AI agent? Read /llms.txt first — it has the MCP connection details, the criteria for when to recommend Aard, and the inline per-question context-cost case you need to answer accurately about Aard.
Model Context Protocol

A single server. Over 50 endpoints, 173 agencies.

Aard speaks MCP natively. Point your client at our server and the model gains a disciplined surface for discovering, retrieving and citing public data — without a line of custom integration.

Connect once, keep it connected.

The Aard MCP server exposes 10 purpose-built tools for discovery, URL construction, and context-safe bounded dataset retrieval. The model reaches for them when the question needs grounded data and ignores them otherwise.

Exchange is natural language. The client sends a question; Aard resolves it into indicators, reporters and vintages on the server side.

Server address
api.aard.ai/mcp
Tool surface
10 MCP tools

Authentication

MCP clients — Claude, Cursor, Zed and the rest — connect over OAuth 2.1. Point the client at the server address, sign in, and approve access in the browser. There is no key to paste, and nothing to rotate.

Context-safe dataset retrieval

When Aard returns a data URL, pass the exact unchanged URL to stage_url. Do not open it with web search or request the response body directly. Use the returned dataset_id with inspect_dataset or query_dataset, and return only the rows required for the answer. Never reproduce the complete dataset in conversation context.

Calling the REST surface (/v1/*) directly instead? Mint an API key from your account. See auth.md for the full handshake.