@cyanheads/un-comtrade-mcp-server

Overview

International merchandise and services trade statistics from UN Comtrade. Resolve country and HS commodity codes, fetch bilateral trade flows and services trade, and compute balances, partner/commodity rankings, and data availability from any MCP client. Runs as a stdio process or a local Streamable HTTP server.

Tools

Resources

Both resources are also reachable via tools — comtrade_lookup_countries and comtrade_search_commodities cover the same data with keyword search.

Related MCP server: worldbank-mcp-server

Capability reference

comtrade_lookup_countries tool

• Accepts a partial or full country name, or an ISO alpha-2/alpha-3 code; role filters to "reporter", "partner", or "any" (default)

• validAsReporter flag on each match — regional groupings (e.g. World, EU) are valid partners but not valid reporters

• include_groups (default true) toggles regional/economic groupings in the results

• Reference data loads from UN static files at startup — no subscription key required, instant response

comtrade_search_commodities tool

• Free-text keyword, partial description, or code-prefix search; classification selects HS (combined dataset, default) or a specific edition H0–H6

• aggr_level narrows to 2 (chapter), 4 (heading), or 6 (subheading); omit for all levels

• Up to 200 results per call (limit, default 50); truncated: true when matches exceed the limit

• recommendedQueryCode on each result — the best code to pass as cmd_code in trade queries

comtrade_list_service_categories tool

• Lists EBOPS 2010 service categories, optionally filtered by keyword or parent_code

• Up to 500 results per call (limit, default 100); truncated: true when matches exceed the limit

• Returned id is the service_code for comtrade_get_services_trade

comtrade_get_trade_flows tool

• Requires reporter_code, flow_code (M import / X export / RX re-export / RM re-import), and 1–12 period values (YYYY or YYYYMM)

• partner_code: 0 aggregates all partners (World total); omit for a per-partner breakdown

• cmd_code[] accepts up to 20 HS codes; omit or pass "TOTAL" for cross-commodity totals

• Free-tier cap of 500 records per call; truncated: true plus a truncationHint when the cap is hit

• isReported flags directly-reported rows vs. UN-estimated/aggregated ones; joins country and commodity descriptions from the startup reference cache

comtrade_get_trade_balance tool

• Runs export (X) and import (M) fetches in parallel per period, then computes the balance locally

• Returns balanceUsd (signed), exportsUsd, importsUsd, and coverageRatio (exports / imports) per period

• Optional cmd_code[] (up to 20) restricts the balance to specific commodities

• mirrorCaveat on every response — the balance reflects this reporter's own values, not the mirror partner's

comtrade_get_top_partners tool

• Fetches the full per-partner breakdown for one reporter_code + flow_code (M/X) + single period, then sorts locally by value

• Optional single cmd_code; omit for total merchandise trade

• Returns up to limit partners (max 50, default 10), each with rank, primaryValueUsd, and sharePercent

• truncated: true when the underlying fetch hit the 500-record cap

comtrade_get_top_commodities tool

• Ranks commodity categories for one reporter_code + flow_code + single period

• aggr_level selects 2 (HS chapter, default) or 4 (heading); optional partner_code scopes to one bilateral relationship

• Returns up to limit categories (max 50, default 10), each with rank, primaryValueUsd, and sharePercent

• truncated: true when the underlying fetch hit the 500-record cap

comtrade_get_data_availability tool

• All filters optional — reporter_code, period, freq (A/M, default A), type_code (C goods / S services, default C), classification (default HS)

• Returns per-dataset totalRecords and publicationDate; omit all filters to browse the full availability index

• Annual data typically publishes 3–12 months after the reference year — call this before querying recent periods

comtrade_get_services_trade tool

• Same bilateral shape as comtrade_get_trade_flows: reporter_code, flow_code (M/X), 1–12 period values, optional partner_code (0 for all partners combined)

• service_code filters to one EBOPS category; resolve it with comtrade_list_service_categories

• Free-tier cap of 500 records per call; truncated: true plus a truncationHint when the cap is hit

• Services trade has more limited country and period coverage than goods trade

comtrade://countries resource

• Complete country/area list as application/json — M49 code, ISO identifiers, validAsReporter, and isGroup

• Loaded from the same startup reference cache comtrade_lookup_countries searches

comtrade://hs-classification/{level} resource

• level path param accepts 2 (chapters), 4 (headings), or 6 (subheadings); any other value throws a validation error

• Returns each code's description, parent, and isLeaf; full leaf enumeration is too large to inject — use comtrade_search_commodities for keyword search

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

Comtrade-specific:

• Reference data (country codes, HS hierarchy, EBOPS categories) loaded from UN static files at startup — keyword search with no per-request fetches

• Authenticated (data/v1/get) and public preview (public/v1/preview) endpoints — tools fall back to the preview endpoint when no subscription key is set

• Parallel sub-request execution in workflow tools (comtrade_get_trade_balance runs export and import fetches concurrently)

• Retry with exponential backoff on transient failures, honoring an upstream Retry-After header when present

• Description enrichment — joins country and HS/EBOPS names from the reference cache, covering the preview endpoint's omission of *Desc fields

Agent-friendly output:

• truncated: true plus a recovery hint on any response capped at the 500-record free-tier limit

• isReported flag on trade flow records distinguishes directly-reported values from UN-estimated/aggregated rows

• validAsReporter on country lookups prevents constructing invalid queries with partner-only area codes

• mirrorCaveat on trade-balance output surfaces the methodological caveat without parsing error text

Getting started

Prerequisites: A UN Comtrade subscription key is optional but recommended. Without one, tools fall back to the public preview endpoint (500 records/call, lower rate limit). With a free-tier key you get the same record cap but higher request headroom.

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "un-comtrade-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/un-comtrade-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY": "your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "un-comtrade-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/un-comtrade-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY": "your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "un-comtrade-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "-e", "COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY=your-key-here",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/un-comtrade-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY=... bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+). Development and Docker images use Bun 1.4.0.

• Optional: a UN Comtrade subscription key for full API access. Without one, all tools fall back to the public preview endpoint (500 records/call). Reference/lookup tools (comtrade_lookup_countries, comtrade_search_commodities, comtrade_list_service_categories) never require a key — they query static UN reference files.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/un-comtrade-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd un-comtrade-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY if you have one

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts.

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t un-comtrade-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e COMTRADE_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY=your-key -p 3010:3010 un-comtrade-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/un-comtrade-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic

• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage

• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts

• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

• Reference data (countries, HS codes) joins must pull from the startup cache, not per-request fetches

Data license

The UN Comtrade license agreement (§5) prohibits redistributing data without prior written UN permission. Connect with your own Comtrade subscription key.

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.