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Composition axis

Source MCP servers

Provides data. A read-only feed from one provider; it answers questions, doesn't act, and doesn't expect other servers alongside it.

Example · Morningstar

A Source server gives an agent read access to one provider's data and nothing else. It answers questions. It does not write anything back, and it does not expect other servers working alongside it.

That makes Source the easiest role to adopt and the easiest to underestimate. An advisor connecting a market data server gets real capability on day one: quotes, fundamentals, macro series, all available in the same conversation where they are already working. Nothing in the firm changes. No credentials to client systems are handed over. The blast radius if the server misbehaves is a wrong number in a chat window, not a modified record.

The limit shows up when the question needs context the feed does not carry. A Source server can tell you what a security did last quarter. It cannot tell you which of your households hold it. That answer needs a System or an Aggregator next to it, and the agent, not the server, is what carries the fact across.

Most Sources in this directory are market and macro data. A few compliance and regulatory feeds land here too, because they publish rather than transact. Read-only scopes are the default here, and they should stay that way.

Source servers in the directory

47 servers in this directory play this role

The other roles

Read the full role taxonomy →