server

Query PainSpotter business opportunities directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client.

PainSpotter mines Reddit, Hacker News and Product Hunt discussions and uses LLMs to surface validated business opportunities, organized in three layers: Category (domain) → Theme (a clustered pain point with trend signal) → Opportunity (a concrete product idea with commercial scores).

Two ways to connect

Remote (recommended — zero install)

Point your client at the hosted endpoint and pass your API key as a header. Create a key at https://painspotter.ai/account.

Claude / Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json or Claude connectors):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "painspotter": {
      "url": "https://painspotter.ai/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "psk_live_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

Local (stdio fallback)

The local stdio package talks to the public v1 REST API and exposes the opportunity tools only. For the full 5-tool set (overview, trending themes, theme detail) use the remote endpoint above.

pip install painspotter-mcp   # or: uvx painspotter-mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "painspotter": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["painspotter-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PAINSPOTTER_API_KEY": "psk_live_your_key",
        "PAINSPOTTER_API_BASE": "https://painspotter.ai"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools & tiering

Tool	Tier	Quota cost	Description
get_overview	Free	1	Categories overview + trending snapshot
get_opportunity	Free	1	Full detail of one opportunity
query_opportunities	Pro	2	Filter by keyword / score / platform / recommendation / category
list_trending_themes	Pro	2	Pain points trending up right now
get_theme	Pro	4	Theme-level market signal + underlying opportunities

Free keys can only call the two free tools; Pro keys unlock everything. Each call deducts its quota cost from the key's monthly allowance (Free 20 / Pro 1000 units). Exceeding the quota returns a friendly error; upgrade at https://painspotter.ai/pricing.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.