PodcastIndex MCP Server

An MCP server for the PodcastIndex API. Gives AI agents native access to podcast search, discovery, episode lookup, trending feeds, and Value4Value monetisation data — so agents can research, cite, and reason about podcasts the same way they access any other tool. Built to work with Claude, Claude Code, and any MCP-aware agent.

Features

• 25+ MCP Tools covering all major PodcastIndex API endpoints

• Search - Find podcasts by term, title, or person (hosts/guests)

• Podcasts - Get details by feed ID, URL, iTunes ID, GUID, or browse trending/dead feeds

• Episodes - Fetch by feed, episode ID, GUID, or discover live/random episodes

• Recent - Get recently updated episodes, feeds, and new feeds

• Value4Value - Explore podcast monetization info (no auth required)

• Stats & Categories - Current index statistics and category listings

• Hub Notifications - PubSubHubbub notifications

Related MCP server: Pocket Casts MCP Server

Quick Start

Get API Credentials (Free)

1. Visit https://api.podcastindex.org/

2. Create a free account

3. Generate your API Key and Secret

Install for Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "podcastindex": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:cclawton/podcastindex-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PODCASTINDEX_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here",
        "PODCASTINDEX_API_SECRET": "your-api-secret-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

This installs directly from GitHub - no npm registry needed.

Restart Claude Desktop after adding the configuration.

Install from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/cclawton/podcastindex-mcp-server.git
cd podcastindex-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Set environment variables
export PODCASTINDEX_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export PODCASTINDEX_API_SECRET="your-api-secret"

# Run
npm start

For Claude Desktop with local installation:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "podcastindex": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/podcastindex-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "PODCASTINDEX_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here",
        "PODCASTINDEX_API_SECRET": "your-api-secret-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Search Tools

Podcast Tools

Episode Tools

Recent Content Tools

Value4Value Tools (No Auth Required)

Stats & Categories

Hub Notifications (No Auth Required)

Environment Variables

*Required for authenticated endpoints. Value4Value and Hub tools work without credentials.

Example Usage in Claude

Once configured, you can ask Claude things like:

• "Search for podcasts about AI and machine learning"

• "What are the trending podcasts right now?"

• "Find episodes featuring Joe Rogan"

• "Get the Value4Value information for podcast ID 920666"

• "Show me recently updated podcast feeds"

• "What are all the podcast categories available?"

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build TypeScript
npm run build

# Watch mode for development
npm run dev

# Clean build artifacts
npm run clean

Requirements

• Node.js 18.0.0 or higher

• npm 9.0.0 or higher

Part of a connected stack

• supervisor — agentic systems architecture

• bullpen — content pipeline (podcast research use case)

• hexapla — AI evaluation

• github.com/cclawton — profile

License

MIT

Links

• PodcastIndex.org

• PodcastIndex API Documentation

• Get Free API Credentials

• Model Context Protocol