CommunityAbandoned· 8mo★ 4.3by berlinbra

Alpha Vantage MCP

Financial market data for stock quotes, company info, crypto, options chains, ETF profiles, and earnings via Alpha Vantage.

View repo

Safety & Trust

Delv Safety Grade: C

Score 62/100 · assessed 2026-04-28

Maintainer45

Permissions88

Supply chain72

Transparency58

Incidents100

This community MCP server provides read-only access to Alpha Vantage's financial market data API, covering stocks, crypto, options, and ETFs. The server is maintained by a solo developer (berlinbra) with limited GitHub activity and no established track record. The package is properly distributed via npm with standard installation, though the repository shows minimal documentation and no changelog. Permissions are well-scoped to read-only API calls requiring only an API key, which is a positive security posture. The main risks stem from the solo maintainer with sparse activity (repository created recently with few commits) and thin transparency around maintenance practices. No security incidents are known. The server's narrow scope and read-only nature limit potential damage, but the maintainer's limited profile and sparse documentation reduce confidence in long-term reliability and security response capability.

Lethal Trifecta (prompt-injection exposure)

ONE OF THREE

Private dataNo

Reads secrets, credentials, private files

Untrusted inputNo

Ingests web pages, PRs, issues, emails

External commsYes

Can send data outbound

Public market data; outbound on every query. No private or untrusted axis.

Green flags

Read-only API access with no write or execution permissions
Properly packaged and distributed via npm registry
Requires only API key, no filesystem or shell access
Well-scoped to single domain (financial data retrieval)

Red flags

Solo maintainer with minimal GitHub activity and no established track record
Repository shows very thin documentation and no changelog
No evidence of security review or testing practices
Limited community engagement or contributor base (bus factor of 1)

Permissions requested

Outbound networkRead env

Assessed by Delv Editorial using public metadata. Grades are advisory and update as the ecosystem changes. They do not replace your own review of permissions and code before granting an agent access to sensitive systems.

Install

npx -y @smithery/cli install @berlinbra/alpha-vantage-mcp --client claude

Env vars needed: ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY

Review

Alpha Vantage MCP wraps the Alpha Vantage API into a Model Context Protocol server, giving Claude direct access to stock quotes, company fundamentals, crypto prices, options chains, ETF profiles, and earnings data. It's a single-purpose bridge to financial market data, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. I'd reach for this when prototyping trading dashboards, building research assistants for equity analysis, or automating earnings report summaries. The Alpha Vantage API is well-documented and covers a broad range of asset classes, so you get real-time and historical data without stitching together multiple providers. The MCP server exposes this cleanly: ask Claude for a stock quote, and it fetches the latest price. Ask for company fundamentals, and you get balance sheet and income statement data. Options chains and crypto tracking work the same way. The main quirk is that Alpha Vantage's free tier is rate-limited to 25 requests per day, which makes this server more of a proof-of-concept tool unless you pay for a premium key. If you're building anything beyond a weekend project, you'll hit that ceiling fast. The server itself doesn't cache responses, so repeated queries for the same ticker burn through your quota. That's a design choice, not a bug, but it means you need to layer caching yourself if you're serious about production use. Another thing: the server supports Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor, but you'll need to configure each manually. There's no auto-discovery or fancy setup wizard. You add the server to your MCP config, drop in your API key as an environment variable, and restart your host. It's straightforward if you've done this before, but first-timers might stumble on the config syntax. Who shouldn't bother? If you're not working with financial data, this is obviously a non-starter. If you need high-frequency data or sub-second latency, Alpha Vantage isn't built for that. And if you're already using Bloomberg Terminal or a similar enterprise tool, this won't replace it. But for indie developers, researchers, or anyone building AI-assisted financial workflows on a budget, it's a clean, no-nonsense option. Just watch those rate limits.

Verdict

Install this if you're building AI-assisted financial tools and want a quick way to pull market data into Claude. Skip it if you need high-frequency updates or don't have a paid Alpha Vantage key. It's a solid connector for the right use case, but the free tier rate limits make it more of a prototype tool than a production workhorse.

Good at

Covers a wide range of asset classes: stocks, crypto, options, ETFs, and earnings data all in one server.
Clean integration with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor once configured.
Alpha Vantage's API is well-documented and reliable for fundamental and historical data.
No dependencies beyond the API key, so setup is minimal if you've used MCP servers before.

Watch out

Alpha Vantage's free tier allows only 25 requests per day, which you'll exhaust quickly in any real workflow.
No built-in caching, so repeated queries for the same ticker count against your quota every time.
Manual configuration required for each host, with no auto-discovery or guided setup.
Not suitable for high-frequency or real-time trading use cases where latency matters.

Use cases

stock research
crypto price tracking
options analysis
earnings monitoring

Getting started

1. Run `npx -y @smithery/cli install @berlinbra/alpha-vantage-mcp --client claude` to install the server. 2. Sign up for a free Alpha Vantage API key at alphavantage.co and add it to your environment as `ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY`. 3. Restart Claude Desktop or your chosen host to load the MCP server. 4. Test it by asking Claude for a stock quote or company overview to confirm the connection works. 5. Watch your API quota closely: the free tier caps at 25 requests per day, so cache responses if you're iterating.

Works with

Claude DesktopClaude CodeCursor