Pod Researcher MCP Server

@pipeworx/pod-researcher

Podcast prospecting for guest booking and sponsorship: given a topic and a purpose, returns active podcasts whose recent episodes cover the topic, each with the best contact route the show itself published, the episodes that prove the fit, and your own outreach history so you never pitch the same show twice.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1867+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

• find_podcast_contacts(topic, purpose, require_route?, language?, country?, active_only?, include_engaged?, limit?, cursor?) — active shows ranked by topical fit, each with best_route (or route_status: "none_found" plus what was checked), evidence episodes, coverage counts and data_as_of. purpose is guest or sponsor; routes designated for that purpose rank first, and a general contact or a person's published address is a labelled fallback. require_route: true returns only shows that have one.
• get_podcast_profile(id) — one show in full: identity, activity status, feed health, latest episodes, every published route. id is a show_id, an RSS feed URL (moved feeds resolve by their old URL) or a podcast:guid.
• refresh_podcast(id) — re-read one show's RSS feed now rather than waiting for its next scheduled check.
• watch_podcast_topic(topic, purpose, ...) / get_podcast_topic_changes(watch_id?) — save a search and get the shows that newly match it.
• record_podcast_outreach(show_id, outcome, scope?, contact_id?) — record contacted / replied / declined / booked / bounced / do_not_contact / clear. Declined and do_not_contact shows leave your searches; a scope: "person" record hides every show that publishes that person's address. Private to your account.
• list_podcast_transcripts(id, episode?, limit?) — which episodes have a publisher-provided transcript and where: reads the show's RSS feed live and lists every episode's Podcasting 2.0 <podcast:transcript> links (URL, declared type, format srt / vtt / json / text / html, language, rel). Episodes without one stay in the list as transcript_status: "no_publisher_transcript"; a show with none says so in note with transcript_coverage: "none" and the episode list intact. id is a show_id, podcast:guid or feed URL (a feed URL the index does not know is read directly).
• search_podcast_transcript(id, query, episode?, format?, limit?, window_seconds?) — passages of one episode's transcript that match a query, each with start / end (hh:mm:ss and seconds), the speakers when the file names them, and matched_terms. Defaults to the newest episode with a transcript; episode takes a guid, URL, episode number or title words. Formats parsed: SRT, WebVTT, Podcasting 2.0 JSON, plain text (timestamped lines, or untimed text returned with timing_note) and HTML. found: false, reason: "no_publisher_transcript" names the episodes that do have one. A feed or file that fails to fetch or parse throws an error naming the upstream HTTP status or the format.

Auth

Keyless to search. watch_podcast_topic, get_podcast_topic_changes and record_podcast_outreach need a signed-in account (an API key from pipeworx.io/signup): outreach history is kept per account, and an anonymous caller has none. This pack runs only on the Pipeworx gateway; a standalone build refuses every call rather than returning an empty list.

Contacts: what is returned and how it is labelled

Every address a show publishes in its own RSS feed or on its own website is returned, labelled:

• holder_type: role (a function inbox such as booking@ or sponsorships@), hosting_account_owner (the itunes:owner address from the feed, usually the host), or person (an individual's own address).
• purpose (guest, sponsor, general) and confidence (designated when the show invited that purpose in words, fallback otherwise), plus match on the best route: designated_for_purpose or general_fallback.
• source_url (the page or feed it was read from) and last_observed.

Addresses are never synthesised. A global removal list is honoured at serve time. record_podcast_outreach never takes an address: a call carrying anything email-shaped is refused without repeating it, and a person-level record stores a SHA-256 of the address, not the address.

Data sources

• Podcast Index open directory (https://podcastindex.org) — which podcasts exist, their feed URLs and identifiers.
• Each show's RSS feed — episodes, publishing cadence, the itunes:owner address and invitation lines in episode notes.
• Each show's own website — its guest, advertise and contact pages.
• Each show's own RSS feed and the transcript file its <podcast:transcript> tag links to (Podcasting 2.0 namespace, https://podcastindex.org/namespace/1.0) — fetched live per call, never stored; every transcript response carries the feed URL, the file URL and the time each was fetched in data_as_of. Transcripts are the publisher's: whether one exists, its accuracy and its timing are theirs.

Matching is on words in episode titles and show notes (the latest ~30 episodes per show), so a show that never names the topic in its notes is not found. Generated-content spam is left out by a classifier that also catches some real shows whose episode notes disclose AI assistance. Contact coverage is still growing: route_check on each result says whether the show's website has been read yet, so "none found" and "not looked at yet" are distinguishable.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pod-researcher": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pod-researcher/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pod-researcher/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1867+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/find_podcast_contacts \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"topic":"AI agents developer infrastructure","purpose":"guest","limit":5}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/find_podcast_contacts. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-pod-researcher is a local stdio bridge to the Pipeworx gateway: your MCP client starts it with npx, and it forwards every call to the same https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pod-researcher/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pod-researcher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-pod-researcher"]
    }
  }
}

Without a key it calls anonymously, capped at 50 calls a day. A free account raises that to 200 a day: get a key at https://pipeworx.io/signup and add "env": { "PIPEWORX_API_KEY": "<your key>" } to the server entry. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a hosted connection sends it, so calls are metered and billed exactly as they are there.

It lists only this pack's tools by default. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to also list ask_pipeworx and the other gateway-wide tools.

Behind an HTTPS proxy: Node's built-in fetch does not read HTTPS_PROXY by default. Newer Node releases honour it when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is set; check your Node version's documentation.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Pod Researcher data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT