@hackspaces/lightcast-connect-mcp

Read-only MCP server for the Lightcast labor-market APIs:

• Skills — search the ~40k-skill taxonomy, get skill detail, related skills, and extract skills from raw text (job descriptions, syllabi).
• Classification — map raw titles/text to Lightcast + SOC occupations, and run taxonomy crosswalk mappings.
• Occupation Benchmark — occupation profiles and demand metrics.
• Market Salary — shared salary benchmarks by occupation and geography.

Setup

Requires Lightcast API credentials (free tier for skills: https://lightcast.io/open-skills/access; the classification/benchmark/salary APIs require a Lightcast contract).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lightcast": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@hackspaces/lightcast-connect-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LIGHTCAST_CLIENT_ID": "...",
        "LIGHTCAST_CLIENT_SECRET": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Auth is OAuth2 client-credentials against auth.emsicloud.com; tokens are minted per API scope, cached, and refreshed automatically.

Environment

| Variable | Default | Purpose | | --- | --- | --- | | LIGHTCAST_CLIENT_ID | — | required | | LIGHTCAST_CLIENT_SECRET | — | required | | LIGHTCAST_OAUTH_URL | https://auth.emsicloud.com/connect/token | token endpoint | | LIGHTCAST_SKILLS_SCOPE | emsi_open | skills API scope | | LIGHTCAST_CLASSIFICATION_SCOPE | classification_api | classification API scope | | LIGHTCAST_BENCHMARK_SCOPE | occupation-benchmark | occupation benchmark API scope | | LIGHTCAST_MARKET_SALARY_SCOPE | market-salary | market salary API scope | | LIGHTCAST_MCP_ALLOW_PII | unset | true disables the defensive value scrub |

Development

npm install
npm test           # unit tests, no network
npm run typecheck
npm run smoke      # live calls across all APIs (needs credentials)
npm run fetch-docs # snapshot authenticated API specs to docs/upstream/

License

MIT