Using the Crunch MCP

Introduction

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems.

The Crunch MCP exposes the Crunch API to AI agents enabling users to use their own LLM-driven tool-calling environments for querying and analyzing Crunch data. MCP works as an interface adapter focused on optimizing user workflows.

Configuring Agents

The Crunch MCP requires an API key. Contact support@crunch.io or your account manager to request a key with MCP permissions.

After you have received your API key, configure your agent with URL

https://<your-org-subdomain>.crunch.io/mcp/

Your API key must be configured with custom header "X-Crunch-Api-Token".

Claude

Using the CLI

claude mcp add --transport http crunch \
  https://<your-org-subdomain>.crunch.io/mcp/ \
  --header "X-Crunch-Api-Token: <your-api-key>"

Manually Edit Configuration

An example entry in your Claude configuration file would look like:

      ...
      "mcpServers": {
          "crunch": {
              "type": "http",
              "url": "https://<your-org-subdomain>.crunch.io/mcp/",
              "headers": {
                "X-Crunch-Api-Token": "<your-api-key>"
              }
          }
      },
      ...

Reference: Claude MCP Documentation

Using Crunch MCP

Once you have the MCP configured in your agent, check it is successfully connected (e.g. using /mcp in Claude).

To explore datasets in Crunch, you must ask the LLM to operate on the specific dataset URL or ID. For example, you might want to list demographic variables in dataset test-dataset.

using crunch, list demographic variables in dataset https://<your-org-subdomain>.crunch.io/dataset/ab12cdef

You can ask Crunch to create data tables e.g.

using crunch, show me tv show awareness segmented by gender

The MCP will request you provide the dataset URL if you do not provide it as this example shows.

I'll need your Crunch dataset URL. It should look something like:

  https://<subdomain>.crunch.io/dataset/<dataset_id>/

Have fun exploring your data with natural language!

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