MCP server · Analytics

Substack Publisher MCP server

Lets your AI read your Substack posts, engagement stats and subscriber numbers for you.

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This is a small helper that connects your AI assistant to your Substack publication. Once it is set up, you can just ask your AI questions about your posts and subscribers instead of clicking around your dashboard. It is handy if you run one or more Substack newsletters and want quick answers about how they are doing.

What is an MCP server? The 30-second version

On its own, your AI can only chat with you. An MCP server is a small helper program that gives your AI a new skill or a connection to an app. This one connects your AI to Substack through Substack's official Publisher API, so it can look up your posts, stats and subscribers when you ask. You stay in the chat, and the helper does the fetching behind the scenes.

What this MCP server does

You ask your AI a question about your Substack, like how many people opened your last post. The AI passes that request to this helper program running on your computer. The helper talks to Substack using your Publisher API key and pulls back the data you asked for. Then the AI shows you the answer in plain words in the chat. Everything it does is read-only, so it only looks things up and never changes anything.

Flow diagram: you ask your AI “How many opens did my last post get?”, the Substack Publisher MCP server connects it to Substack, and you get back your answer in chat.

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What you can do with it

List your published Substack posts, filtered by date or type
Search across your published posts for a word or topic
Read a full post by its URL slug, as Markdown text
Check opens, clicks, views and new subscriptions for a post
See daily subscriber counts broken down by type
Look up a single subscriber by their email address
Work with several publications if you manage more than one

Try asking your AI

“Show me my posts from the last month”
“Find my posts about pricing”
“How many opens and clicks did my latest post get?”
“What are my subscriber counts for the last 30 days?”
“Look up subscriber jane@example.com”

What it gives back to you

You get answers in the chat: lists of posts with titles and dates, the full text of a post, numbers like opens, clicks and views, or daily subscriber counts by type. If you look up a subscriber, you get their details back. It is all shown as text or simple tables you can read at a glance.

Before you start

What you need

Node.js 22 or newer installed on your computer
A Substack Publisher API key from your publication's dashboard
An MCP client such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor

Good to know

It can read your Substack data, including subscriber email addresses, so keep your API key private and only share the chat output with people you trust.

Install it with your AI

Add Substack Publisher MCP server to your AI, no technical skills needed

You don't install anything by hand. You copy one prompt, paste it into an AI that can work on your computer, and it checks, installs and connects the server for you, asking you when it needs something.

Sign in to get the install prompt

Members get a ready-made prompt that lets the Claude desktop app check Substack Publisher MCP server, install it and connect it for them, step by step. You don't need any technical skills: you copy, paste and answer a few questions. Your connected AI can also find and install any of the 4,066 MCP servers here for you.