A minimal, educational MCP server that provides a single stock snapshot tool using the free Alpha Vantage API.
Project description
📈 Stock Snapshot MCP
A minimal, educational MCP server for stock snapshots using the free Alpha Vantage API.
Stock Snapshot MCP is a tiny, easy-to-read reference implementation of a
Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
It exposes a single, clean tool:
get_stock_snapshot(symbol, history_days=60)
This tool queries the free Alpha Vantage API and returns:
- Company metadata (name, sector, industry, exchange, currency)
- Latest quote (price, change, percent, previous close, volume)
- Basic fundamentals (PE ratio, EPS, market cap, ROE, profit margin — if available)
- Recent OHLCV price history (daily candles)
This project is ideal for:
- People learning MCP through a small, realistic example
- Developers building RAG-ready financial research agents
- Students who want a simple MCP server to extend or customize
- Anyone experimenting with Claude / ChatGPT MCP integrations
- Mini-projects where clean, structured stock data is useful
Note: This project is not affiliated with Alpha Vantage.
It is designed solely as an educational reference.
Not for real trading or investment decisions.
✨ Features
- 📦 Lightweight Python package (
pip install stock-snapshot-mcp) - 🔌 MCP server (stdio) compatible with Claude Desktop, ChatGPT MCP, and other tools
- 🔍 Clean JSON output suitable for LLM reasoning & agent pipelines
⚙️ Installation
1. Install the package
pip install stock-snapshot-mcp
2. Set your Alpha Vantage API key
Create a .env file or export it:
export ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY=your_key_here
🚀 Running the MCP server
Once installed:
stock-snapshot-mcp
This launches the MCP server over stdio, ready to be used by MCP-compatible clients. To see logs:
STOCK_SNAPSHOT_MCP_LOG=info stock-snapshot-mcp
🧪 Testing locally (Python)
You can call the helper function directly:
from stock_snapshot_mcp import get_stock_snapshot
import asyncio
async def main():
snap = await get_stock_snapshot("AAPL", history_days=5)
print(snap)
asyncio.run(main())
🧪 Example: manual MCP client
For debugging or learning MCP, you can run:
python examples/manual_mcp_client.py
🖥️ Using with Claude Desktop (example config)
Place this inside Claude’s configuration file:
macOS
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Add:
{
"mcpServers": {
"stock-snapshot-mcp": {
"command": "stock-snapshot-mcp",
"env": {
"ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Restart Claude Desktop → you should see Stock Snapshot MCP under "Connected Servers".
Then you can ask Claude:
Call
get_stock_snapshotfor AAPL and summarize the fundamentals.
📤 Using with ChatGPT MCP (OpenAI Desktop / browser)
Add a new MCP connection:
- Command:
stock-snapshot-mcp - Environment:
ALPHAVANTAGE_API_KEY=your_key_hereAnd that’s it.
📚 Tool Definition (JSON Schema)
get_stock_snapshot(
symbol: string (required),
history_days: integer (optional, 1–100, default: 60)
)
Output fields
{
"symbol": "AAPL",
"meta": {
"name": "Apple Inc",
"sector": "TECHNOLOGY",
"industry": "CONSUMER ELECTRONICS",
"currency": "USD",
"exchange": "NASDAQ"
},
"quote": {
"price": 278.78,
"change": -1.92,
"change_percent": -0.684,
"previous_close": 280.7,
"latest_trading_day": "2025-12-05",
"volume": 47265845
},
"fundamentals": {
"market_cap": 4137203794000,
"pe_ratio_ttm": 37.32,
"eps_ttm": 7.47,
"roe_ttm": 1.714,
"profit_margin": 0.269
},
"daily_history": [ ... ]
}
🧱 Project Structure
stock-snapshot-mcp/
├─ src/
│ └─ stock_snapshot_mcp/
│ ├─ __init__.py # Public API
│ ├─ alpha_vantage_client.py # API wrapper
│ └─ server.py # MCP stdio server
├─ tests/
│ └─ test_smoke.py
├─ examples/
│ ├─ claude_desktop_config.json
│ └─ chat_prompt_examples.md
├─ .env.example
├─ pyproject.toml
├─ README.md
├─ LICENSE
└─ .gitignore
🛑 Disclaimer
This project:
- is not affiliated with Alpha Vantage
- is not financial advice
- is provided for educational and research purposes only
📜 License
MIT License — free to use, modify, and learn from.
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