Fantastic.jobs MCP Server

A small local MCP server that lets Claude search fresh job postings through the Fantastic.jobs API. Ask Claude something like "find data engineer jobs in Chicago from the last week" and it calls the API for you.

How it works

Claude Desktop  ──stdio──▶  job_server.py  ──▶  client_call.py  ──HTTPS──▶  data.fantastic.jobs

Claude Desktop launches job_server.py as a background process and talks to it over stdin/stdout. You never start it yourself.

Related MCP server: job-search

Requirements

• Python 3.14+

• uv

• A Fantastic.jobs API key (from your subscriptions page)

• Claude Desktop (or Claude Code)

Setup

git clone <this-repo>
cd linkedin
uv sync
echo 'linkedin_api=YOUR_KEY_HERE' > .env

Test it in the terminal

Call the tool function directly, no MCP involved:

uv run python -c "from job_server import search_jobs; print(search_jobs('Data Engineer', time_frame='7d'))"

A list of jobs means the API call, key, and field trimming all work. An empty list [] just means no matches for that search.

To test through the real MCP protocol, use the Inspector (needs Node.js):

uv run mcp dev job_server.py

Connect to Claude Desktop

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add an entry under mcpServers. Use full paths: Claude Desktop is launched from the Dock and can't see your shell's PATH.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fantastic-jobs": {
      "command": "/Users/YOU/.local/bin/uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/absolute/path/to/linkedin", "run", "job_server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Find your uv path with which uv. Then fully quit Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q) and reopen it. search_jobs should appear in the tools list.

For Claude Code instead:

claude mcp add fantastic-jobs -- uv --directory /absolute/path/to/linkedin run job_server.py

The tool

search_jobs(title, location="", time_frame="24h", limit=10)

Each job comes back trimmed to: title, organization, url, date_posted, locations_derived, ai_core_responsibilities. Edit FIELDS in job_server.py to change this. The full API response has 50+ fields including AI-extracted skills, salary, and company data.

Gotchas

• Never print() inside job_server.py. stdout is the channel Claude talks over; a stray print corrupts it. Use print(..., file=sys.stderr) for debugging.

• Restart Claude Desktop after any code or config change. The server process is spawned at launch and reads the key once at import.

• .zshrc doesn't reach Claude Desktop. That's why the key lives in .env, which load_dotenv() picks up regardless of how the server was started.

• 401 Unauthorized means the key didn't arrive. Check .env exists, has the right name (linkedin_api), and that no stale env block in the Claude config is overriding it.

• Server shows as failed in Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer has per-server logs. It's almost always the uv path, the project path, or a missing key.

Security

.env is in .gitignore. Confirm before your first commit with git check-ignore -v .env. If a key ever leaks, rotate it from your Fantastic.jobs subscriptions page.