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The Particle Pro MCP server lives at https://mcp.particle.pro and lets AI agents — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT Desktop, and any other MCP-aware client — call Particle’s podcast, knowledge-graph, company, and advertising tools directly. Setup is a one-time browser approval; everything else is automated by the agent.

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Connect your agent

One-click install: Add to Cursor · Add to VS Code — or use the matching manual config below. 
claude mcp add --transport http particle https://mcp.particle.pro
Claude Desktop UI alternative: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, paste https://mcp.particle.pro, complete OAuth in the browser. Easier than editing JSON and avoids the mcp-remote bridge.
ChatGPT: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → enable Developer mode (requires a Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise, or Edu plan) → Create app with https://mcp.particle.pro and complete OAuth in the browser. See the Quickstart for the step-by-step flow.
Any other MCP client: point it at https://mcp.particle.pro over Streamable HTTP and prefer OAuth if the client supports it; stdio-only clients can bridge through mcp-remote (last tab above). The first tool call triggers an OAuth flow: your client opens the authorize URL in a browser, you sign in to Particle Pro and pick the project the agent should act as, and your client exchanges the resulting code for a token automatically. See the Quickstart for a step-by-step walk-through and a sanity-check call, or Authentication for the full OAuth 2.1 spec.

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What’s in the box

25 tools, organized into exposure categories. A bare connection advertises the six default categories plus the always-on system meta-tools; five more categories are opt-in (advertised only when you select them with the ?include= selector). Either way, every public tool is callable by name regardless of what was advertised — see Tool sets & discovery.

Podcasts, people, companies, topics

Default categories — resolve podcasts/people/companies, search transcripts, list episodes, pull mentions, browse topics, chart rankings, and guests.

Advertising, publishers, ratings, bias, suitability

Opt-in categories — sponsor analytics, publisher profiles, listener ratings, and corpus-wide bias/brand-suitability views.

System meta-tools

particle_catalog and particle_call — always on, so a default agent can discover and call the rest of the surface.

Tool sets & discovery

The selector mechanics and the contract that discovery is free while execution is metered.
Endpointhttps://mcp.particle.pro
TransportStreamable HTTP
AuthenticationOAuth 2.1 (interactive clients) or platform API keys (headless agents) — see Authentication
Tool count25 across 12 exposure categories (6 default + always-on system, 5 opt-in)
Tool namesFlat particle_* identifiers; every public tool is callable by name
Read/writeRead-only (every tool advertises readOnlyHint: true)

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How the tools compose

The tools are not isolated lookups — they expose one connected knowledge graph, and two conventions carry most of the design:
  • Lean by default, expand on demand. Most tools return a minimal payload and opt into richer sections via an include array (a company’s people, products, and competitors; a person’s roles and podcast appearances; an episode’s segments, clips, topics, and transcript) or a mode/format switch. A tool does far more than its name implies — check its input schema (or the ↳ expand hints in particle_catalog) before assuming a capability is missing.
  • Slugs are edges. Every slug a tool returns — person, company, podcast, episode, publisher, guest — is a valid input to the other tools. Resolve a free-text name once, then traverse: particle_company_resolve("Andreessen Horowitz") → particle_company_get with include: ["people"] → particle_person_get with include: ["podcast_appearances"] → particle_podcast_get_episode with include: ["transcript", "entities"]. Four hops from a company name to every entity discussed in an episode one of its partners appeared on.
Connected clients get the same guidance in-band: the server’s initialize instructions state both conventions on every connect, and particle_catalog surfaces each tool’s expand options.

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How it differs from the REST API

The REST API and the MCP server share a single backing process and the same handlers. The differences:
  • Shape. Each MCP tool returns one markdown text content block. Pass output_format: "json" to receive the same response as compact JSON in that block instead. If you need typed JSON with a stable schema for programmatic use, hit the underlying REST endpoint linked from each tool page.
  • Bundling. Some MCP tools roll up multiple REST calls (e.g. particle_podcast_get_episode can also fetch top entities, segments, clips, topics, and the transcript via its include array). REST endpoints are single-resource.
  • Identifiers. MCP tools always accept the agent-facing slug (person_slug, company_slug, podcast_slug, episode_slug, publisher_slug). The REST API accepts the same slugs alongside encoded canonical IDs.
  • Auth. Interactive MCP clients use OAuth 2.1 access tokens bound to https://mcp.particle.pro as their aud claim; headless agents may send the same pp_* API keys the REST API accepts. See Authentication.
  • Errors. MCP tools surface errors as isError: true results with a human-readable message rather than HTTP problem-details bodies. See Errors.

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When to use which surface

  • Building an agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, custom MCP client)? Use the MCP server. The bundled tool responses, slug-first inputs, and markdown rendering are designed for agent loops.
  • Building a service (server-to-server, scheduled job, or the backend behind your frontend — API keys must stay server-side)? Use the REST API. Fine-grained control, OpenAPI schema, predictable payloads.
  • Both surfaces talk to the same database, the same search ranking, and the same billing meter, so mixing them within one organization is fine.

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Discovery

Agents that follow the MCP / OAuth specs discover everything they need from the resource:
  • https://mcp.particle.pro/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource — RFC 9728 protected-resource metadata pointing at the AS.
  • A 401 from the MCP endpoint carries WWW-Authenticate: Bearer realm="mcp", error="...", resource_metadata="..." so unauthenticated clients can bootstrap.
The Authorization Server’s metadata document at https://api.particle.pro/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server carries the rest (token endpoint, registration endpoint, supported scopes, JWKS URI).

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Next steps

Quickstart

Step-by-step setup with troubleshooting for each client.

Authentication

OAuth 2.1 end-to-end: discovery, registration, PKCE, refresh, revocation.

Tool reference

Every tool, every input, every output.

Tool sets & discovery

Exposure categories, the include/exclude selectors, and the always-callable contract.

Errors

How tool errors surface and how agents should react.