PainSpotter MCP Server

Query PainSpotter business opportunities and weekly blog analyses directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client.

PainSpotter mines Reddit, Hacker News and Product Hunt discussions and uses LLMs to surface validated business opportunities, organized in three layers: Category (domain) → Theme (a clustered pain point with trend signal) → Opportunity (a concrete product idea with commercial scores). The Blog publishes weekly long-form analyses of selected opportunities (free to read, built for AI citation).

Two ways to connect

Remote (recommended — zero install)

Point your client at the hosted endpoint and pass your API key as a header. Create a key at https://painspotter.ai/account.

Claude / Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json or Claude connectors):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "painspotter": {
      "url": "https://painspotter.ai/mcp/",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "psk_live_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

Local (stdio fallback)

The local stdio package talks to the public REST API. It exposes opportunity search plus free blog tools (no key needed for blog). For the full 7-tool hosted set (overview, trending themes, theme detail), use the remote endpoint above.

pip install painspotter-mcp   # or: uvx painspotter-mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "painspotter": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["painspotter-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PAINSPOTTER_API_KEY": "psk_live_your_key",
        "PAINSPOTTER_API_BASE": "https://painspotter.ai"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools & tiering

Hosted endpoint (https://painspotter.ai/mcp/) — 7 tools

Tool	Tier	Quota cost	Description
get_overview	Free	1	Categories overview + trending snapshot
get_opportunity	Free	1	Full detail of one opportunity (+ related blog URL if any)
list_blog_posts	Free	0	Recent published weekly analyses
get_blog_post	Free	0	Full Markdown of one blog article
query_opportunities	Pro	2	Filter by keyword / score / platform / recommendation / category
list_trending_themes	Pro	2	Pain points trending up right now
get_theme	Pro	4	Theme-level market signal + underlying opportunities

Local stdio package — 4 tools

Tool	Key required	Description
query_opportunities	Yes	Filter opportunities (Pro-equivalent search via v1 API)
get_opportunity	Yes	Full opportunity detail
list_blog_posts	No	Recent published blog posts
get_blog_post	No	Full Markdown of one article

Free keys can call the free hosted tools; Pro and Business keys unlock everything. Blog tools (list_blog_posts, get_blog_post) never consume quota on the hosted endpoint. Other calls deduct from the key's monthly allowance (Free 20 / Pro 1000 / Business 5000 units). Upgrade at https://painspotter.ai/pricing.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.