# TrendsFast

> TrendsFast — The Trends API for AI Agents. Ask what is trending in a niche; every trend comes back with its source, dates, signal and coverage, through REST and MCP.

## What TrendsFast tracks

TrendsFast is a trends API for AI agents and applications. It collects public posts and search signals into one retained index and returns them with the original link, observation time, measured values and coverage, ranked for a niche when asked.

- Channels: X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Google Search, Hacker News.
- Markets: global charts; search reads default to the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, and other markets are configurable.
- Interfaces: REST (V3) and an authenticated MCP server; one credit balance for the dashboard, REST and MCP.
- These are the channels the index holds. A product call collects the brand's own sources when it is made and reuses a source read in the last few hours; a plain read answers from what the index already holds. A source a result does not list was not observed, which is not the same as nothing happening there.

## Connect an agent

1. Open https://trendsfast.com/setup to sign in, add your brand and create a scoped key. A verified account receives 100 free credits once.
2. Keep the key in TRENDSFAST_API_KEY in the client's environment. Never paste it into a chat, URL or command argument.
3. Add the remote MCP server https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3 (Streamable HTTP) with that key as a bearer token. Clients: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Other MCP client, REST (curl). Exact commands: https://trendsfast.com/agents.

The Claude app and ChatGPT sign in with OAuth instead of a key, then ask which project the connection may use:

- Claude (claude.ai, Desktop, Cowork): Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, URL https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3. Choose Log in now. Claude proposes no login because the tools list without an account, and every tool call would then be refused.
- ChatGPT: Plugins → Add → Add custom MCP server, URL https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3, authentication OAuth.

The MIT agent kit (https://github.com/meestierolff/trendsfast-open) installs the TrendsFast skill and server:

- Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add meestierolff/trendsfast-open, then /plugin install trendsfast@trendsfast
- Agent skill (skills.sh): npx skills add meestierolff/trendsfast-open --skill trendsfast
- OpenClaw (ClawHub): clawhub install trendsfast

Setup instruction an agent can follow:

Help me connect TrendsFast to this agent.
Open https://trendsfast.com/setup so I can sign in, add my brand and create an API key. Let me finish sign-in myself.
I will set the key as TRENDSFAST_API_KEY in this client's environment. Never ask me to paste the key into this conversation.
Add the remote MCP server https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3 using that environment variable and verify the tools.
Then tell me what is trending in my niche right now, with sources.

Authenticated V3 MCP tools:

- trendsfast_discover_trends (5 credits; trends:query): One question across global, core and adjacent scope and every channel.
- trendsfast_global_trends (1 credit; trends:query): What is trending across the shared index. No brand context needed.
- trendsfast_niche_trends (35 credits; trends:query): Trends ranked against your niche. Name a product to collect your brand's sources fresh first.
- trendsfast_ask_trends (5 credits; trends:query): One bounded question, answered from saved evidence.
- trendsfast_read_result (free; trends:read): Reread or page through a saved result, or recover a lost response.
- trendsfast_project_context (free; trends:read): The connected brand and its confirmed niche context.
- trendsfast_credit_balance (free; credits:read): The credit balance shared by the dashboard, REST and MCP.

## First REST query

With TRENDSFAST_API_KEY set in the environment, this makes one Global query, at most 1 credit, and then rereads the saved result by the same request ID for 0 credits. The commands run in bash or zsh with curl.

REQUEST_ID=$(uuidgen 2>/dev/null || python3 -c 'import uuid; print(uuid.uuid4())')
curl -sS https://trendsfast.com/v3/trends/global \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRENDSFAST_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data-binary @- <<EOF
{
  "request_id": "$REQUEST_ID",
  "max_credits": 1,
  "input": { "lookback_hours": 72, "limit": 5 }
}
EOF

curl -sS https://trendsfast.com/v3/trends/requests/$REQUEST_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRENDSFAST_API_KEY"

## V3 intelligence and public evidence

V3 provides Global, Niche, Discover and bounded Ask queries over a shared retained index, live at https://trendsfast.com/. Inspect each result's endpoint availability, source coverage and timestamps; a named source is not proof that a given request observed it. Social + Search Trend Intelligence remains a supported evidence family where rights and observations permit.

- Trend Globe: https://trendsfast.com/trends; one region per tracked channel, each showing that channel's top public-display-permitted post from the last 72 hours, or an honest empty state. Free, no login.
- V3 REST: POST /v3/trends/global, /v3/trends/niche and /v3/trends/ask, at the costs listed above. MCP adds trendsfast_discover_trends.
- Each query uses request_id, max_credits and input. Persist the UUID before sending; no blind retries after uncertainty.
- Free reads: GET /v3/trends/results/{result_id} and /v3/trends/requests/{request_id}. Pagination and reopening add no query debit or fresh research.
- Quote: GET /v3/trends/quote?operation=global. Scope and current server admission remain authoritative.
- Global requires no Product DNA. Niche uses connected confirmed context or explicit temporary input; a public URL never grants another project's access.
- V3 MCP: https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3 (streamable HTTP). initialize and tools/list answer without a key and list every tool; every tool call needs a project API key as a bearer token, or OAuth sign-in from ChatGPT or Claude where enabled. A 401 carries WWW-Authenticate. The anonymous planning service is not a trends feed.
- The four query tools cost credits as listed above. They can debit credits and are not no-effect reads; reads, context and balance are free. REST and MCP share the same wallet.
- MCP tools return a compact view of each saved result (brief, items with their source, date, counts and guidance, communities, AI answers), small enough to read inline. The REST result at /v3/trends/results/{result_id} carries the full contract.
- Versioned contract: https://trendsfast.com/v3/openapi.json. Developer recipes: https://trendsfast.com/docs#v3-guides.

Popularity is not measured growth. Historical comparisons require comparable retained observations; missing baselines remain unknown. Metadata is not audiovisual inspection. Search interest, modeled demand, retrieval references and final citations are distinct. Rights, retention and deletion can limit saved or public evidence. No predictive viral probability, comprehensive internet coverage, app directory approval or automatic recommendation is claimed.

## Five products, one call

The dashboard's five products are one request: POST /v3/trends/niche (MCP: trendsfast_niche_trends) with the brand's context_id and a product. Naming the product collects the brand's own sources fresh first, at that product's price, then ranks through its lens; new_research says whether the call collected, and an empty result costs nothing. Details: https://trendsfast.com/docs#products.

- Customers (product "customers", 10 credits): What are my customers stuck on? Find where your customers talk and what they’re stuck on, so you can answer them first and build what they ask for. Lens: filters.content_types ["CONVERSATION"].
- Trending (product "niche", 25 credits): What’s trending in my niche, and next door? Spot what’s gaining attention in your niche and the ones next to it, and turn it into content or features. Lens: no filter: every content type.
- Competitors (product "competitors", 30 credits): What are my competitors doing? See what your competitors post and which posts land, without checking every account yourself. Lens: no filter: read the COMPETITOR_ACTIVITY section of data.brief.
- Formats (product "formats", 20 credits): What videos work in my niche? Learn which videos win attention in your niche, so your next one starts from evidence instead of a guess. Lens: filters.content_types ["VIDEO"].
- Search (product "search", 35 credits): What do people search for, and what do AI assistants answer? Know what your customers search for, and whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name you or your competitors when your buyers ask, so you write for the demand that exists. Lens: filters.content_types ["SEARCH"].

## Pricing

TrendsFast sells prepaid credits for the Trends API. One account credit balance is shared across the dashboard, the REST API and the MCP server. API and MCP access are included on every paid plan; there is no separate developer tier or enterprise gate.

- Free: 100 credits, granted once per verified account. Submitting a URL alone creates no live research.
- Pay as you go: $10 once for 500 credits. No subscription and no arbitrary expiry.
- Starter: $29/month for 2,000 credits.
- Growth: $99/month for 10,000 credits.
- Scale: $299/month for 40,000 credits.
- Prices in USD, excluding applicable tax. Monthly credits are granted per verified paid period and do not accumulate; prepaid credits have no arbitrary expiry.
- Reading a result you already paid for costs 0 credits, and so do pagination and refreshing the dashboard. An empty result costs 0 credits. A request states its credit cost before it runs.
- Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period. Plans cannot be switched from the billing portal. See /pricing and /terms.
- Source admission, hourly limits and cost ceilings apply independently of credit balance. An uncertain request keeps its reservation; read its saved status rather than retrying it.

## Product rules

- Recent is not automatically trending.
- A model cannot add evidence URLs or unsupported metrics.
- Copied coverage does not become independent confirmation.
- "Not enough evidence" is a valid result when admitted evidence cannot establish a trend.
- Nothing is published for you; every draft an agent makes from the evidence is yours to review.
- A subreddit's playbook in data.communities carries its rules, its moderators' pinned posts, its all-time top five and, where it was made, a reading of the format that wins there. Silence in the rules is not permission.
- On Trending, items[].topic_history says where a topic is in its life across days and channels: emerging, rising, peaking, declining or evergreen, since when, and on how many channels. It is null until the topic has a measured state, which says nothing about the topic.
- TrendsFast does not connect social accounts, approve, deliver, auto-publish, or schedule.
- Evidence, source coverage, and limitations remain inspectable.
- Public source labels never imply connectivity without accepted deployed evidence.

## Public resources

- Home: https://trendsfast.com/
- Product: https://trendsfast.com/product
- AI agents: https://trendsfast.com/agents
- Remote MCP: https://trendsfast.com/mcp
- REST API: https://trendsfast.com/api
- Developer docs: https://trendsfast.com/docs
- Source status: https://trendsfast.com/sources
- Channels: https://trendsfast.com/channels
- Pricing: https://trendsfast.com/pricing
- Who it is for (SaaS founders, AI agent developers, marketing agencies): https://trendsfast.com/for
- Comparisons: https://trendsfast.com/compare
- Alternatives: https://trendsfast.com/alternatives
- Blog: https://trendsfast.com/blog
- Open-source boundary: https://trendsfast.com/open-source
- Public agent tooling: https://github.com/meestierolff/trendsfast-open
- V3 OpenAPI: https://trendsfast.com/v3/openapi.json
- Legacy v1 OpenAPI: https://trendsfast.com/v1/openapi.json

## Guides and comparisons

- Use a trends API from Node.js: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trends-api-node
- Ask a trend question with Python: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trends-api-python
- Connect an agent to TrendsFast through MCP: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trends-mcp-agents
- Measure trend growth from historical observations: https://trendsfast.com/guides/historical-trend-comparisons
- Define a niche without losing useful adjacent trends: https://trendsfast.com/guides/niche-trend-relevance
- Audit trend evidence before your agent uses it: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trend-evidence-quality
- Budget trend API credits without duplicate queries: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trends-api-credit-budgeting
- Start on Reddit and X with no audience: https://trendsfast.com/guides/starting-on-reddit-and-x
- What is social and search trend intelligence?: https://trendsfast.com/guides/social-search-trend-intelligence
- What should I post today for my product?: https://trendsfast.com/guides/what-to-post-today
- Turn Claude into your Head of Growth with TrendsFast: https://trendsfast.com/guides/claude-head-of-growth
- Add trend research to your SaaS without building five integrations: https://trendsfast.com/guides/add-trend-research-to-your-saas
- Trend intelligence for AI agents: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trend-intelligence-for-ai-agents
- What to create when there is no clear trend: https://trendsfast.com/guides/no-clear-trend
- TrendsFast vs Google Trends: when free search interest is not enough: https://trendsfast.com/compare/trendsfast-vs-google-trends
- TrendsFast vs Virlo: cross-source trends API or short-form video intelligence: https://trendsfast.com/compare/trendsfast-vs-virlo
- Trend dashboard vs. trend intelligence: https://trendsfast.com/compare/trend-dashboard-vs-trend-intelligence
- The best trend APIs in 2026, compared for developers and AI agents: https://trendsfast.com/best-trend-apis
- TrendsFast vs SocialCrawl: trend intelligence API or raw social data API: https://trendsfast.com/compare/trendsfast-vs-socialcrawl
- TrendsFast vs Exploding Topics: an agent's trends API or a curated trend database: https://trendsfast.com/compare/trendsfast-vs-exploding-topics
- TrendsFast for SaaS founders: find what your customers are stuck on: https://trendsfast.com/for/saas-founders
- TrendsFast for AI agent developers: market data your agent can cite: https://trendsfast.com/for/ai-agent-developers
- TrendsFast for marketing agencies: one brand context per client: https://trendsfast.com/for/marketing-agencies
- Virlo alternatives: what to use instead, by the job you need done: https://trendsfast.com/alternatives/virlo

## Worked examples and recipes

For a topic decision, start with the what-to-post guide. For a claim ledger and a reusable brief worksheet, read the founder example. To connect an agent, use the agent recipe: read the brand context and balance, then make one capped niche query and reread it for free.

- What should I post today for my product?: https://trendsfast.com/guides/what-to-post-today
- Trend intelligence for AI agents: https://trendsfast.com/guides/trend-intelligence-for-ai-agents
- A founder content brief, with every claim accounted for: https://trendsfast.com/examples/founder-content-brief

For brand setup, follow the owner action in the guide. The owner signs in and confirms the product facts; reading the guide spends no credits and starts no research. The separate free Playbook at https://trendsfast.com/tools/30-day-distribution-playbook is a deterministic planning exercise, not live research. Private account routes are not public documentation or crawl targets.

## Source roles, not live availability

- Product website: Product context and credible topics. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- X: Current narratives and reply opportunities. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Google Trends: Measured search-demand time series. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Google organic search: Organic result discovery and corroboration. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Bing organic search: Organic result discovery and corroboration. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Hacker News: Developer pain, launches, and objections. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- GitHub: Releases, issues, and ecosystem activity. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Open web / news: Trigger events and independent verification. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- YouTube: Video traction, hooks, and formats. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Estimated AI demand: Candidate, FAQ, and durable article opportunity ranking. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Manual evidence: Founder-observed public evidence. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.
- Reddit conversations: Current public conversations and reply opportunities. Coverage is recorded per saved brief; this catalog is not a connection claim.

## Legacy endpoints: existing integrations only

New agents connect only to the V3 MCP server https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3 and the V3 REST API above. Everything from here to "Repository boundary" describes the earlier v1 and Marketing v2 contracts, kept only for integrations already built on them. Their keys and tools differ from V3, and nothing new is built on them. Topic research accepts a public query without a saved product profile and returns source links, dates, coverage, available measurements and optional supported formats. A completed request does not prove that a trend was found. Context-based Daily Trend Briefs and existing Dashboard managed-writing contracts remain available separately.

## Marketing v2 MCP (legacy)

Marketing v2 is served only over MCP, at https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v2, for integrations that already hold a Marketing v2 project key (marketing:read, marketing:research). V3 keys carry no marketing scopes, so they list no tools there; new connections use the V3 server above. Tools are named trendsfast_marketing_*_v2, and the client's tool discovery lists the ones the key allows, including:

- trendsfast_marketing_topic_capabilities_v2: access, available admitted sources and limits; marketing:read; no research effect
- trendsfast_marketing_topic_research_v2: marketing:research; arguments include a saved caller-created UUID idempotency_key, public topic, query_is_public: true, one to three admitted sources, language, lookback_hours, and explicit max_cost_usd or use_plan_allowance: true. market and saved context_id are optional.
- trendsfast_marketing_topic_request_read_v2: recover saved state using the original request UUID after a lost response; marketing:read. A null read does not authorize a retry.
- trendsfast_marketing_intelligence_read_v2: saved trend intelligence with coverage and timestamps; marketing:read; no provider calls

A saved product profile is optional for topic research. Keep TRENDSFAST_API_KEY in the process environment, never in chat, URLs or command arguments. Use the same idempotency key and input for the same request. Reads, copies and manual edits start no generation and spend no new allowance. Topic research shares three starts per rolling 24 hours with existing research in the workspace across web, REST and MCP. Failed and erased starts count; saved reads do not. Access follows scopes, plan, rate limits and enabled deployment capabilities. The pinned public installer remains v1 and does not cover every v2 operation.

## v1 REST (legacy)

- POST /v1/projects/{project_id}/today
- GET /v1/projects/{project_id}/today/latest
- GET /v1/projects/{project_id}/trend-briefs/{brief_id}
- GET /v1/projects/{project_id}/trend-briefs/{brief_id}/creative-handoff

REST access is available to approved projects through project-scoped API keys. The create endpoint requires a caller-created UUID v4 Idempotency-Key. The three reads create no scan, provider call, model call, approval, delivery, publication, or scheduling effect.

## Remote MCP V1 (legacy)

- Endpoint: https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp
- Protocol: 2026-07-28
- Transport: stateless Streamable HTTP
- Authentication: direct project-scoped bearer key
- Tools: exactly seven; six zero-effect reads and one deliberate create

- trendsfast_project_context_get
- trendsfast_today_create
- trendsfast_today_status_get
- trendsfast_brief_latest_get
- trendsfast_brief_get
- trendsfast_creative_handoff_get
- trendsfast_sources_get

The create tool requires explicit CREATE_TODAYS_TREND_BRIEF intent, confirmed capabilities, and a caller-created UUID v4 idempotency key. Remote MCP V1 exposes no publishing, scheduling, approval, delivery, key-management, project-mutation, optional provider, or raw-provider tools.


## v1 agent tooling (legacy)

- Reviewed install command: npx -y github:meestierolff/trendsfast-open#9e7053b47eebfbfdc6ce003edaf7d10b849afc55 install
- Supported clients: Generic stdio MCP, Claude Code, and Codex
- Package: trendsfast-agent 0.1.0-alpha.0
- Publication: npm publication is deferred

Doctor and the default demo are read-only. Agent create is effect-bearing and uses the same project-scoped Today path; it never approves, delivers, publishes, or schedules.

## Repository boundary

- trendsfast-cloud is the private product source of truth. Private provider adapters, routing, scoring, prompts, economics, operations, entitlements, customer workflows, and customer data stay private.
- meestierolff/trendsfast is a frozen historical public implementation and receives no new product work.
- https://github.com/meestierolff/trendsfast-open contains the accepted public agent tooling and cleanly reconstructed public contracts. It is not the private decision engine or a supported self-hosting distribution.

A configured HTTP or stdio client is not proof of a native integration or directory approval. See the current MCP documentation for actual connection and review gates.