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RecallDB MCP server

Official recall data for Claude and other AI tools that speak the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

The server is hosted by us at https://recalldb.app/mcp. You connect with your own free API key, so your usage counts against your own limits (1,000 requests a month; each tool call is one request) and the same fair-use and attribution rules apply as for the API. We store nothing about your conversations.

Tools

  • search_recalls: search by product, brand, model number, recall number or UPC, with category, agency and date filters.
  • get_recall: the full official record for one recall id.
  • barcode_lookup: recalls whose notice lists a UPC, EAN or GTIN barcode, with the lot codes and dates written beside it.
  • vehicle_recalls: NHTSA recalls for a make, model and model year.

Every result names the agency and links to the official notice. A result means a notice mentions the item; it does not say that a specific item is affected, and no result never means an item is safe. The server tells the AI to say so.

Set it up

First get a free key at recalldb.app/signup. Keep it private: it goes in your own MCP client settings, never in a shared file or a website.

Claude (claude.ai and the Claude apps)

  1. Open Settings, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector.
  2. Enter the server address https://recalldb.app/mcp.
  3. If your plan asks for custom headers, add Authorization with the value Bearer rdb_YOUR_KEY. If the form has no header field, use Claude Code or the config-file steps below.

Claude Code

Run in a terminal
claude mcp add --transport http recalldb https://recalldb.app/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $RECALLDB_KEY"

Set RECALLDB_KEY to your key first. Then run /mcp in Claude Code to check that recalldb is connected.

Other MCP clients (Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Cline and others)

Clients that support remote HTTP servers take a config like this (the exact file name depends on the client):

MCP config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "recalldb": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://recalldb.app/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer rdb_YOUR_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Clients that only run local programs can use the free mcp-remote bridge:

MCP config using mcp-remote
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "recalldb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://recalldb.app/mcp", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer rdb_YOUR_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

Check it works

Ask: "Search recalls for bunk beds" or "Look up the barcode 036000291452". You can also test from a terminal:

Terminal
curl https://recalldb.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECALLDB_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

Details

  • Protocol: MCP over Streamable HTTP with JSON responses (versions 2025-06-18, 2025-03-26 and 2024-11-05). There are no sessions and no event stream.
  • Listing the tools needs no key; calling a tool does. A missing or bad key comes back as a tool error that says what to fix.
  • Show "Data from RecallDB" with a link when you show results to people (attribution).
  • The same data is available directly: see the API docs.