robcerda/rentcast-mcp-server

RentCast MCP Server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for connecting Claude with the RentCast API. It provides tools for accessing property data, valuations, and market statistics through the RentCast API.

Requirements

• Python 3.12 or higher
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Python SDK
• httpx
• python-dotenv

Setup

1. Install uv (recommended)

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

2. Clone this repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/rentcast-mcp-server.git
cd rentcast-mcp-server

3. Create and activate a virtual environment

# Create virtual environment
uv venv

# Activate virtual environment
# On macOS/Linux:
source .venv/bin/activate
# On Windows:
.venv\Scripts\activate

4. Install dependencies

# Option 1: Using uv (recommended)
uv sync

# Option 2: Using pip with requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Option 3: Install as editable package
uv pip install -e .

5. Set up environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root with your RentCast API key:

RENTCAST_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Usage

1. Configure Claude Desktop

First, install the MCP CLI globally:

uv tool install "mcp[cli]"

Then add this server to your Claude Desktop configuration file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "RentCast": {
      "command": "/Users/<USERNAME>/.local/share/uv/tools/mcp/bin/mcp",
      "args": ["run", "/full/path/to/rentcast-mcp-server/src/rentcast_mcp_server/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace /full/path/to/ with the actual absolute path to your rentcast-mcp-server directory.

Restart Claude Desktop after saving the configuration.

2. Use the MCP server with Claude

Once configured, Claude Desktop will have access to these RentCast tools:

• get_property_data: Get detailed property data for a specific property ID
• get_property_valuation: Get property value estimates
• get_rent_estimate: Get rent estimates for a property
• get_market_statistics: Get market statistics for a ZIP code area
• get_property_listings: Get active property listings in a ZIP code area

Example queries to try with Claude:

• "Get market statistics for ZIP code 90210"
• "Show property listings in ZIP code 10001"
• "What are the market trends in ZIP code 02101?"

Development and testing

Install development dependencies and run the test suite with:

uv sync --all-extras
pytest -v tests

Running the server locally

To start the server manually (useful when developing or testing), run:

rentcast-mcp

Alternatively, you can run it directly with:

uv run python src/rentcast_mcp_server/server.py

Installing MCP CLI globally

If you want to use mcp run commands, install the MCP CLI globally:

uv tool install "mcp[cli]"

Then you can run:

mcp run src/rentcast_mcp_server/server.py

License

MIT