Federal Reserve Economic Data MCP Server

[!IMPORTANT] Disclaimer: This open-source project is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Federal Reserve or the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "FRED" is a registered trademark of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, used here for descriptive purposes only.

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server providing universal access to all 800,000+ Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED®) time series through three powerful tools.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/66c7f3ad-7b0e-4930-b1c5-a675a7eb1e09

[!TIP] If you use this project in your research or work, please cite it using the CITATION.cff file, or the APA format below:

Amorelli, S. (2025). Federal Reserve Economic Data MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server [Computer software]. GitHub. https://github.com/stefanoamorelli/fred-mcp-server

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Federal Reserve Economic Data Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

bash npx -y @smithery/cli install @stefanoamorelli/fred-mcp-server --client claude

Manual Installation

1. Clone the repository: bash git clone https://github.com/stefanoamorelli/fred-mcp-server.git cd fred-mcp-server
2. Install dependencies: bash pnpm install
3. Build the project: bash pnpm build

Configuration

This server requires a FRED® API key. You can obtain one from the FRED® website.

Install the server, for example, on Claude Desktop, modify the claude_desktop_config.json file and add the following configuration:

json { "mcpServers": { "FRED MCP Server": { "command": "/usr/bin/node", "args": [ "<PATH_TO_YOUR_CLONED_REPO>/fred-mcp-server/build/index.js" ], "env": { "FRED_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>" } } } }

Using Docker

You can also run the FRED MCP Server using Docker. Add this configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:

json { "mcpServers": { "fred-mcp": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "FRED_API_KEY=<your-key-here>", "stefanoamorelli/fred-mcp-server:latest" ], "env": {} } } }

Replace <your-key-here> with your actual FRED API key.

Available Tools

This MCP server provides three comprehensive tools to access all 800,000+ FRED® economic data series:

fred_browse

Description: Browse FRED's complete catalog through categories, releases, or sources.

Parameters: * browse_type (required): Type of browsing - "categories", "releases", "sources", "categoryseries", "releaseseries" * category_id (optional): Category ID for browsing subcategories or series within a category * release_id (optional): Release ID for browsing series within a release * limit (optional): Maximum number of results (default: 50) * offset (optional): Number of results to skip for pagination * order_by (optional): Field to order results by * sort_order (optional): "asc" or "desc"

fred_search

Description: Search for FRED economic data series by keywords, tags, or filters.

Parameters: * search_text (optional): Text to search for in series titles and descriptions * search_type (optional): "fulltext" or "seriesid" * tag_names (optional): Comma-separated list of tag names to filter by * exclude_tag_names (optional): Comma-separated list of tag names to exclude * limit (optional): Maximum number of results (default: 25) * offset (optional): Number of results to skip for pagination * order_by (optional): Field to order by (e.g., "popularity", "lastupdated") * `sortorder(optional): "asc" or "desc" *filtervariable` (optional): Filter by "frequency", "units", or "seasonaladjustment" * filter_value (optional): Value to filter the variable by

fred_get_series

Description: Retrieve data for any FRED series by its ID with support for transformations and date ranges.

Parameters: * series_id (required): The FRED series ID (e.g., "GDP", "UNRATE", "CPIAUCSL") * observation_start (optional): Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format * observation_end (optional): End date in YYYY-MM-DD format * limit (optional): Maximum number of observations * offset (optional): Number of observations to skip * sort_order (optional): "asc" or "desc" * units (optional): Data transformation: - "lin" (levels/no transformation) - "chg" (change from previous period) - "ch1" (change from year ago) - "pch" (percent change) - "pc1" (percent change from year ago) - "pca" (compounded annual rate of change) - "cch" (continuously compounded rate of change) - "log" (natural log) * frequency (optional): Frequency aggregation ("d", "w", "m", "q", "a") * aggregation_method (optional): "avg" (average), "sum", or "eop" (end of period)

Example Usage

With these three tools, you can: - Browse all economic categories and discover available data - Search for specific indicators by keywords or tags - Retrieve any of the 800,000+ series with custom transformations - Access real-time economic data including GDP, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, and more

Testing

See TESTING.md for more details.

```bash

Run all tests

pnpm test

Run specific tests

pnpm test:registry ```

License ⚖️

This open-source project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). This means:

• You can use, modify, and distribute this software
• If you modify and distribute it, you must release your changes under AGPL-3.0
• If you run a modified version on a server, you must provide the source code to users
• See the LICENSE file for full details

For commercial licensing options or other licensing inquiries, please contact stefano@amorelli.tech.

© 2025 Stefano Amorelli