Pinecone Economic Books MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides read-only access to a Pinecone vector database containing economic books and academic papers.

Primary Feature: Natural language semantic search powered by Pinecone's inference API - just ask in plain English and get relevant results automatically.

The server also provides specialized metadata search tools for precise filtering by author, subject, book, page range, and more.

Features

10 Comprehensive Search Tools

All search tools use semantic search powered by Pinecone inference API

Primary Search Tools

1. semantic_search - Natural language search (DEFAULT/SIMPLEST)

   • Automatically embeds your query using Pinecone inference

   • Best for: "theories about market equilibrium", "impact of automation"

2. semantic_search_with_filters - Semantic search + metadata filters

   • Combine natural language with precise filtering

   • Best for: "labor productivity" in books by "Wassily Leontief"

Filtered Semantic Search

All tools below combine semantic search with metadata filtering:

3. search_by_author - Semantic search within a specific author's works

4. search_by_subject - Semantic search within content tagged with specific topics

5. search_by_book - Semantic search within a specific book

6. search_by_page_range - Semantic search within specific page ranges

7. advanced_search - Semantic search with multiple filters (author + book + subjects + pages)

Utility Tools

8. get_by_id - Retrieve a specific document by its ID

9. get_index_stats - Get statistics about the Pinecone index

10. vector_search - Search using pre-computed embedding vectors (advanced)

Data Schema

Each document in the database contains:

{
  "id": "Author_BookName_PageNumber",
  "score": 0.2712,
  "metadata": {
    "author_name": "Wassily Leontief",
    "book_name": "Leontief_Essays in economics - theories and theorizing_1966",
    "chapter_titles": ["Chapter Title"],
    "chunk_text": "# Page 70\n...",
    "pages": ["70", "71"],
    "subjects": ["income", "national income", "output", "price"]
  }
}

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher

• Pinecone account with an existing index

• MCP-compatible client (e.g., Claude Desktop, Claude Code)

Setup

1. Clone or create the project directory:

mkdir pinecone-econ-mcp
cd pinecone-econ-mcp

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure environment variables:

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your credentials:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env:

PINECONE_API_KEY=your-pinecone-api-key-here
PINECONE_INDEX_NAME=economic-books

4. Configure MCP client:

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pinecone-econ": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/python3.10",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/pinecone-econ-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Or for Claude Code (~/.claude.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pinecone-econ": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/python3.10",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/pinecone-econ-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Note: This server requires Python 3.10+. If your python3.10 is in a different location, use which python3.10 to find it.

Usage Examples

Semantic Search (Recommended - Default)

Basic Semantic Search

# Find content about economic theories using natural language
semantic_search(
    query="theories about market equilibrium and price discovery",
    top_k=10
)

Semantic Search with Author Filter

# Search for "labor productivity" concepts only in Leontief's work
semantic_search_with_filters(
    query="labor productivity and input-output relationships",
    author_name="Wassily Leontief",
    top_k=5
)

Semantic Search with Multiple Filters

# Find content about a topic in a specific book
semantic_search_with_filters(
    query="national income and economic aggregates",
    book_name="Leontief_Essays in economics - theories and theorizing_1966",
    subjects=["income", "national income"],
    top_k=10
)

Filtered Semantic Search

All specialized search tools use semantic search combined with metadata filtering.

Search by Author

# Search for economic concepts within Leontief's works
search_by_author(
    query="input output analysis and economic modeling",
    author_name="Wassily Leontief",
    top_k=10
)

Search by Subject

# Search for equilibrium concepts within content tagged "equilibrium"
search_by_subject(
    query="price discovery and market clearing mechanisms",
    subject="equilibrium",
    top_k=15
)

Search by Book

# Search for specific concepts within a book
search_by_book(
    query="national income accounting methodologies",
    book_name="Leontief_Essays in economics - theories and theorizing_1966",
    top_k=20
)

Advanced Search

# Semantic search with multiple metadata filters
advanced_search(
    query="economic aggregates and measurement theory",
    author_name="Wassily Leontief",
    subjects=["income", "national income"],
    pages=["70", "71", "72"],
    top_k=10
)

Search by Page Range

# Search within specific page ranges
search_by_page_range(
    query="theoretical foundations of economics",
    start_page="50",
    end_page="60",
    author_name="Wassily Leontief",
    top_k=10
)

Get Document by ID

# Retrieve a specific document
get_by_id(
    document_id="Wassily Leontief_Leontief_Essays in economics - theories and theorizing_1966_27"
)

Vector Search

# Search with a pre-computed embedding vector
vector_search(
    vector=[0.1, 0.2, 0.3, ...],  # Your embedding vector
    top_k=5,
    include_metadata=True
)

Get Index Statistics

# Get information about the index
get_index_stats()

Tool Details

Semantic Search by Default

All search tools use semantic search powered by Pinecone's integrated inference. Simply pass your text query and Pinecone automatically converts it to embeddings - no manual embedding calls needed. This provides seamless semantic search without the complexity of managing embedding models.

Read-Only Operations

All tools are read-only - they only query and retrieve data from Pinecone. No write, update, or delete operations are exposed.

Metadata Filtering

The server combines semantic search with Pinecone's metadata filtering capabilities using MongoDB-style query operators:

• $eq - Equals

• $in - In array

• $and - Logical AND

Result Limits

• Default top_k: Varies by tool (5-10)

• Maximum top_k: 100 results per query

Namespaces

All tools support optional namespace parameter for multi-tenant Pinecone indexes.

Architecture

Technology Stack

• FastMCP: Official Python SDK for MCP servers

• Pinecone: Vector database for semantic search

• python-dotenv: Environment variable management

Components

• server.py - Main MCP server implementation

• requirements.txt - Python dependencies

• .env - Configuration (not committed)

• .env.example - Configuration template

Development

Project Structure

pinecone-econ-mcp/
├── server.py           # MCP server implementation
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
├── .env               # Environment variables (create from .env.example)
├── .env.example       # Environment template
├── .gitignore         # Git ignore rules
└── README.md          # This file

Adding New Tools

To add a new search tool:

1. Define a new function with the @mcp.tool() decorator

2. Add comprehensive docstring (used for tool schema)

3. Use type hints for all parameters

4. Return string-formatted results

5. Handle errors gracefully

Example:

@mcp.tool()
def my_custom_search(
    query_param: str,
    top_k: int = 10
) -> str:
    """
    Description of what this search does.

    Args:
        query_param: Description of parameter
        top_k: Number of results

    Returns:
        Description of return value
    """
    try:
        # Implementation
        results = index.query(...)
        return str(format_result(results.matches))
    except Exception as e:
        return f"Error: {str(e)}"

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "API key not found"

   • Ensure .env file exists and contains valid PINECONE_API_KEY

   • Check that load_dotenv() is being called

2. "Index not found"

   • Verify PINECONE_INDEX_NAME matches your Pinecone index name

   • Check Pinecone dashboard to confirm index exists

3. "No results returned"

   • Verify data exists in your Pinecone index

   • Check metadata field names match your data schema

   • Try using get_index_stats() to verify index has vectors

4. "Module not found"

   • Run pip install -r requirements.txt

   • Ensure you're using Python 3.10+

Debug Mode

Run the server directly to see debug output:

python server.py

Security Notes

• API Keys: Never commit .env file to version control

• Read-Only: Server only performs read operations

• No Authentication: Add authentication if exposing externally

• Rate Limiting: Consider implementing rate limits for production use

Resources

• Model Context Protocol Docs

• Pinecone Documentation

• FastMCP GitHub

License

MIT License - feel free to modify and use as needed.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository

2. Create a feature branch

3. Add tests if applicable

4. Submit a pull request

Changelog

v1.0.0 (2025-01-12)

• Initial release

• 10 comprehensive search tools, all using semantic search

• Semantic search via Pinecone integrated inference (pass text directly, no manual embedding)

• Simplified API - index.search(query="text") for all searches

• Read-only access to Pinecone economic books database

• Advanced metadata filtering combined with semantic search

• MCP server implementation with FastMCP