AI Signals (Signals API) MCP server

Signals API — MCP server

An MCP server that gives Claude / Cursor / any MCP client AI signals data: today's signals, what changed, and ranked AI models & repositories.

No API key needed for the free tier. Single file, Python standard library only — no pip install.

What it gives an agent

Every ranked row carries a citation string, so an agent can cite the number instead of inventing one. Entities whose number cannot be derived are published as unranked with the reason — we would rather return "not ranked" than a made-up value.

Use it without installing anything (hosted endpoint)

There is also a hosted MCP endpoint, so no download and no local Python is needed — point any MCP client that speaks streamable HTTP at:

https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/mcp

It is published in the official MCP Registry as ca.jiangzhang.api/signals-api-mcp and serves the same five tools as the single-file version. A quick check with curl:

curl -s -X POST https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -A 'my-agent/1.0' \
  --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

(The User-Agent header matters here too — see the CDN note further down.)

Install

1. Download mcpserver.py anywhere (e.g. ~/mcp/signals/mcpserver.py).
2. Add it to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "signals": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp_server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claudedesktopconfig.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claudedesktopconfig.json (Windows). Restart the client and the five tools appear.

Requires Python 3.9+. No dependencies, no key, no signup.

Try it without an MCP client

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"daily_signals","arguments":{}}}' \
  | python3 mcp_server.py

Free tier vs the paid feed

This server reads the free endpoints, which cover one edition a day, 4 sources. If your agent needs more than that, there is a paid feed:

• 8 sources instead of 4 (adds arXiv, LMSYS Arena, hot-topic aggregation, hardware/chips)
• 4 updates a day instead of one daily edition (email / WebPush / API)
• full history and machine-readable archives, with a stable API key

Subscribe: https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/buy?plan=basic

• BASIC — CA$9.90/month — Core 4 sources, 18 boards × Top 3 per board, one morning push email (08:00 Beijing).

Subscribe: https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/buy?plan=plus

• PLUS — CA$29.90/month — All 8 sources, choose push method and times (4×/day), Top 3 per board, plus API access to today's signals and stats.

Subscribe: https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/buy?plan=business

• BUSINESS — CA$129.90/month — PLUS, plus your own content and quantity per board (3–10), searchable history and full export.

Attributed landing page (no plan chosen yet): → https://data.jiangzhang.ca/signals4/go?to=landing&src=mcpgithub**

Pay once instead of subscribing

There is also a one-time option (no subscription, no renewal): the compiled dataset bundle (single JSONL, indexed SQLite, tidy daily entity CSV), refreshed daily — https://buy.stripe.com/00w28r4W08qq8CcecHgw008

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.