eiu-mcp-server

A Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude (or any MCP-compatible LLM client) structured, token-efficient access to the EIU data API — around 200 countries and 320 economic indicator series, history and forecasts.

It exposes three tools:

Reference data is fetched once per session and cached in memory, so browse and search cost no further API calls.

Prerequisites

• EIU API Developer Portal access. This is not self-service. Email economicssupport@economist.com and ask for Developer Portal access. They will set up your account by hand. You need all three of: your portal email address, your portal password, and the API key shown in the portal.

• uv installed on your machine. One-liner:

  curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

You do not need to clone this repo or manage a virtual environment — uvx handles everything from the git URL.

Related MCP server: EODHD MCP Server

Install

Claude Code

The one-line install, run from a folder whose .env holds your three EIU values. The shell reads them, so the credentials never appear in your conversation:

set -a; source .env; set +a
claude mcp add --scope user eiu \
  -e EIU_API_KEY="$EIU_API_KEY" \
  -e EIU_EMAIL="$EIU_EMAIL" \
  -e EIU_PASSWORD="$EIU_PASSWORD" \
  -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/joshua-bailey/eiu-mcp-server.git eiu-mcp-server

Or add the entry to .mcp.json by hand:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eiu": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/joshua-bailey/eiu-mcp-server.git",
        "eiu-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EIU_API_KEY": "${EIU_API_KEY}",
        "EIU_EMAIL": "${EIU_EMAIL}",
        "EIU_PASSWORD": "${EIU_PASSWORD}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Code. The three eiu_* tools should appear under /mcp.

Claude Desktop

Same JSON snippet, placed under mcpServers in:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Claude Desktop does not expand ${VAR} references, so put the literal values there instead.

Pinning a version

uvx installs the latest commit on main by default. To pin to a tagged release, append @<tag> to the git URL, e.g.:

"git+https://github.com/joshua-bailey/eiu-mcp-server.git@v0.1.0"

Environment variables

All three are needed. The server logs in with the email and password to obtain a bearer token, then sends that token alongside the API key on every request. The token is cached in memory and refreshed before it expires.

Using it

Once the MCP is registered, ask Claude things like:

• "Search EIU for current account balance series"

• "What EIU series codes cover consumer prices?"

• "Pull EIU annual GDP growth (DGDP) for the US, UK and China from 2015 to 2030"

• "Show me EIU quarterly inflation forecasts for Brazil, Mexico and Chile"

Claude picks the right tool and calls it.

Codes

• Geographies are ISO two-letter codes in capitals: US, GB, CN, BR.

• Series are EIU's own short codes in capitals, e.g. DGDP, DCPI. Use eiu_search or eiu_browse to find them rather than guessing.

• Frequency is one of Yearly, Quarterly or Monthly.

eiu_get_data caps its response at 200 data points to stay token-efficient and says so when it truncates. Narrow the date range or the country list to see the rest.

API reference

The underlying API is documented at developer.eiu.com/help/overview. The server talks to https://api.eiu.com/v1.

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE. Applies to the wrapper code in this repository only. Dependencies retain their own licences. EIU data is a paid subscription and its terms of use apply independently of this wrapper.