mcpwright-fred

fred-mcp

FRED® economic data inside your AI agent — including what the numbers said before the revisions. An MCP server for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED® API: search and read 800,000+ U.S. and international time series, follow the release calendar, and — the distinctive part — query ALFRED® vintage data: any series exactly as it was known on a past date, and any single data point's full revision history from its initial print to today's value.

Read-only, built on public endpoints, powered by your own free FRED API key. Live API calls with a volatility-aware cache (vintage reads are immutable and cache long; current data stays fresh) — no bulk mirroring.

This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. By using this server you agree to the FRED® API Terms of Use.

Status: v0.1 — 9 tools, CI-gated, built on mcpwright-core.

Why vintage data matters

Economic numbers get revised — sometimes dramatically. The advance estimate of Q4-2008 real GDP told policymakers the economy was shrinking far more slowly than the number that stands today. If an agent reasons about what decision-makers knew at the time using current data, it is quietly wrong. get_series_as_of and get_revision_history make as-published data a first-class question.

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_series	Find series IDs by free text, best matches first
get_series	One series' full metadata + verbatim notes
get_observations	A date window of values; transforms (pct_change_yoy, …) + downsampling
get_latest	The most recent value + the next scheduled release date
compare_series	2–5 series aligned on one date axis
get_release_calendar	Upcoming data releases ("when's the next jobs report?")
get_series_as_of ⭐	A series exactly as known on a past date (ALFRED vintage)
get_revision_history ⭐	One data point's life: initial print → every revision → today
get_vintage_dates ⭐	When a series was released/revised; bounds the vintage tools

All tools are read-only and annotated as such.

Install

You need a free FRED API key (takes seconds): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key_request.html. Keys are personal under the FRED terms — bring your own.

uvx (any MCP client)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fred": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcpwright-fred"],
      "env": { "FRED_API_KEY": "your-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add fred -e FRED_API_KEY=your-key-here -- uvx mcpwright-fred

Claude Desktop

Use the one-click .mcpb extension from the latest release (it prompts for your API key), or add the uvx JSON above to your claude_desktop_config.json.

OpenAI Agents SDK / other clients

Any MCP-capable client works — point it at uvx mcpwright-fred over stdio with FRED_API_KEY in the environment.

Notes

• Revisions: current values often differ from what was originally published; for "what was known at the time", use the vintage tools.
• Copyrighted series: some FRED series are owned by third parties; their notes carry the owner's terms (surfaced verbatim, flagged via copyrighted). You are responsible for complying with them beyond personal use.
• Caching & rate limits: responses are cached in-memory (vintage reads long, live reads short) and requests are throttled well under FRED's rate limit. Set FRED_MCP_CACHE=0 to disable caching, FRED_MCP_USER_AGENT to identify your own deployment.

Develop

git clone https://github.com/mcpwright/fred-mcp && cd fred-mcp
uv sync
uv run pytest                                  # tests
uv run mypy                                    # types
uv run ruff check src/ && uv run ruff format --check src/   # lint + format
uv run pre-commit run --all-files              # everything, like CI

Dev loop: feature branch → PR → Code Quality & Tests green → squash-merge.

Roadmap

• v1 tool surface (9 tools incl. the ALFRED vintage lane)
• Publish to PyPI (mcpwright-fred) + the MCP Registry
• Site page at mcpwright.com/fred
• .mcpb one-click Claude Desktop extension
• GeoFRED / maps (pairs with census-mcp)

Questions & feedback

Discussions for questions and ideas · Issues for bugs.

Part of mcpwright — polished MCP servers for authoritative public data · built by Devender Gollapally. FRED® and ALFRED® are registered trademarks of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed, or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.