Upriver MCP Server

Know what's gaining traction online: breakout topics in tech, sports & politics, with citations. The upriver mcp server wraps that behind the Model Context Protocol, so an assistant can use it through 5 defined tools rather than through you.

What it actually does

Real-time context on creators, audiences, brands, trends, and sponsorships — for AI applications.

Upriver provides an API that turns what's happening online into real-time, reliable context for AI applications. It delivers evidence-backed signals — each grounded in real sources — across:

Adding it to your client

Being a remote server, there is no local install. You register the endpoint with your client, authorise it once, and the tools appear.

Its toolset

Everything the assistant can do here goes through one of these:

• Cursor — Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project), then connect it in Settings → Tools & Integrations to sign in:
• Cline — Use the Remote Servers tab (Transport: Streamable HTTP), or edit cline_mcp_settings.json — the type field is required, or Cline falls back to
• Windsurf — More clients — Codex CLI, ChatGPT, Goose, Zed
• breakout_search_topics — The breakout_search_topics tool exposed by this server
• breakout_list_topics — Each topic includes its name, vertical, lifecycle status, a momentum signal, and its top citations (title, URL, source category, and publish time)

Configuration

You will need 2 environment variables: YOUR_UPRIVER_API_KEY, UPRIVER_API_KEY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

Caveats

• Your data travels to the provider's service, so the usual questions apply about what you send and what they retain.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the upriver mcp server does with a few real requests.

When to reach for it

Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Upriver's toolset — Cursor, Cline, Windsurf and 2 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by ai.upriver; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

This entry was verified against Upriver's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.