Fred MCP Server

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 use the following citation:

APA Format:

Amorelli, S. (2025). Federal Reserve Economic Data MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server (Version 1.0.2) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14536707

BibTeX:

@software{amorelli_2025_14536707,

author = {Amorelli, Stefano}, title = {{Federal Reserve Economic Data MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server}}, month = jan, year = 2025, publisher = {Zenodo}, version = {1.0.2}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.14536707}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14536707} }

Installation

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:

{

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

Using Docker

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

{

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

Replace with your actual FRED API key.

Using Streamable HTTP Transport

For network deployments, you can run the server with Streamable HTTP transport instead of stdio:

# Using CLI flag

node build/index.js --http

Or using environment variable

TRANSPORT=http node build/index.js

Custom port (default is 3000)

PORT=8080 node build/index.js --http

The server will be available at http://localhost:3000/mcp (or your custom port).

Example client request:

# Initialize session

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \ -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"my-client","version":"1.0.0"}}}'

Use the mcp-session-id from the response header for subsequent requests

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \ -H "mcp-session-id: " \ -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}'

A GET /healthz endpoint reports active sessions, cache statistics, and uptime for load balancers and orchestrators.

Configuration

All settings are environment variables with sensible defaults:

Identical concurrent requests are coalesced into a single upstream call, and successful responses are cached, so multiple sessions share one rate-limit budget efficiently.

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", "category_series", "release_series"
• 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): "full_text" or "series_id"
• 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", "last_updated")
• sort_order (optional): "asc" or "desc"
• filter_variable (optional): Filter by "frequency", "units", or "seasonal_adjustment"
• 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

Social Media Shoutouts 📣

[!NOTE]

Want to be featured? Tag Stefano Amorelli on LinkedIn or @stefanoamorelli on X in your post about using FRED MCP Server, or submit a PR to add your shoutout!

We're grateful for the community support! Here are some mentions from amazing people:

Scott G - "One of my breakthrough moments for 'getting' what is possible with Claude was this fred-mcp-server project..."

Scott G - Fintech & Data Analytics Professional | LinkedIn Profile

John Shelburne - "The FRED MCP Server is a game-changer for financial analysis..."

John Shelburne - Fixed Income Fintech Leader with 20+ Years of Experience | Machine Learning & Cloud Computing Specialist | LinkedIn Profile

Testing

See TESTING.md for more details.

# 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