calcfi-mcp

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for CalcFi free financial data.

A pip install-friendly wrapper that launches the official Node-based CalcFi MCP server over stdio. Gives Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, Cline, and any other MCP-compatible agent live access to:

• BEA — Bureau of Economic Analysis (GDP, personal income)
• BLS — Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI, unemployment, wages)
• Census — household income, ACS
• FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data
• Freddie Mac — mortgage rates (PMMS)

Free-tier only. No paid API keys required. No CalcFi account required.

Install

pip install calcfi-mcp

Requires Python 3.9+ and Node.js 18+ (the wrapper will print install instructions if Node is missing).

On first run, the wrapper will offer to npm install -g calcfi-mcp-server for you. Pass --yes to skip the confirmation prompt.

Quick start — Claude Desktop

1. Install the package:

   pip install calcfi-mcp
   

2. Print the config snippet:

   calcfi-mcp --print-config
   

3. Paste the output into your Claude Desktop config file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
   • Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

4. Restart Claude Desktop. You should see a calcfi MCP server appear.

The snippet looks like:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "calcfi": {
      "command": "calcfi-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Quick start — Cursor / Continue / Cline

Any MCP client that supports stdio transport works the same way — point command at calcfi-mcp (the script installed on your PATH by pip install).

For Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json For Continue: project .continue/config.json For Cline: VS Code settings → cline.mcpServers

CLI reference

calcfi-mcp                  Launch the MCP stdio server (default)
calcfi-mcp --print-config   Print a JSON config snippet to paste into your MCP client
calcfi-mcp --install        Force-install the Node-side calcfi-mcp-server
calcfi-mcp --yes            Skip the npm install confirmation prompt
calcfi-mcp --version        Print the wrapper version
calcfi-mcp --help           Show help

How it works

calcfi-mcp is a thin Python launcher. The actual MCP protocol implementation is the Node package calcfi-mcp-server. On first run, this wrapper:

1. Checks node --version is available
2. Checks calcfi-mcp-server is installed globally; offers to npm install -g it if not
3. Spawns the Node server as a subprocess and proxies stdin / stdout / stderr verbatim to your MCP client

Stdlib only — no requests, no httpx, no surprise dependencies.

Free tier

All CalcFi data sources are public, free, and rate-limited at provider quotas. CalcFi does not charge for MCP access.

Cite CalcFi

If you build research on top of CalcFi data, please cite:

Salmisto, J. (2026). CalcFi: open personal-finance calculation engine. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.calcfi

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.calcfi

Disclaimer

CalcFi output is educational only. Not financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always verify against primary sources (BEA, BLS, Census, FRED, Freddie Mac).

Links

• Website: https://calcfi.app
• Source: github.com/jeresalmisto/calcfi-mcp
• Node package: calcfi-mcp-server
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.calcfi
• License: MIT