Documentation

Connect Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible agent to 25 Korean data tools across 11 categories.

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard by Anthropic that lets AI agents — Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client — connect to external tools over a local stdio transport. Korean Data MCP Hub ships as an MCP server you launch via npx; the agent then calls our 25 tools directly.

Learn more at modelcontextprotocol.io.

1. Quick Start

Wire the MCP server into Claude Desktop or Cursor in 3 minutes.

Installation paths

Path	Best for	Setup
Smithery CLIRecommended	Most users	One-line install with auto-config
Apify Store	Quick test in browser	No local install, runs in cloud
GitHub clone	Custom builds	Clone + npm install + manual config

The steps below use the recommended Smithery CLI path.

Step 1
Get your API key
Sign up for the free trial or any paid plan and copy your kdmcp_... key from the welcome page.
Step 2 — Claude Desktop
One-line install via Smithery CLI
Run this in your terminal — Smithery handles installation, updates, and Claude Desktop config automatically. When prompted, paste your kdmcp_... key.
terminal
```
npx -y @smithery/cli mcp add teddyan35/korean-data-mcp-hub --client claude
```
Step 2 — Cursor
One-line install via Smithery CLI
Same flow for Cursor — Smithery wires up ~/.cursor/mcp.json for you.
terminal
```
npx -y @smithery/cli mcp add teddyan35/korean-data-mcp-hub --client cursor
```
Step 3
Restart and ask
Restart Claude / Cursor and try: "What's trending in K-Pop this week?" The agent will call get_kpop_weekly_trend automatically.

2. Tool Catalog

25 MCP tools — 5 dedicated K-Pop tools plus a 2-tool factory (weekly_trend, search_news) across 10 more categories.

K-Pop (5)

Tool	Parameters	Description
get_kpop_news_today	lang?, limit?	Today's K-Pop news clusters, ranked by signal strength.
get_kpop_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Pop.
search_kpop_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Pop news clusters.
get_artist_timeline	query, lang?, limit?	Chronological timeline of news for a given artist or group.
get_kpop_clusters	lang?, limit?	Topic clusters with representative headlines and sources.

Factory tools — 10 categories × 2 (20)

Every category exposes the same two tools. Replace {category} with one of: kdrama, kmovie, kbeauty, kfood, kgame, ktech, kstock, ktravel, kwebtoon, ktrends.

Tool	Parameters	Description
get_kdrama_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Drama.
search_kdrama_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Drama news clusters.
get_kmovie_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Movie.
search_kmovie_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Movie news clusters.
get_kbeauty_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Beauty.
search_kbeauty_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Beauty news clusters.
get_kfood_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Food.
search_kfood_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Food news clusters.
get_kgame_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Game.
search_kgame_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Game news clusters.
get_ktech_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Tech.
search_ktech_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Tech news clusters.
get_kstock_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Stock.
search_kstock_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Stock news clusters.
get_ktravel_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Travel.
search_ktravel_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Travel news clusters.
get_kwebtoon_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Webtoon.
search_kwebtoon_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Webtoon news clusters.
get_ktrends_weekly_trend	lang?, limit?	Rolling 7-day trend snapshot for K-Trends.
search_ktrends_news	query, lang?, limit?	Full-text search across K-Trends news clusters.

Total: 25 tools.

Example tool calls (agent side)

// Inside Claude / Cursor, the agent calls tools by name:
search_kpop_news({ query: "comeback", lang: "en", limit: 5 })
get_kdrama_weekly_trend({ lang: "ko", limit: 10 })
get_artist_timeline({ query: "NewJeans", lang: "en", limit: 20 })

3. Authentication

Authentication is handled entirely via the MCP_USER_API_KEY environment variable in your MCP config. The MCP server picks it up automatically on launch — there are no HTTP headers to set manually.

Keys start with kdmcp_.
One key per account. Rotate from the dashboard if leaked.
Each tool call deducts $0.005 from your credit balance.

4. Response Format

All 25 tools return the same envelope.

Example response

{
  "ok": true,
  "tool": "get_kpop_weekly_trend",
  "category": "kpop",
  "lang": "en",
  "samples": [
    {
      "title": "Top K-Pop comebacks dominating this week",
      "summary": "Weekly trend across major K-Pop releases...",
      "score": 0.92,
      "sources": [
        { "name": "Soompi", "url": "https://soompi.com/..." }
      ],
      "published_at": "2026-05-19T08:30:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "daily_remaining": 47
}

samples[]

Ranked array of news clusters with title, summary, score, sources, and timestamp.

daily_remaining

Remaining free playground / trial calls for the day, if applicable.

5. Errors

UNAUTHORIZED

Missing or invalid MCP_USER_API_KEY. Check your config.

INSUFFICIENT_CREDIT

Account balance is empty. Top up to continue.

INVALID_CATEGORY

Category is missing or not one of the 11 supported values.

RATE_LIMITED

Too many requests in a short window. Back off and retry.

6. Rate Limits & Pricing

Per call

$0.005

Flat rate across all 25 tools.

Free trial

$5 credit

1,000 calls on signup, no card required.

Burst limit

60 / min

Per API key. Contact us for higher limits.