FRED Macroeconomic Data

🚀 FRED Macroeconomic Data MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for accessing Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) through Claude and other LLM clients. This server provides access to FRED economic data series, search functionality, and data retrieval tools.

🚀 Quick Start

This server enables seamless access to FRED economic data via Claude and other LLM clients. Below are the steps to get you started.

✨ Features

• Access to common FRED economic indicators (GDP, employment, inflation, etc.).
• Function to search FRED data series.
• Real-time data retrieval from the FRED API.
• Standard data format suitable for LLM usage.
• Seamless integration and construction using the MCP Python SDK.

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher.
• uv - A modern Python package installer.
• Claude Desktop for local use.
• FRED API Key (obtain from FRED API).

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/WM_mcp.git
cd WM_mcp

2. Create and activate a virtual environment using uv:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows, use `.venv\Scripts\activate`

3. Install dependencies using uv:

uv pip install "mcp[cli]>=1.6.0" "colorama>=0.4.6" "numpy>=2.2.4" "pandas>=2.2.3" "python-dotenv>=1.1.0" "requests>=2.32.3"

4. Set environment variables:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and add your FRED API key:

FRED_API_KEY=your_fred_api_key_here

Installation in Claude Desktop

1. Ensure Claude Desktop is installed and running.
2. Open Claude Desktop settings:
   • Go to Settings > Developer > Edit Configuration.
   • Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "FRED Macroeconomic Data Server": {
      "command": "/path/to/your/.local/bin/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/your/WM_mcp",
        "run",
        "fred_macroeco_server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/your/ with your actual path. You can find the path of uv by running which uv in the terminal.

💻 Usage Examples

Usage in Claude

1. First, search online for "How to use MCP resources in the Claude Desktop client" to learn how to include MCP resources in conversations.
2. After adding the resources, you can interact with FRED data. Example prompt:

Use the FRED API to obtain the GDP of the United States over the past 20 years and draw a chart.

Available Resources

• file://series/available - Lists all available FRED series and their detailed information.

🔧 Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during installation or configuration, check the following:

1. Ensure that FRED_API_KEY is correctly set.
2. Confirm that Python and uv are correctly installed.
3. Verify your network connection to ensure access to external APIs.

If the problem persists, refer to the relevant documentation or contact the support team.