What is Foursquare Places Mcp

foursquare-places-mcp is an MCP Server that enables access to the Foursquare API, providing detailed location context for applications that need to understand user locations and nearby places.

Use cases

Use cases for foursquare-places-mcp include developing AI-driven personal assistants that provide location-based recommendations, enhancing travel applications with detailed local insights, and creating services that help users find nearby amenities like restaurants, parks, and shops.

How to use

To use foursquare-places-mcp, you need to obtain a Foursquare Service API Key and set up the MCP server to expose functions that can be called by an AI agent. Follow the instructions in the Foursquare documentation to create an API key and integrate it with your application.

Key features

Key features of foursquare-places-mcp include high accuracy location pinpointing using Foursquare’s Place Snap technology, the ability to filter places by various criteria (category, features, hours), and access to rich metadata such as photos, reviews, ratings, and real-time popularity.

Where to use

foursquare-places-mcp can be used in various fields such as mobile applications, AI agents, tourism, local business discovery, and any application that requires contextual location data.

MCP Server enabling access to the Foursquare API

The Foursquare Places API provides detailed location context for apps that need to understand
where a user is and what’s around them. Powered by a global, open source database of 100
million places across more than 1500 categories, they convert raw GPS data into meaningful insights.

The GeoTagging API pinpoints exact locations—from coffee shops to parks—with high accuracy
using Foursquare’s Place Snap technology, while the Search & Data APIs go beyond basic proximity,
allowing developers to filter places by category, features, hours, and more. Each result includes
rich metadata like photos, reviews, ratings, and real-time popularity.

These tools make it possible to build AI Agents that are situationally aware and tailored to
the user’s surroundings for a highly personalized experience.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol is a new standard from Anthropic for connecting AI systems with data sources.
Read more about it at Anthropic.

MCP allows you to set up servers that expose functions that an LLM can understand and call directly.
In this project, we implement an MCP server that can access the Foursquare API in order to support
local search for places.

Getting Started

Foursquare Service API Key

You will need a Foursquare Service API Key to allow your AI agent to access Foursquare API endpoints.
If you do not already have one, follow the instructions on
Foursquare Doc - Manage Your Service API Keys
to create one.

You will need to log in to your Foursquare developer account or create one if you do not have one
(creating a basic account is free and includes starter credit for your project). Be sure to copy the
Service API key upon creation as you will not be able to see it again.

Download Claude Desktop

Currently MCP is only supported for local use, so you should download the
Claude Desktop App (remote production MCP servers are still in the works).

Set up MCP Server

• Python: follow the directions in fsq-server-python/README.md for instructions on setting up a python based MCP server using uv.