gdelt-mcp-server

v0.4.1 pre-1.0

Search and analyze global news coverage and US television transcripts via the GDELT Project's real-time APIs via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.

gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http gdelt-mcp-server https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp
codex mcp add gdelt-mcp-server --url https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gdelt-mcp-server": {
      "url": "https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
gemini mcp add --transport http gdelt-mcp-server https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gdelt-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gdelt-mcp-server": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
curl -X POST https://gdelt.caseyjhand.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "MCP-Protocol-Version: 2026-07-28" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2026-07-28","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"curl","version":"1.0.0"}}}'

Tools

9

gdelt_search_articles

open-world

Search the last 3 months of global news coverage (65+ languages) using the GDELT DOC API. Returns up to 250 articles with URL, title, source domain, language, country, publication date, and social image URL. Query supports full GDELT syntax: phrases ("bird flu"), boolean OR ((flu OR pandemic)), source country (sourcecountry:china), source language (sourcelang:spanish), domain (domain:who.int), GKG theme (theme:DISEASE_OUTBREAK), tone filter (tone<-5 for negative), proximity (near20:"flu virus"), and repeat (repeat3:"outbreak"). 250 is a hard per-call ceiling and GDELT offers no cursor: when a query fills it, split the run into narrower startDatetime/endDatetime windows — the response hands back the exact windows to use. Note: this API covers only the most recent 3 months — use gdelt_search_tv for historical TV transcripts back to 2009.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_search_articles",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query. Supports GDELT operators: phrases (\"bird flu\"), boolean OR ((flu OR pandemic)), sourcecountry:china, sourcelang:spanish, domain:who.int, theme:DISEASE_OUTBREAK, tone<-5, near20:\"flu virus\", repeat3:\"outbreak\"."
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window relative to now, minimum \"15min\"; other examples: \"24h\", \"7d\", \"1m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. Maximum is 3 months (the full DOC API window). Defaults to the full 3-month window.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start of date range in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240101000000). Must be supplied together with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End of date range in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240131235959). Must be supplied together with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "maxRecords": {
      "default": 75,
      "description": "Maximum number of articles to return (1–250). 250 is GDELT's hard per-call ceiling, not a page size — there is no cursor past it, so a query that fills 250 must be split into narrower startDatetime/endDatetime windows instead.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 250
    },
    "sort": {
      "default": "relevance",
      "description": "Sort order: relevance (default), dateDesc/dateAsc, toneDesc/toneAsc, or hybridRel (GDELT hybrid relevance and recency).",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "relevance",
        "dateDesc",
        "dateAsc",
        "toneDesc",
        "toneAsc",
        "hybridRel"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "maxRecords",
    "sort"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_get_coverage_timeline

open-world

Retrieve a time series showing when news coverage of a topic spiked, or how average tone shifted over time. Use mode "volume" for normalized coverage intensity (% of all global coverage per timestep). Use mode "volume_with_articles" for the same signal plus the top articles that drove each spike — this is the primary signal-detection mode: a single call reveals both the spike and its cause, avoiding a follow-up gdelt_search_articles call. Use mode "tone" for average sentiment score per timestep (negative = hostile/fearful, positive = celebratory). Date resolution is inferred from returned intervals: 15 minutes or hours for short windows, days for longer ones. In volume_with_articles mode the text surface shows the first 3 article links per timestep next to that timestep's true article count; name a timestep's date in points to render its full list. Note: DOC API covers only the last 3 months.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_get_coverage_timeline",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query using GDELT syntax. Same operators as gdelt_search_articles: phrases, boolean OR, sourcecountry:, sourcelang:, domain:, theme:, tone<."
    },
    "mode": {
      "default": "volume",
      "description": "Timeline mode: \"volume\" returns normalized coverage % per timestep, \"volume_with_articles\" returns volume plus top articles per spike (best for signal detection), \"tone\" returns average sentiment score per timestep.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "volume",
        "volume_with_articles",
        "tone"
      ]
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window relative to now, minimum \"15min\"; other examples: \"24h\", \"7d\", \"1m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. Maximum 3 months.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "smoothing": {
      "description": "Smoothing window in timesteps (0 = none, 1–5 = moving average width). Reduces noise for spotty topics.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 5
    },
    "points": {
      "description": "Timestep dates whose complete article list should be rendered in the text surface, e.g. [\"2024-01-05T12:00:00Z\"]. Take them verbatim from series[].data[].date in a prior response, or from the list an unknown_point error prints. Only affects volume_with_articles rendering — every timestep already carries its full article list in structuredContent regardless. Timesteps not named here show their first 3 links; a date matching no timestep is rejected rather than silently ignored.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "mode"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_get_tone_distribution

open-world

Get the tonal distribution of articles matching a query as a histogram (bins approximately -30 to +30). Unlike a single average tone score, the histogram reveals whether coverage is uniformly negative, bimodal (some articles extremely positive and some extremely negative), or clustered near neutral. Each bin includes representative article URLs. Distinct from gdelt_get_coverage_timeline (mode: tone) — this is a snapshot distribution across all matching articles, not a time series. Use gdelt_get_coverage_timeline with mode "tone" to see how sentiment shifted over time.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_get_tone_distribution",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query using GDELT syntax. Same operators as gdelt_search_articles: phrases, boolean OR, sourcecountry:, sourcelang:, domain:, theme:."
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window relative to now, minimum \"15min\"; other examples: \"24h\", \"7d\", \"1m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. Maximum 3 months.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_get_coverage_breakdown

open-world

Break down news coverage volume over time by source language or source country, returning a multi-series time series (one series per language or country). Shows which countries or languages drove early vs. late coverage — useful for tracing how a story propagated geographically or across language communities. Returns up to 10 series by total volume and aggregates the rest into an "Other" bucket, naming every series it folded in there under otherSeriesLabels — pass any of those labels back as the series input to get that series complete, ranked or not. Values are normalized: each point is the topic's share of media output, not an absolute article count. Small media markets with concentrated coverage therefore rank above large markets with diverse output — a high value means the topic dominated that source's coverage, not that it published the most articles. Use breakdownBy "country" with the signal-detection chain to map geographic attention, or "language" to detect non-English media surges.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_get_coverage_breakdown",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>",
      "breakdownBy": "<breakdownBy>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query using GDELT syntax. Same operators as gdelt_search_articles: phrases, boolean OR, sourcecountry:, sourcelang:, domain:, theme:."
    },
    "breakdownBy": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "language",
        "country"
      ],
      "description": "Breakdown dimension: \"language\" for source language time series, \"country\" for source country time series."
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window relative to now, minimum \"15min\"; other examples: \"24h\", \"7d\", \"1m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. Maximum 3 months.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20240131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "series": {
      "description": "Exact series labels to additionally return in full, e.g. [\"Portuguese\", \"Vietnamese\"]. Take them verbatim from otherSeriesLabels (the series folded into \"Other\") or topSeries[].label in a response, or from the label list an unknown_series error prints. Each one comes back complete under selectedSeries, on top of the usual top-10 overview; a label that matches nothing is rejected rather than silently skipped. Omit to get the overview alone.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "breakdownBy"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_search_tv

open-world

Search US television news closed captions (2009–October 2024, 150+ stations) for spoken mentions of a query. Returns a bounded, paged per-station time series showing airtime devoted to the topic. Use the stations parameter to select networks (e.g. ["CNN", "FOXNEWS", "MSNBC"]) — the TV API requires at least one station, supplied either there or as a station: selector inside query. TV query also supports in-query operators: station:CNN, network:CBS, market:"National", show:"Anderson Cooper 360", context:"vaccine". Important: most station monitoring ended October 2024 — use gdelt_list_tv_stations to verify active date ranges before querying recent events.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_search_tv",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query for TV transcript content. Supports TV operators: station:CNN, network:CBS, market:\"National\", show:\"Anderson Cooper\", context:\"vaccine\". Boolean OR and phrase operators also work."
    },
    "stations": {
      "description": "Up to 10 station IDs to filter to (e.g. [\"CNN\", \"FOXNEWS\", \"MSNBC\"]). The GDELT TV API requires at least one station — supply it here, or embed a station: selector directly in query. Omitting both is rejected; it does not fall back to all stations. Use gdelt_list_tv_stations to see valid station IDs.",
      "maxItems": 10,
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window, e.g. \"1m\", \"6m\", \"1y\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. TV data spans 2009–October 2024.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "smoothing": {
      "description": "Smoothing window in timesteps (0 = none). Reduces noise for sporadic topics.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 5
    },
    "normalize": {
      "default": true,
      "description": "When true (default), values are normalized as % of total airtime, enabling cross-station comparison. When false, returns raw matching 15-second clip counts.",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "dateres": {
      "description": "Optional GDELT aggregation resolution. Omit to let GDELT choose from the query window; the effective recognized or inferred resolution is returned as dateResolution.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "hour",
        "day",
        "week",
        "month",
        "year"
      ]
    },
    "offset": {
      "default": 0,
      "description": "Zero-based point offset into the deterministic date-then-station ordering. Use nextOffset from the preceding response with the same query inputs to retrieve the next page.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    },
    "limit": {
      "default": 500,
      "description": "Maximum timeline points returned in this response (1–500).",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 500
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "normalize",
    "offset",
    "limit"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_get_tv_clips

open-world

Retrieve the top matching TV news clips (up to 3,000) for a query from the Internet Archive's Television News Archive. Each clip includes show name, station, air timestamp, a 15-second transcript excerpt, and a direct link to view the full one-minute clip. Use after gdelt_search_tv to read the actual transcript content driving a coverage spike. 3,000 is a hard per-call ceiling and GDELT offers no cursor: when a query fills it, split the run into narrower startDatetime/endDatetime windows — the response hands back the exact windows to use. Archive coverage spans 2009–October 2024.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_get_tv_clips",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query for TV transcript content. Same TV operators as gdelt_search_tv: station:CNN, network:CBS, market:\"National\", show:\"Anderson Cooper\", context:\"vaccine\"."
    },
    "stations": {
      "description": "Station IDs to filter to (e.g. [\"CNN\", \"FOXNEWS\"]). The GDELT TV API requires at least one station — supply it here, or embed a station: selector directly in query. Omitting both is rejected; it does not fall back to all stations. Use gdelt_list_tv_stations to see valid IDs.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window, e.g. \"1m\", \"6m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. TV data spans 2009–October 2024.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "maxRecords": {
      "default": 50,
      "description": "Maximum number of clips to return (1–3000). 3000 is GDELT's hard per-call ceiling, not a page size — there is no cursor past it, so a query that fills 3000 must be split into narrower startDatetime/endDatetime windows instead.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 3000
    },
    "sort": {
      "default": "relevance",
      "description": "Sort order: relevance (default), dateDesc (newest first), dateAsc (oldest first).",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "relevance",
        "dateDesc",
        "dateAsc"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "maxRecords",
    "sort"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_get_tv_context

open-world

Get the top co-occurring words and phrases from TV news clips matching a query — the vocabulary framing a topic on television. Returns the most frequent non-stopword terms from matching clips, with relative frequency scores (0–100, where 100 = the query term itself). Use to understand narrative framing, identify related concepts mentioned alongside a topic, or generate follow-up search terms. TV data spans 2009–October 2024.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_get_tv_context",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    }
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Search query for TV transcript content. Same TV operators as gdelt_search_tv: station:CNN, network:CBS, market:\"National\", show:\"Anderson Cooper\", context:\"vaccine\"."
    },
    "stations": {
      "description": "Station IDs to filter to (e.g. [\"CNN\", \"FOXNEWS\"]). The GDELT TV API requires at least one station — supply it here, or embed a station: selector directly in query. Omitting both is rejected; it does not fall back to all stations. Use gdelt_list_tv_stations to see valid IDs.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "timespan": {
      "description": "Time window, e.g. \"1m\", \"6m\". Ignored when startDatetime/endDatetime are set. TV data spans 2009–October 2024.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "startDatetime": {
      "description": "Start datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200101000000). Must pair with endDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected. TV data spans 2009–October 2024.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    },
    "endDatetime": {
      "description": "End datetime in GDELT format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS — exactly 14 digits, no separators (e.g. 20200131235959). Must pair with startDatetime; supplying only one of the two is rejected.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{14}$"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗

gdelt_list_tv_stations

List all television stations available for TV search with their market, network, monitoring start date, and monitoring end date. Stations with an end date within the last 24 hours are flagged as active; stations with earlier end dates are discontinued. Use before querying to verify a station was active during the target time period, or to discover valid station IDs for the stations parameter in other TV tools. Most station monitoring ended October 2024 when the Internet Archive TV feed stopped updating.

read
invocation
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "gdelt_list_tv_stations",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}
schema
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "additionalProperties": false
}
view source ↗