AllRatesToday MCP Server

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Give your AI coding assistant a live window into the foreign-exchange market.

A Model Context Protocol server that lets Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and any other MCP-compatible client fetch real-time currency rates, historical data, and multi-currency lookups from the AllRatesToday API.

After installation, your assistant can answer questions like:

• "What's the current USD to EUR rate?"

• "Show me how GBP/JPY moved over the last 30 days."

• "Convert 250 USD into CAD at a real rate."

• "Compare USD against EUR, GBP, and JPY simultaneously."

• "List every supported currency."

Table of contents

• What you get

• Get an API key (required)

• Install

• Quick setup per client

  • Claude Code

  • Cursor

  • Claude Desktop

  • Windsurf

  • Generic stdio MCP client

• Verify it works

• Tools reference

• Environment variables

• Plans and limits

• Troubleshooting

• Error reference

• FAQ

• Development

• Changelog

• Support

• License

What you get

Get an API key (required)

The server will not start without a valid ALLRATES_API_KEY. A free key is enough for development and personal use — no credit card required.

1. Register at allratestoday.com/register — 30 seconds

2. Verify your email

3. Copy your key from the dashboard (format: art_live_xxxxx)

4. Use it as ALLRATES_API_KEY in the configs below

If you forget, the server prints clear registration instructions on stderr and exits with code 1.

Install

The server is published as an npm package. The simplest install is zero-install via npx, which is what every config below uses.

# Run without installing (recommended)
npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

# Or install globally
npm install -g @allratestoday/mcp-server
allratestoday-mcp

Both commands launch the stdio MCP server and wait for a client to connect. They're not meant to be run directly from your shell — your MCP client launches them as a subprocess.

Quick setup per client

Each client reads MCP servers from a different config file. Pick yours below.

Claude Code

The fastest path uses the built-in CLI:

claude mcp add allratestoday -- npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server
claude mcp env allratestoday ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx

Restart Claude Code. Verify by asking it: "What's the current USD to EUR rate?"

Cursor

Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json inside your project for project-scoped servers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "allratestoday": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@allratestoday/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALLRATES_API_KEY": "art_live_xxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor. The four tools should appear in the MCP tool picker.

Claude Desktop

Edit the config file (path depends on OS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "allratestoday": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@allratestoday/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALLRATES_API_KEY": "art_live_xxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q on macOS, right-click tray icon → Exit on Windows). Closing the window alone keeps the old config loaded.

Windsurf

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "allratestoday": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@allratestoday/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALLRATES_API_KEY": "art_live_xxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Windsurf.

Generic stdio MCP client

Any MCP host that supports stdio transport works. The launch command is:

npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

…with the environment variable ALLRATES_API_KEY set. The protocol version is MCP 1.x.

Verify it works

After configuring your client, test in this order:

1. Server starts — open the client. If the MCP integration shows a red dot or "failed to connect", the API key is missing or wrong (see Troubleshooting).

2. Tools are listed — most clients have a "tools" or "MCP" panel. You should see:

   • get_exchange_rate

   • get_historical_rates

   • get_rates_authenticated

   • list_currencies

3. A live call returns a number — ask the assistant:

   What's the current USD to EUR rate?

   The assistant will call get_exchange_rate(source: "USD", target: "EUR") and reply with a real rate (e.g. "USD to EUR is currently 0.9214."). If it fabricates a number without making a tool call, the server isn't connected.

Tools reference

All four tools require ALLRATES_API_KEY.

get_exchange_rate

Current mid-market rate between two currencies.

Input

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "EUR" }

Example response

{ "rate": 0.92145, "source": "wise" }

get_historical_rates

Time-series data points for a currency pair over a fixed period.

Input

Granularity by period

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "INR", "period": "30d" }

Example response (truncated)

{
  "source": "USD",
  "target": "INR",
  "period": "30d",
  "data": [
    { "date": "2026-03-27T00:00:00Z", "rate": 83.42, "timestamp": 1743033600000 },
    { "date": "2026-03-28T00:00:00Z", "rate": 83.51, "timestamp": 1743120000000 },
    "..."
  ]
}

get_rates_authenticated

Multiple targets in one call, with optional historical timestamp or grouping window.

Input

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "EUR,GBP,JPY" }

Example response

[
  { "rate": 0.9214, "source": "USD", "target": "EUR", "time": "2026-04-26T11:00:00Z" },
  { "rate": 0.7891, "source": "USD", "target": "GBP", "time": "2026-04-26T11:00:00Z" },
  { "rate": 151.34, "source": "USD", "target": "JPY", "time": "2026-04-26T11:00:00Z" }
]

list_currencies

All supported currencies with codes, names, and symbols. Cached upstream for 24 hours.

Input — none.

Example response (truncated)

{
  "currencies": [
    { "code": "USD", "name": "US Dollar", "symbol": "$" },
    { "code": "EUR", "name": "Euro", "symbol": "€" },
    { "code": "GBP", "name": "British Pound", "symbol": "£" },
    "..."
  ],
  "count": 162
}

Environment variables

You set these in your MCP client's config (in the env block) — not in your shell — because MCP servers are launched as subprocesses with isolated environments.

Plans

A free tier and paid plans are available. See allratestoday.com/pricing for current quotas. All plans include the same currency coverage and historical depth — only the request quotas differ.

Troubleshooting

Inspect server logs

To see what the server is doing, run it manually with the API key set:

ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

You should see no output when healthy (stdio is reserved for the MCP protocol). Any errors print to stderr.

Error reference

The server maps API errors to clear, actionable messages.

The LLM will surface these messages in its response, so a user prompt that hits a 429 results in the assistant saying "the API quota has been exceeded — please try again next month or upgrade your plan."

FAQ

Is the free plan really enough for normal use? Yes for personal/dev use. The free tier covers a few daily questions. Heavy interactive use, multiple chat sessions per day, or running the server in production should consider the paid tiers.

Do you store my conversation or query data? No. Only your API key and the request parameters (source, target, period, time) are sent to allratestoday.com — never the LLM's conversation context, sheet contents, or anything else.

What happens to my API key? It's only sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header on requests to the AllRatesToday API. It's never logged or transmitted elsewhere.

Why is my historical request slow on first call? Cold-start of npx (first run downloads the package) plus the initial AllRatesToday cache miss. Subsequent calls are fast (<200ms typically).

Can I run this without npm/Node? Not currently — Node ≥18 is required. We've considered a standalone binary; if that matters to you, open an issue.

Is there a self-hosted option? Yes, set ALLRATES_BASE_URL to your own AllRatesToday instance. Contact support@allratestoday.com for self-hosted licensing.

Does this work with ChatGPT? The Anthropic MCP standard works with any MCP-compatible client. ChatGPT Desktop has experimental MCP support; check OpenAI's docs for current status.

Development

git clone https://github.com/cahthuranag/mcp-server.git
cd mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx node dist/index.js

The server runs on stdio and waits for an MCP client to connect. Hit Ctrl+C to exit.

To watch and rebuild on changes during development:

npm run dev

To test against a local AllRatesToday instance:

ALLRATES_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/api ALLRATES_API_KEY=test_key node dist/index.js

Project structure

src/
├── index.ts      # MCP server, tool registration, request handlers
└── client.ts     # HTTP client for AllRatesToday API + error mapping
dist/             # Compiled JS (gitignored)
server.json       # MCP registry manifest
package.json      # npm metadata, dependencies, scripts

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/cahthuranag/mcp-server. Before opening a PR:

1. npm run build should succeed with no errors

2. Test against a real AllRatesToday API key (set in ALLRATES_API_KEY)

3. Update tool descriptions in src/index.ts if you change tool behavior

4. Update this README's "Tools reference" section if you add or rename a tool

Changelog

See GitHub Releases for the full list. Recent highlights:

• 0.3.x — API key required for all tools; fail-fast at startup with clear error

• 0.2.x — Removed news tool, required auth on get_historical_rates

• 0.1.x — Initial release with 5 tools

Support

• API issues: support@allratestoday.com

• Bug reports: github.com/cahthuranag/mcp-server/issues

• MCP questions: modelcontextprotocol.io — protocol docs

• Status / uptime: allratestoday.com (status page in development)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.