Tako

Plugin (recommended) — installs the MCP connection plus Tako's bundled lookup and research skills in one step, and works immediately on the free tier — no API key to mint or manage:

claude plugin marketplace add TakoData/tako-mcpclaude plugin install tako@tako

That's it — tako_search works right away on the anonymous free tier. To unlock the full toolset and your own account limits, authenticate once with OAuth: run /mcp inside Claude Code, select tako, and choose Authenticate. A browser opens to sign you in with your Tako account and a per-host API key is minted for you automatically (visible and revocable at tako.com/console/api-keys). The same OAuth flow powers the plugin on Claude.ai — the plugin's Tako connector connects with a click, no token pasting.

If you previously added the server with claude mcp add, remove it first (claude mcp remove tako-mcp) so you don't end up with two copies of every tool.

Updating from an earlier plugin version? Older releases asked for a Tako API key in the plugin config; that setting is gone, so after updating your connection silently lands on the anonymous tier (tako_search runs; the rest asks you to sign in) — nothing errors, but your account limits are no longer active. Run /mcp → tako → Authenticate once (or use the Connect button on Claude.ai) to restore full authenticated access.

Or add the MCP server directly (then authenticate in place via /mcp → tako → Authenticate):

claude mcp add tako --transport http https://mcp.tako.com/mcp

Verify with claude mcp list (should show tako connected) or /mcp inside a session.

Use the one-click badge above, or add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json — Cursor prompts you to sign in on first use:

{  "mcpServers": {    "tako": {      "type": "http",      "url": "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"    }  }}

Add to your Windsurf MCP config — Windsurf prompts you to sign in on first use:

{  "mcpServers": {    "tako": {      "type": "http",      "url": "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"    }  }}

Add to .vscode/mcp.json (workspace) or your user mcp.json — VS Code prompts you to sign in on first use:

{  "servers": {    "tako": {      "type": "http",      "url": "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"    }  }}

Extension (recommended) installs in one command, and works immediately on the free tier with no API key to mint or manage:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/TakoData/tako-mcp

That installs the MCP connection, Tako's bundled lookup and research skills, and three commands:

To unlock the full toolset and your own account limits, authenticate once: run /mcp auth tako inside Gemini CLI. A browser opens to sign you in with your Tako account, and a per-host API key is minted for you automatically (visible and revocable at tako.com/console/api-keys).

Manual config: if you'd rather not install the extension, or you want to pin a ?tools= allowlist, add to ~/.gemini/settings.json (authenticate later with /mcp auth tako):

{  "mcpServers": {    "tako": {      "httpUrl": "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"    }  }}

To use an API key instead, add a headers block with "Authorization": "Bearer <key>" — but fill it completely: Gemini substitutes unset ${VAR} references literally, and a malformed Authorization header is rejected rather than ignored, so a half-filled token breaks the connection where no token at all would have worked.

Add to opencode.json — OpenCode prompts you to sign in on first use:

{  "mcp": {    "tako": {      "type": "remote",      "url": "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp",      "enabled": true    }  }}

Codex connects to remote servers through the mcp-remote bridge, which runs the sign-in flow in your browser on first connect:

[mcp_servers.tako]command = "npx"args = ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"]

Add to Zed settings.json (via the mcp-remote bridge, which runs the sign-in flow in your browser on first connect):

{  "context_servers": {    "tako": {      "source": "custom",      "command": "npx",      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp"]    }  }}

The consumer chat hosts don't accept Bearer tokens. claude_desktop_config.json only validates stdio servers, so a remote "type": "http" entry there is silently dropped — Claude Desktop connects through Connectors like Claude.ai. The hosted endpoint runs an OAuth 2.1 flow that signs you in with your Tako account and mints a per-host key for you automatically.

Prerequisites: just sign in at tako.com with the identity you'll authorize. You do not mint a token yourself — the consent flow creates a per-host key (named MCP: <client>, visible and revocable at tako.com/console/api-keys). Connecting a new host never rotates another host's key; Tako trims your oldest MCP key past ten.

[tako.com API keys]

Claude.ai (requires Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise)

1. Open Claude.ai → Settings → Connectors
2. Click Add custom connector
3. Paste https://mcp.tako.com/mcp and click Connect
4. Complete the Tako sign-in flow; Tako then appears as connected

[Claude.ai Settings → Connectors]

Claude Desktop (same plan requirement as Claude.ai)

1. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Connectors
2. Click Add custom connector
3. Paste https://mcp.tako.com/mcp and click Connect
4. Complete the Tako sign-in flow; Tako then appears as connected

ChatGPT — install the Tako app from ChatGPT's app directory (it connects via OAuth and uses the app surface at https://mcp.tako.com/mcp/chatgpt). To hand-add it as a custom connector instead (requires Pro, Business, or Enterprise; Developer Mode enabled):

1. Open ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors → Developer Mode and toggle it on
2. Click Create custom connector
3. Paste https://mcp.tako.com/mcp/chatgpt and click Connect
4. Complete the Tako sign-in flow; the connector is then listed and ready

The /mcp/chatgpt surface is OAuth-only and tuned for ChatGPT (interactive chart widget, a fixed seven-tool listing; ?tools= is ignored there). The generic /mcp URL also works there. It sends the chart widget only to a client whose initialize declares MCP Apps support, and chart images to any other client.

[ChatGPT connector connected]

During connect you'll see three Tako-hosted screens regardless of host: a sign-in page (Google, or your Tako email and password), a consent page ("Connect [host] to Tako — Allow / Cancel"), then a bounce back to the host. The host may show its own consent prompt too — that's normal.

[mcp.tako.com sign-in] [mcp.tako.com consent]

Disconnecting. A per-host disconnect (remove the connector in host settings) stops that host only; other hosts and Bearer-auth clients keep working. To hard-kill everything, rotate your key at tako.com/console/api-keys — every previously-issued grant across every host stops authenticating immediately.

Two tools, one step apart — tako_search finds, tako_contents fetches:

• Broad or multi-part questions → parallel narrow searches. Decompose into single entity+metric queries fired concurrently — e.g. "US CPI inflation", "US core CPI inflation", "US PCE inflation" — then synthesize yourself.
• Questions about what Tako covers → tako_available_data. It returns the metric's exact name, and a miss there still leaves web search.

Specific question → search, then fetch the rows:

1. User asks: "What was US GDP in 2024?"
2. Agent calls tako_search; the top card carries the headline value and its chart
3. For the series itself, the agent calls tako_contents on that card's url, then answers with the chart inline

Data to work with → parallel tako_search (synthesize yourself):

1. User asks: "Compare US CPI, core CPI, PCE, and core PCE inflation."
2. Agent fires four narrow tako_search calls concurrently — one per entity+metric
3. Each returns a card with headline values (every card renders as a chart on the ChatGPT app and in other hosts that declare MCP Apps support; the first card's chart image renders elsewhere)
4. Agent synthesizes the four results, calling tako_contents on a card's url if it needs full rows (when the card is exportable: true)

Copy the block below and paste it into Claude Code. It will set up the MCP connection and skill for you.

Step 1: Install or update Tako MCP
If Tako MCP already exists in your config, update it to this endpoint. Run this in your terminal:
claude mcp add tako-mcp --transport http "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp?tools=search,available_data,contents,graph_related,agent,company_agent,visualize" --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAKO_API_TOKEN"

Step 2: Add this Claude skill
---name: tako-searchdescription: >-  Use when you need to look something up: current events, facts, figures, or pages on any topic. Also use it when the answer needs a calculation over real-world data. Tako searches the web and a knowledge graph of licensed data in one call, and returns web results, plus a structured, cited card when the graph has one.---
# Tako
Tako searches the web and a knowledge graph of licensed and public data in one call. The graph covers companies, business professionals, markets, economies, sports, weather, prediction markets, websites, and more, and refreshes much of it during the day. When the graph has the answer, the result leads with a card: a headline value, its source, and a chart. A search also returns web results unless the connection searches Tako data only. All tools below live on the Tako MCP server installed in Step 1.
## Look something up
1. Search first. Call `tako_search` once per question, naming the entity and what you want: "Apple revenue", "Lakers last game score", "US CPI inflation", "EU AI Act timeline". For a comparison, name both entities in one query: "Nvidia vs AMD gross margin". Run independent searches in parallel.2. Query website traffic by domain: "netflix.com monthly visits", not "Netflix website visits".3. If a card comes back, check that it answers the question: the same entity, metric, and unit. For example, operating income isn't operating margin. Read the value from the card's `description`. To compute something from the card's rows, such as a growth rate, an average, or a correlation, follow **Compute over a series**.4. If no card answers the question, answer from the web results. To read a page in full, pass its url to `tako_contents`.5. If a name is ambiguous, such as "Costco" or "Coca-Cola", and the question doesn't settle which entity, ask before quoting a number.
If the user asks for Tako's agent and the `tako-agent` skill is installed, follow `tako-agent` instead.
## Find professionals and companies
`tako_search` finds business professionals and companies for B2B research, prospecting, and recruiting, and returns them as a list card. Each row is one professional or company, with their title, employer, location, LinkedIn, and a `tako_url` to their own page. Use it when the user wants the professionals or companies themselves: a list of prospects or candidates, or the professional record of someone they name.
**Professionals by role and place.** Name who and where.
- Who: a role or title ("engineers", "CFO", "VPs of sales", "head of marketing", "founders", "interns"), or a word for a company's people ("employees", "staff", "leadership team"). "Executives", "leadership", and "management" return C-suite and VP-level people.- Where: an employer, a place, or both: "engineers at Stripe", "CFOs in Austin", "engineers at Google in London". A place needs a role, so "people in Austin" returns no list. A role alone ("CFOs") and an employer alone ("Stripe") also return no list.- To find who holds a role at one company, search the role and the company: "Airbnb CFO" or "who is the CFO of Airbnb".- Give a city its state or country: "engineers in Portland, OR". A bare city name matches every place with that name.
**A professional by name.** Search the full name alone, such as "Jane Doe". The list holds everyone with that name.
- Leave out everything else the user told you, such as the employer or title. Search reads every word as part of the name, so "Jane Doe Stripe" returns no list. Use those details to pick the person from the rows.- Search doesn't match nicknames: "Tim Cook" and "Timothy Cook" return different people. If no row fits, try the other form of the name.- A common name can match hundreds of people, and the rows can't be filtered by employer. If the person isn't in the first rows, fetch more and match on employer, title, and location.
**Companies by industry or type**, plus a place, a size, a funding stage, public or private, or a founding year: "fintechs in London", "SaaS companies with 50–500 employees", "Series B startups in Berlin", "AI startups founded since 2020".
Then read the list:
1. The card's `description` doesn't name the matches. To see them, pass the card's url to `tako_contents` with `max_rows` set to the rows the answer needs, such as 25. Fetch the full list, up to 1,000 rows, only when the user asks for it.2. Check each row before you use it. A name list holds everyone with that name, and a company name can match more than one company. If more than one row fits the person the user means, ask which one.3. Each row's `tako_url` opens that one person or company in Tako. Link it.4. Tako withholds premium cells, such as business contact fields. A list card shows each one as 🔒, and the result's `note` names the withheld columns. Don't tell the user that a withheld field is empty. When the user asks for those fields, call `tako_contents` again with `premium: true` for only the rows they want, because Tako bills each of those rows. For one row, pass that row's `tako_url` with `max_rows: 1`, and Tako returns only that row. For several rows, set `offset` and `max_rows` instead. The row order can change between calls, so check the name on each row you get.5. A list can't filter on revenue, investors, registry status, or a company's officers and directors. If the question needs one of those, say so. If the `tako-agent` skill is installed, offer Tako's company agent.6. If no list card comes back, follow the result's `guidance` when it has one. Otherwise, tell the user that Tako found no list. If the `tako-agent` skill is installed, offer Tako's company agent.
## Compute over a series
Compute in code, never in your head: growth rates, averages, CAGR, correlations, and rankings. Report what the code prints. Only a card marked `exportable: true` has rows to fetch.
1. **If you can run shell commands**, call `tako_contents` with `delivery: "link"`, then download the file right away: `curl -sfL -o <name>.csv "<url>"`. The link expires 5 minutes after the call. Analyze the file in a script and read only the result, so the rows never enter your context. If the result says `truncated`, call again with a higher `max_rows`, up to 100,000.2. **If the download fails**, your shell may have no network access. Call `tako_contents` again without `delivery`, with `max_rows` at 2,000 or less, and pass the inline rows to your code tool.3. **If you have no shell**, or `tako_contents` has no `delivery` input, fetch the rows inline and pass them to your code tool. With no code tool at all, show each step of the arithmetic so the user can check it.4. **If `tako_contents` has a `format` input**, set `format: "card"` for a card's own structure, such as a company card's tabs.
## Explore what Tako has
For questions about coverage or relationships, such as "What does Tako track for Tesla?", "Who competes with Nvidia?", or "Which countries are in the G7?", resolve the entity with `tako_available_data`. Then call `tako_graph_related` on the node id it returns.
## Report
- Lead with the answer in one or two lines. The top card renders inline as a chart, so refer to it in prose; don't re-post its image URL.- Name the source: the card's `source`, or the web page you used.- Link the card you used: `[Open in Tako](url)`.- If the series ended well before today, give its as-of date from `coverage_end`.
Step 3: Ask the user to restart Claude Code
Ask the user to restart Claude Code so the config change takes effect.

Copy the block below and paste it into Claude Code. It will set up the MCP connection and skill for you.

Step 1: Install or update Tako MCP
If Tako MCP already exists in your config, update it to this endpoint. Run this in your terminal:
claude mcp add tako-mcp --transport http "https://mcp.tako.com/mcp?tools=search,available_data,contents,graph_related,agent,company_agent,visualize" --header "Authorization: Bearer $TAKO_API_TOKEN"

Step 2: Add this Claude skill
---name: tako-agentdescription: >-  Use when the user explicitly asks for Tako's research agent or for deep, multi-step research with Tako, such as "use the Tako agent to…", "have Tako research…", or "use Tako's company agent to…". Tako's agents plan the steps, search the web and licensed data, and return a cited answer with charts or lists. For any other question, use tako-search, even one that needs a ranking or a calculation.---
# Tako agents
Tako's agents run multi-step research. An agent plans its own steps, searches the web and Tako's licensed data, computes what the question asks for, and returns a cited answer with charts or lists. All tools below live on the Tako MCP server installed in Step 1.
## When to use an agent
Start an agent only when the user asks for one: they name Tako's agent or ask for deep or multi-step research with Tako. Otherwise, use `tako-search`, even when the question needs a ranking, a trend, a calculation, or a list of companies or professionals. Don't start an agent for a task that needs no data, such as writing, editing, or explaining a concept.
## Choose the agent
After the user asks for an agent, choose it by what they want back:
- Use `tako_company_agent` when the user names the Company Agent or asks the agent for a list of companies or of the professionals at them: companies by location, industry, status, founding date, funding, or size, or the officers, directors, executives, or employees of those companies.- Use `tako_agent` for anything else, such as a chart, a written finding, or a ranking of companies by a metric.
## Run an agent
1. Send the user's question in `query`, one question per call. The agent plans its own steps, so don't split the question.2. If `status` is `running`, call the same tool again with that `run_id` and no `query`. Don't start a new run for the same question.3. If a call fails before it returns a `run_id`, follow its guidance. If the guidance says the run may have started, ask the user before you retry.4. For a follow-up in the same conversation, pass the `thread_id` from the earlier run with the new `query`.
## Effort
`tako_company_agent` takes `effort`. Leave it unset for the default, `medium`. Use `high` only when the user asks for a thorough answer. Don't use `low` when the question filters by a financial metric such as revenue or headcount, because `low` can't. A thread keeps its effort, so omit `effort` on a follow-up.
## Report
- Lead with the agent's answer in a few lines, and keep its numbered citations.- Link each card the agent returns: `[Open in Tako](url)`. The full chart or list lives on that page.- If the agent says it couldn't answer part of the question, say so.
Step 3: Ask the user to restart Claude Code
Ask the user to restart Claude Code so the config change takes effect.

• tako_answer is gone, and ?tools=answer no longer resolves to anything. Synthesis is include_answer: true on tako_search_advanced, which reaches the same endpoint. answer is now an unknown token: it is dropped, so ?tools=answer alone falls back to the four default tools — none of which synthesize. Update the URL to ?tools=search,available_data,contents,search_advanced.
• ?tools= now replaces the default listing instead of adding to it (tokens are tool names, e.g. ?tools=search,contents,agent). tako_graph_search, tako_graph_node, tako_agent_start, tako_agent_wait, get_credit_balance, and tako_credit_balance were removed; tako_graph_related is listed by default. See docs/TOOLS.md.
• ?tools=agent no longer changes the ChatGPT app surface. https://mcp.tako.com/mcp/chatgpt?tools=agent was the documented way to reach the Answer Agent there. ?tools= is now ignored on /mcp/chatgpt, and its fixed listing includes tako_agent and tako_company_agent. A call returns within 45 s, inside ChatGPT's ~60 s per-call ceiling, and a run that's still going returns a run_id to resume with.
• tako_search takes four parameters — query, sources, country_code, locale. include_contents, preview_rows, effort, count, node_ids and strict are gone, and it declares no defaults of its own, so an omitted field takes the v3 API's. Rows come from tako_contents on an exportable: true card's url. Every removed option, plus effort: deep, include_domains, exclude_domains, category, max_rows and content_format, lives on the new opt-in tako_search_advanced (?tools=search_advanced).
• tako_contents takes four parameters — urls (now required), max_rows, max_chars, query. The deprecated single url, plus content_format and mode, are gone: every call is delivered inline, and a card's rows come back as one projected rows shape ({columns, rows, total_rows}, positional cells, null for a missing value) rather than CSV or a choice of JSON. download_url, expires_at, data, records, dataset and format left the output with them. Its max_rows documentation said "20-row default"; the real default is the whole card, up to 2,000 rows. /mcp later added delivery, format, offset and premium as optional inputs. /mcp/chatgpt later added offset and premium too, and its calls are still delivered inline.
• tako_agent returns the answer itself instead of a run envelope. Its structuredContent used to carry {run_id, status, timed_out, thread_id} and nothing else — the answer, the citations and the cards existed in the markdown text only, so a host that reads structuredContent and drops content saw a uuid and the word completed. Both channels now carry status, run_id, answer, cards, citations, definitions, assumptions, methodology, thread_id, usage, guidance and error, plus a message while a run is still going. timed_out left the output. usage is new. Per card, methodologies, metric_definitions, content, card_id, card_type, semantic_description, source_indexes, nodes, relevance and relevance_score are gone; per citation, source_name, excerpt and content are gone, and publish_date arrives as a date-only published.
• sources: "tako" — a synonym for "data" — was removed from tako_search, tako_answer and tako_agent.
• tako_available_data's next_call carries only tool and query now, and tool names whichever search tool the connection registers rather than always tako_search. The query names both halves by their canonical graph names, because tako_search matches the graph's own names; the pin is gone because tako_search no longer accepts one.
• tako_available_data and tako_graph_related renamed most of their output. node_id is id everywhere in the OUTPUT (the input parameter keeps its name), other_matches is candidates, entity_alternates / metric_alternates are entity_candidates / metric_candidates, and coverage.capped is coverage.total_capped. subtype and label collapse into one kind. The summary prose field is gone: a short guidance string now carries the verdict on the branches that have one. Dropped entirely: coverage.kind, coverage.names, the relation group's kind, each related item's type and label, inferred_labels, candidate aliases, and the query / metric_query echoes. tako_graph_related's map previews names only — ids come from drilling the relation.

v0.3.0:

• The tool surface was reorganized into a small default listing plus ?tools= opt-ins, and ?tools= group aliases (graph, credits, answer, visualize, agent) were introduced. Both the aliases and several of those tools are gone — see the entry above and docs/TOOLS.md for the current surface.
• The chart-image (get_chart_image), interactive-chart (open_chart_ui), chart-creation (create_chart), and report tools (create_report, get_report, list_reports, export_report) were removed.
• The self-hosted Python server (pip install tako-mcp / Docker) was removed in favor of the hosted Cloudflare Worker.

Update any client config or agent prompts that referenced the old tool names or the Python SSE endpoint.

Tako is published to the official MCP Registry as a remote server under io.github.TakoData/tako-mcp.

• server.json (repo root) is the registry descriptor: a remote streamable-http entry pointing at https://mcp.tako.com/mcp. The schema doesn't list tools — hosts discover them at runtime via tools/list. (Distinct from registry/server.json, the generated in-repo tool catalog used by npm run registry:gen / registry:check.)
• Publishing is automated by .github/workflows/publish-mcp.yml, authenticating via GitHub OIDC (no secret). The version lives in code: bump server.json's version, merge to main, and it publishes automatically. A merge that doesn't change the version is a no-op.
• Branded namespace (com.tako/tako-mcp) is a future upgrade requiring DNS authentication (Ed25519 key + TXT record on tako.com).
• Versioning & changelog are automated via release-please. Contributors use Conventional Commit PR titles (squash-merge); maintainers cut a release by merging the bot's release: X.Y.Z PR. See AGENTS.md → Releases.