What is the difference between tags and categories?

Categories are a strict hierarchy (one parent, many children). Tags are flat labels. each series can have many tags across dimensions: geography (usa), frequency (monthly), topic (gdp), source (bls). Combine tags for powerful cross-dimensional filtering.

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Use FRED with your AI.

Connect your account once and let the AI you already use work with it, without building another integration. Discover FRED series through intelligent tagging: search tags like 'gdp', 'inflation', 'monthly', combine multiple tags to find exactly the right series, and ex

Included with plan

Ask AI about this Connector

Developed, maintained, and hosted by Vinkius.

MCP VERIFIED · PRODUCTION READY · VINKIUS GUARANTEED

Waiting for input…

Works with modern AI clients that support MCP, including ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and more.

Complete set · 3 capabilities

The complete FRED capability set.

These are the exact actions your AI can choose when you ask it to work with FRED.

Capability set01 / 01

01-03

3 capabilities in this set.

Part of 3 available through FRED.

01
Get series by tags
Powerful for discovering related series. Example: tag_names="usa;gdp" returns all US GDP series. Combine with exclude_tag_names to refine. Get FRED series matching specific tags
02
Search tags
Search by text or get all tags. Tags include geographic (usa, europe), topic (gdp, inflation), source (bls, bea), and frequency (monthly, quarterly) labels. Search or browse FRED tags
03
List sources
List all FRED data sources

Observed, not estimated

820ms average. Fast in production.

FRED is checked daily against the live service.

Daily averagePeak 1034ms

Aug 20Today

Fastest day: 677ms
Slowest day: 1034ms
14-day trend: Slowing+14%

Connect your client

One URL. Every client.

Activate the Connector, copy your link, and paste it into the client you already use. 3 capabilities arrive ready to run.

Preview access · not provider authentication

The vk_preview_* token belongs to Vinkius preview infrastructure. It lets Claude discover and display the capabilities of FRED, so you can see the experience inside your AI.

It does not authenticate your account with FRED. Actions requiring credentials or live account data may not run until you activate the Connector and authorize the service.

FRED Connector

You're all set. Choose your MCP client and follow the setup instructions.

Connector linkhttps://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_gSpxwBSlmBoTh0qkNEnTwJGqQpGQLWCmnpo1UhkQ/mcp

Claude Desktop

Follow the steps below to connect in seconds.

1In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
2Click “Add custom connector” and paste the connector link above as the remote MCP server URL.
3Click Add and start a new chat — FRED capabilities are ready to use.

Configuration · claude_desktop_config.jsonCopy

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fred-tags-sources-data-discovery-mcp": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_gSpxwBSlmBoTh0qkNEnTwJGqQpGQLWCmnpo1UhkQ/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor
VS Code
Windsurf
Claude Code
JetBrains
Cline

Step-by-step instructions for each client are in the guide. How to connect

FAQ

Questions FRED owners ask.

01
What is the difference between tags and categories?
Categories are a strict hierarchy (one parent, many children). Tags are flat labels. each series can have many tags across dimensions: geography (usa), frequency (monthly), topic (gdp), source (bls). Combine tags for powerful cross-dimensional filtering.

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