bank-of-canada-mcp
An MCP server that gives Claude and other LLMs live access to Canadian economic data via the Bank of Canada's free Valet API — ~16,000 time series covering exchange rates, the policy interest rate, CPI, bond yields, commodity prices, and more.
FRED, the World Bank, and the IMF all have MCP servers. Canada didn't — now it does.
No API key required.
Quick start
Claude Code
claude mcp add bank-of-canada -- npx -y bank-of-canada-mcp
Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"bank-of-canada": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "bank-of-canada-mcp"]
}
}
}
The same npx invocation works in Cursor, Windsurf, and any other MCP client.
Tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
search_series | Keyword search across the full series catalogue — find the series name for anything ("overnight rate target", "CPI", "5-year bond") |
get_observations | Time-series data for up to 5 series, by date range or N most recent |
latest_fx_rates | Today's official daily exchange rates vs CAD |
convert_currency | Convert between any two supported currencies using today's rates |
Example prompts
- "What's the Bank of Canada's current policy rate, and how has it moved this year?"
- "Plot USD/CAD for the last 90 days."
- "Convert 2,500 EUR to CAD at today's official rate."
- "How does core CPI compare to headline CPI over the past two years?"
Development
npm install
npm test # offline unit tests (vitest)
npm run build # tsc → dist/
Architecture: src/valet.ts is a plain API client with pure, unit-tested logic (search, conversion math); src/index.ts is the MCP wiring. Errors from the Valet API (e.g. an unknown series name) are returned as MCP tool errors with the API's own message, so the model can self-correct by re-searching.
Notes
- Rates are the Bank of Canada's indicative daily averages, published once per business day — not transactional quotes.
- Data is © Bank of Canada, used under their terms. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Bank of Canada.
Roadmap
- Statistics Canada Web Data Service tools
- Group browsing (
lists/groups) - Streamable HTTP transport for remote deployment
License
MIT