MCP Tools Overview

Reference for all 32 tools exposed by the Alphacast MCP server, grouped by capability: search & datasets, providers, tickers, grapher & charts, and pipelines.

The Alphacast MCP server exposes 32 tools across five functional areas. Use this page as a high-level map; click any tool name to jump to its full input schema and example prompt on the corresponding detail page.

All tools

Tool	Group	Access	Summary
search_catalog	Search & datasets	Read	Search the curated Alphacast catalog or all public repositories.
get_dataset	Search & datasets	Read	Retrieve dataset metadata and column schema.
get_dataset_profile	Search & datasets	Read	Comprehensive dataset inspection: columns, entities, date range, row count, and sample rows.
download_dataset	Search & datasets	Read	Download dataset rows as JSON or CSV.
list_datasets	Search & datasets	Read	List every dataset the API key can access.
list_repositories	Search & datasets	Read	List repositories where the API key has Write access or higher.
get_repository	Search & datasets	Read	Retrieve repository metadata and your permission level.
get_home_repository	Search & datasets	Read	Resolve the user’s Home repository — used implicitly when other tools accept an optional repositoryId.
list_providers	Providers	Read	List all external data providers, or the top 5 matching a keyword.
get_provider	Providers	Read	Retrieve a provider’s parameters, popular series, and key requirements.
browse_provider	Providers	Read	Walk a provider’s hierarchical catalog by path.
search_provider	Providers	Read	Search series within a provider by keyword.
get_series	Providers	Read	Fetch full historical data for a provider series.
search_tickers	Tickers	Read	Search public market tickers, ETFs, indexes, and ISINs by keyword.
get_ticker	Tickers	Read	Retrieve a single ticker’s profile metadata.
get_ticker_data	Tickers	Read	Pull historical OHLCV price data over a lookback period.
get_grapher_config_reference	Grapher & Charts	Read	Returns chart-authoring recipes, minimal configs, and text length limits for a chart type.
validate_grapher_config	Grapher & Charts	Read	Validates a chart-data or raw Grapher configuration object.
get_chart_details	Grapher & Charts	Read	Fetches chart metadata and Grapher config from a chart URL or slug.
list_pipelines	Pipelines	Read	List pipelines in a specific repository.
get_pipeline	Pipelines	Read	Get full pipeline definition, step list, validation status, and last-run summary.
get_pipeline_run	Pipelines	Read	Retrieve a specific pipeline run with status and per-step logs.
wait_pipeline_run	Pipelines	Read	Poll a run until it reaches a terminal state and return logs.
get_step_data	Pipelines	Read	Fetch the cached output of a step without triggering a run.
get_step_preview	Pipelines	Read	Materialize a fresh preview for a step and return rows as CSV.
list_pipeline_step_types	Pipelines	Read	Lists all available pipeline step types and their groups.
get_pipeline_step_config	Pipelines	Read	Returns the configuration schema for a specific step type.
get_pipeline_formula_reference	Pipelines	Read	Formula syntax and built-in functions reference for calculate-variable and apply-formula steps.
create_pipeline	Pipelines	Write	Create a new pipeline, optionally with initial steps. Defaults to Home repo.
add_pipeline_step	Pipelines	Write	Append or insert a step into a pipeline.
edit_pipeline_step	Pipelines	Write	Replace the configuration of an existing step.
delete_pipeline_step	Pipelines	Write	Remove a step from a pipeline.

Safety boundaries

The MCP surface is read-only except for the four pipeline write tools (create_pipeline, add_pipeline_step, edit_pipeline_step, delete_pipeline_step). Deleting repositories, datasets, or whole pipelines is intentionally not exposed — those actions are only available from the Alphacast web UI, never from an agent. Provider API keys are managed through the Alphacast settings web UI.

Tool conventions

• IDs are always numeric (integer). Tools accept strings and coerce them — "42" works the same as 42.
• Formats for downloads: json (default for download_dataset) or csv. For pipeline step output the default is csv.
• Permissions mirror the REST API. The API key’s permission on each repository determines which tools succeed.
• Home repository fallback. When a tool accepts an optional repositoryId (for example create_pipeline), omitting it resolves to the user’s Home repository automatically — the server does not interrupt to ask.

Underlying API

Each tool maps to one or more endpoints in the Alphacast REST API. The mapping is documented on each tool’s detail page. You don’t need to call those endpoints yourself — the MCP server is the recommended interface for programmatic access.