answers
The questions we hear most often, answered directly. Anything missing? Reach us via /contact.
OpenScores is a free public Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and REST API that provides live football data — fixtures, lineups, event timelines, standings, squads, and team statistics — for AI agents and developer tools. It connects to Claude, Cursor, the MCP Inspector, or any MCP-aware client.
The MCP endpoint lives at https://api.openscores.ai/mcp/ (trailing slash matters). The REST mirror is at https://api.openscores.ai/v1. Both are read-only.
MCP is an open protocol from Anthropic for connecting AI agents to external data sources and tools. An MCP server exposes tools (functions the agent can call) and resources (data the agent can reference). OpenScores is an MCP server providing football data; Claude, Cursor, and similar clients consume it.
Read the official MCP spec at modelcontextprotocol.io. OpenScores implements MCP revision 2025-06-18 over Streamable HTTP.
Yes, OpenScores is free for everyone — no credit card, no waitlist, no usage tier. Sign up at openscores.ai/signup, mint an API key on the account dashboard, and you have full access to every tool and every league. Rate limits exist to keep the service available for everyone but are generous for honest workloads.
Get started: openscores.ai/signup. Default rate limits are 60 calls/minute and 2,000 calls/hour per API key — enough for most agent workflows. If you have a legitimate higher-volume use case, get in touch via /contact.
Add OpenScores to your client's MCP config file with the URL https://api.openscores.ai/mcp/ (trailing slash required) and the Authorization header set to Bearer plus your osk_live_ key. For Cursor edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json; for Claude Desktop edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Restart the client and the OpenScores tools appear in the tool list.
Copy-paste config snippets for both clients are on /docs#quick-start. Working code samples (cURL, Python, TypeScript) live on /examples.
OpenScores covers the top-5 European leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1) and the 2026 FIFA World Cup with all 48 participating teams. Coverage includes fixtures, computed standings, full match event timelines (goals, cards, substitutions, VAR), team lineups with formations, individual player profiles, and team statistics.
Live counts of fixtures, teams, players, and leagues are visible on the landing page. As of the latest ingest the World Cup squad coverage is 1,258 players across all 48 teams.
Almost always the trailing-slash bug. Your MCP URL must be https://api.openscores.ai/mcp/ — with the slash at the end. Without it the server 307-redirects to the slashed URL and most MCP clients drop the Authorization header across the redirect, surfacing as a 401. Fix the URL in your config and restart the client.
This is the most common support ticket. Full troubleshooting at /docs#troubleshooting.
OpenScores supports two auth paths on the same /mcp/ endpoint: opaque osk_live_ API keys (recommended — mint one at openscores.ai/account, paste it as a Bearer token in your client config) or OAuth 2.1 with Auth0 (for clients that prefer the full PKCE flow, including Claude.ai's web custom-connector dialog).
For Cursor + Claude Desktop, use an API key. For Claude.ai web, use OAuth — paste the URL into the custom-connector dialog with no OAuth fields, and the server's .well-known/oauth-protected-resource endpoint advertises Auth0 as the authorization server.
Default rate limits are 60 calls per minute and 2,000 calls per hour per API key, separately tracked for OAuth JWT subjects. Public signup is capped at 5 per hour per IP and failed-login attempts at 10 per hour per IP — successful logins do not count toward the bucket. 429 responses carry a Retry-After header.
Rate-limit denials are logged in our audit table as mcp_rate_limited events. If you hit limits during a legitimate burst, drop us a line via /contact and we'll raise your ceiling.
OpenScores currently ingests on a daily cadence with stage-aware updates for tournaments; we do not yet broadcast real-time minute-by-minute events during a live match. Standings recompute the moment a fixture finishes. Live in-play coverage is on the roadmap and may be added in a future release.
Check the changelog for the latest cadence changes.
Yes. OpenScores is free for both personal and commercial use — you can power your own products, agents, internal tooling, or research. You cannot resell our raw data as your own dataset or as a competing API service. The full terms are at openscores.ai/terms.
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