Essentially Amsterdam runs a free, public MCP server. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way for AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code to look things up in outside sources. Add ours, and your assistant can answer questions about what is on in Amsterdam, English-language jobs, local businesses, markets, conferences, our practical guides and local news, with a link to the page on our site for every answer.
The address
https://essentiallyamsterdam.com/mcpTransport: Streamable HTTP. No account, no key and no sign-in.
What it can look up
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
whats_on | Events on a given day, today and the next six days, from our What’s On calendar. You can narrow it to music, stage and screen, art, comedy, talks and workshops, food and drink, or out and about. |
jobs | Current English-language jobs in the Amsterdam area from our job board, with the salary when the employer publishes one. |
directory_search | Owner-verified local businesses in our business directory, by name, type or area. |
markets_today | Street and food markets open on a given day, with opening hours where known, from our markets guide. |
conferences | Upcoming conferences in Amsterdam from our conference calendar, by month and by field (tech and AI, medical, science, business, environment, education), with the dates, the venue and the conference’s own website. |
guide_search | The right guide, free tool or best-of list on our site for a question, such as how to get a BSN, the best pizza in Amsterdam, public toilets or your net salary. English or Dutch words both work. |
recent_news | The newest Amsterdam news articles on our site, newest first, with the date and a one-line summary. You can narrow it to a word such as housing or Schiphol. |
Example questions: “What comedy is on in Amsterdam tonight?”, “Find me English-speaking marketing jobs in Amsterdam”, “Which markets are open on Saturday?”, “Find a yoga studio in the Essentially Amsterdam directory”, “Which tech conferences are in Amsterdam in December?”, “How do I get a BSN in Amsterdam?”, “What is the latest Amsterdam housing news?”
How to add it
Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app): open Settings, then Connectors, choose Add custom connector, and paste the address above.
Claude Code:
claude mcp add -t http essentially-amsterdam https://essentiallyamsterdam.com/mcp
Cursor, VS Code and other clients that use a JSON settings file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"essentially-amsterdam": {
"url": "https://essentiallyamsterdam.com/mcp"
}
}
}
In VS Code the file is .vscode/mcp.json and the top key is "servers" with "type": "http" added next to the url.
Fair use
The server is read-only and only returns what is already published on essentiallyamsterdam.com. Each answer holds at most 10 results, and each address can make up to 30 requests a minute. It is meant for answering questions, not for copying our listings in bulk.
About Essentially Amsterdam
Essentially Amsterdam is a free daily newsletter and website in English about life in Amsterdam: news, events, jobs and local businesses. Get the daily newsletter. Questions about the MCP server: contact us.