FRED Macroeconomic Data MCP Server

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

Features

Access to common FRED economic indicators (GDP, Employment, Inflation, etc.)
Search functionality for FRED data series
Real-time data fetching from FRED API
Standardized data format for LLM consumption
Built using the MCP Python SDK for seamless integration

Prerequisites

Python 3.11 or higher
uv - Modern Python package installer
Claude Desktop for local usage
FRED API Key (get one from FRED API)

Installation

Clone the repository:

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

Create and activate a virtual environment using uv:

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

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"

Set up environment variables:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and add your FRED API key:

FRED_API_KEY=your_fred_api_key_here

Installing in Claude Desktop

Make sure Claude Desktop is installed and running
Open Claude Desktop settings:
- Go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config
- 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 paths. You can find uv's path by running which uv in terminal.

Usage in Claude

First, search online for "using MCP resource in Claude Desktop Client" to understand how to include MCP resources in your conversations.
Once you've added the resource, you can interact with FRED data. Example prompt:

Use FRED APIs to get GDPs of USA last 20 years, draw chart

Available Resources

file://series/available - List all available FRED series and their details

Available Tools

fetch_series_data - Fetch data for any FRED series
search_series - Search for FRED series by description

Development

For development and testing:

Run the MCP Inspector to test the server:

mcp dev fred_macroeco_server.py

This allows you to inspect resources, test tools, and verify server functionality.

For direct server execution (to check for issues):

python fred_macroeco_server.py

Note: The server uses stdio transport for communication with Claude Desktop. Use the MCP Inspector during development to catch and fix any issues before deploying to Claude Desktop.

Troubleshooting

If you get API key errors:
- Verify your FRED API key is correctly set in .env
- Check that the .env file is in the correct directory
If the server doesn't appear in Claude Desktop:
- Double-check your claude_desktop_config.json paths
- Ensure uv and all dependencies are installed correctly
- Try restarting Claude Desktop

Acknowledgments

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for providing the FRED API
Model Context Protocol team for the MCP SDK
Anthropic for Claude and the Claude Desktop client