CPI Inflation Skill
The tool
Give your agent US inflation data. Call it as an MCP tool for monthly CPI and year-over-year rates by category — food, housing, gas and more.
Once your client is connected to the VerveKit MCP server, this appears in its tool list as CPIInflationSkill. It is read-only and open-world: it fetches, it never mutates anything on your side, so most clients will call it without asking you to confirm.
{
"name": "CPIInflationSkill",
"arguments": {}
}Connecting
One server URL covers every skill in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth — the client opens a browser once and there is no key to paste into a config file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"vervekit": {
"url": "https://api.vervekit.com/v1/mcp"
}
}
}https://api.vervekit.com/v1/mcpPer-client setup — Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.
Arguments
These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made.
| Argument | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
date | string | 2023-06 | Optional date in YYYY-MM format for historical lookup. Omit for current data. |
category | string | food | Optional category filter: all, food, housing, apparel, transportation, medical, recreation, education, gasoline, electricity |
What the model gets back
The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client can read fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" on success and error is null; a null field means the value wasn't available for that input, not that the call failed.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"yearMonth": "2024-01",
"year": 2024,
"month": 1,
"categories": {
"all": {
"index": 308.417,
"yearOverYearChange": 3.1
},
"food": {
"index": 327.891,
"yearOverYearChange": 2.6
},
"housing": {
"index": 341.256,
"yearOverYearChange": 4.8
},
"transportation": {
"index": 278.543,
"yearOverYearChange": 1.2
},
"medical": {
"index": 542.189,
"yearOverYearChange": 3.5
},
"gasoline": {
"index": 287.654,
"yearOverYearChange": -3.2
},
"electricity": {
"index": 298.123,
"yearOverYearChange": 5.1
}
}
}
}Fields
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
yearMonth | string | 2024-01 | Year and month in YYYY-MM format for the data |
year | number | 2024 | The year of the CPI data point |
month | number | 1 | The month (1-12) of the CPI data |
categories | object | {…} | |
categories.all | object | {…} | |
categories.all.index | number | 308.417 | Consumer Price Index for all items |
categories.all.yearOverYearChange | number | 3.1 | Year-over-year inflation rate for all items |
categories.food | object | {…} | |
categories.food.indexPremium | number | 327.891 | Consumer Price Index for food category |
categories.food.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | 2.6 | Year-over-year inflation rate for food |
categories.housing | object | {…} | |
categories.housing.indexPremium | number | 341.256 | Consumer Price Index for housing category |
categories.housing.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | 4.8 | Year-over-year inflation rate for housing |
categories.transportation | object | {…} | |
categories.transportation.indexPremium | number | 278.543 | Consumer Price Index for transportation category |
categories.transportation.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | 1.2 | Year-over-year inflation rate for transportation |
categories.medical | object | {…} | |
categories.medical.indexPremium | number | 542.189 | Consumer Price Index for medical care category |
categories.medical.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | 3.5 | Year-over-year inflation rate for medical care |
categories.gasoline | object | {…} | |
categories.gasoline.indexPremium | number | 287.654 | Consumer Price Index for gasoline category |
categories.gasoline.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | -3.2 | Year-over-year inflation rate for gasoline |
categories.electricity | object | {…} | |
categories.electricity.indexPremium | number | 298.123 | Consumer Price Index for electricity category |
categories.electricity.yearOverYearChangePremium | number | 5.1 | Year-over-year inflation rate for electricity |
Failure modes
Errors come back as tool errors with a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
400 / 422 | The arguments didn't validate. The message names the offending one. |
401 | The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server. |
403 | Out of credits. Not a bad key — the month's allowance is spent. |
404 | This skill isn't part of VerveKit. Check the catalog. |
429 | Brief rate limit. Retrying after a moment succeeds. |
Other ways to use CPI Inflation Skill
Set up CPI Inflation Skill on VerveKit, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveKit account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell the agent to use CPIInflationSkill?
No. The tool's name and description are in the model's context once the server is connected, so it selects the tool when the question calls for it. Naming it explicitly works too and is useful when you want to force the call.
Does connecting the server expose every tool at once?
Yes — one connection lists the whole VerveKit catalog. Clients with a tool budget can usually filter the list; the credit cost is per call, so an unused tool costs nothing.
What does a call cost?
1 credit each time the tool actually runs. A model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.
Is there a REST version of this?
Yes — the same source is available as a plain HTTPS endpoint on APIVerve, linked above. Same data, same credits, same account.