conorbronsdon/podcastindex-mcp

Connect Claude to the Podcast Index API. Search podcasts, track appearances, monitor trends.
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The results shown in the demo above are sample data, not real Podcast Index responses.
About
Built and maintained by Conor Bronsdon for the Chain of Thought podcast production workflow, where it surfaces guest appearances and checks feed health during research. Conor hosts Chain of Thought, a show about AI infrastructure and how practitioners actually build with it. More tools for creators live in ai-tools-for-creators. Find Conor on X at @ConorBronsdon.
**Companion tools:**
- Transistor MCP: Transistor.fm's official MCP server. Episodes, publishing, and analytics.
- substack-mcp: read posts and manage Substack drafts
- op3-mcp: report downloads, listener geography, and apps from OP3
- apple-podcasts-mcp: pull plays, followers, and per-episode listening from Apple Podcasts Connect
- gsc-mcp: query search performance, keywords, and sitemaps in Google Search Console
- podcast-benchmark: benchmark a show against its peers using only public data
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18+
- Free Podcast Index API credentials -- get them at api.podcastindex.org
Installation
Configuration
Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):
Claude Code
Add to your project's .mcp.json:
Tools
This server is entirely read-only: every tool declares the MCP tool annotation readOnlyHint: true, so clients know no call mutates anything and can skip write-consent prompts.
| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| search_by_person | Search for episodes where a person appeared as host or guest. Returns matches across all indexed podcasts. |
| search_by_term | Full-text search across all podcasts by topic, show name, or keyword. |
| search_by_title | Search for podcasts by title. |
| podcast_by_feed_url | Look up a podcast by RSS feed URL. Returns feed ID, iTunes ID, categories, last update, and feed health. |
| podcast_by_feed_id | Look up a podcast by its Podcast Index feed ID. Returns full metadata. |
| podcast_by_itunes_id | Look up a podcast by its Apple Podcasts (iTunes) ID. |
| podcast_by_guid | Look up a podcast by its podcast:guid tag value. |
| trending_podcasts | Get currently trending podcasts, with optional language and category filters. |
| episodes_by_feed_id | Get episodes for a specific podcast by feed ID. |
| episode_by_id | Look up a single episode by its Podcast Index episode ID. |
| episodes_live | Get episodes that are currently live (actively streaming). |
| recent_episodes | Get the most recently published episodes across the entire index. |
| recent_feeds | Get the most recently updated podcast feeds across the index. |
| recent_new_feeds | Get podcast feeds newly added to the index. |
| value_by_feed_id | Get value4value (lightning payment) info for a podcast by feed ID. |
| value_by_feed_url | Get value4value (lightning payment) info for a podcast by feed URL. |
| categories_list | Get the full list of Podcast Index categories and their IDs. |
| stats_current | Get current aggregate statistics for the Podcast Index. |