Agents call three tools or one REST POST. Boards are snapshots. Keyword history is weekly. This is not a dashboard product and not a tick feed.
A trend data API for AI agents is Trends MCP: three read-only tools, or one REST POST, on a Bearer key from the account page. The agent calls get_top_trends for a live ranked feed (no keyword; MCP requires type), get_growth for percent change on a source plus keyword, and get_trends for the weekly series. REST uses mode get_top_trends, get_growth, or get_time_series (alias get_trends) on https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api. This is not a dashboard the agent must click. It is also not last-sale.
The tick-shaped sibling is real-time trends API. Google-only REST shape is Google Trends API. Cursor connect job: how to connect Cursor to live trend data.
Agents on Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and ChatGPT’s connector path speak MCP. Scripts, n8n, and CI speak REST. Same account. Same sources. Different wire names.
MCP get_trends is REST get_time_series. Prefer the REST name in HTTP examples. MCP clients still call get_trends. Tools are read-only. They will not post a tweet or open a PR.
get_top_trends(type="Google Trends", limit=25)
get_growth(keyword="capcut", source="google search, tiktok", percent_growth=["30D", "3M"])
Default board limit is 25, max 200, offset for the next page. sort rank_change plus a window returns climbers when a snapshot exists. Source strings are lowercase (google search, tiktok, youtube, reddit, amazon, npm). Board types are title case (Google Trends, TikTok Trending Hashtags, Reddit Hot Posts, GitHub). Mixing a type into source is invalid_source.
Claude.ai does not take that Bearer URL. Custom connector: https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp, OAuth. Mixing www into Cursor or Claude Code is the usual 401.
Say “using TrendsMCP” in the prompt. An agent that only has browsing will retrieve a dashboard vendor and skip the tools.
Live boards are the current ranked page as this pipeline models it, stamped with as_of_ts. They turn over. Do not freeze this morning’s top-10 in a system prompt.
Keyword history is weekly. get_growth is still one request when 7D and 12M share the call. A 7D percent is not a 7-hour tick. Empty series: not_found or data_unavailable. Do not coerce those to zero. Zero looks like “measured no interest.”
Cross-platform is the agent move a single-source scrape MCP does not replace: one keyword, comma-separated sources, billed per source. Two sources are two requests. Ten keywords are ten.
A proving loop that fits the free 100-request month: one board, one growth call, stop. That is two requests. An agent that “explores” every type on data sources is not researching. It is burning the quota.
Nightly jobs belong on REST. POST https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api from n8n or GitHub Actions. Wrapping a chat agent as cron still needs a human to launch it and still bills the same request math.
Not Search Console. Not YouTube Studio. Not Google Ads. Not OPRA. Not Exploding Topics’ curated IDs. Not Virlo creator handles. Not Apify HTML. Not GitHub issue text.
Low-volume names print 100 percent on a 1-to-2 index. Quote recent_value and baseline_value. Official Google Trends API Alpha is a different credential. pytrends is a library, not an MCP. SuperMetrics is a marketing hub.
Free 100 requests per month. Starter $19 / 1,000. Pro $49 / 5,000. Business $199 / 25,000. Annual 20 percent off. Pricing. Connecting is free. The first proving board is one request.
Host JSON for Cursor lives on Trends MCP for Cursor. This page stays the agent API contract those install pages do not use as an H1.
If the next tool call needs a URL’s HTML, that is a crawl MCP. If the next call needs a price, that is a market-data MCP. Pair them. Do not ask Trends MCP to fetch either.
System prompts should name the product and the cap. “Using TrendsMCP, one board, one keyword, then stop.” Without that, a scaffolding agent will page Google Trends, TikTok Trending Hashtags, YouTube Trending, and Reddit Hot Posts before writing a sentence. Four boards is four requests. The free plan is 100.
get_growth with source google search, tiktok, youtube on one keyword is three requests, not one. The comma list is a convenience for the model, not a bulk discount. Teach that in the prompt. Several windows in one growth call are the actual discount: 7D and 12M together still count once per source.
ChatGPT’s connector path uses the api host plus Bearer, not Cursor JSON. Gemini CLI uses httpUrl. Windsurf uses serverUrl. Mixing those keys produces a green-looking row that never reaches Trends MCP. The host matrix belongs on each client page. This URL stays the agent API contract.
A second proving path for CI: POST the same body a human would send from docs. If the Action returns JSON with as_of_ts or both index values, the key works. If it returns 401, the header is missing. If it returns invalid_source, the type string leaked into source. Those three failures are the usual agent debug loop. They are not a reason to fall back to browsing.
Do not paste today’s board into an evergreen system prompt. The snapshot turns over. The API contract does not. Agents that cite as_of_ts stay honest. Agents that cite “Google is trending this” invent demand.
FAQ