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In-Memory Caching & Quota Protection

The COT Bias MCP Server incorporates a built-in, thread-safe in-memory Time-to-Live (TTL) cache to safeguard your daily 2,000 requests/day Quant API quota and drastically reduce latency during interactive agent conversations.

🎯 Why Caching Matters for AI Agents

CFTC Commitment of Traders reports are published once per week (typically Friday afternoons at 3:30 PM Eastern Time).

When you converse with an AI agent (such as Claude Desktop or Cursor), the model often queries the same asset multiple times across a conversational turn (e.g. asking for an overview, then asking about momentum, then asking for a trading idea).

Without caching, a 10-turn conversation about Gold would execute 10 separate HTTP requests against your daily API allowance. With caching, only the first call hits the backend API—subsequent turns return in sub-millisecond time from local memory.

⏱ TTL Duration Policy

Endpoint / Tool TTL Duration Rationale
get_ai_inference 5 minutes (300s) Captures real-time updates while protecting multi-turn dialogs.
scan_markets 5 minutes (300s) Preserves quota during multi-step screener evaluation.
get_timeseries 1 hour (3,600s) Historical weekly timeseries data is static throughout the week.
get_market_snapshot 5 minutes (300s) Balances fresh commentary with token and quota efficiency.
list_markets 1 hour (3,600s) Contract metadata and sector classifications are static.

🔍 Inspecting Cache Hits

Every JSON response returned by the MCP server includes a top-level "cached" boolean flag:

{
  "symbol": "GC",
  "ai_bias_score": "Bullish",
  "cached": true
}
  • When "cached": true, the request was served directly from memory and did not consume any API quota.
  • When "cached": false, a live HTTP call was made to the COT Bias backend.

🛑 Disabling Caching

If you are developing or testing and require every call to query the live backend:

uvx "cotbias[mcp]" cotbias-mcp --no-cache

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cotbias": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["cotbias[mcp]", "cotbias-mcp", "--no-cache"],
      "env": {
        "COT_API_KEY": "cot_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}