StatusBird now runs a free, public MCP server at https://statusbird.io/mcp. Connect it to Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible client and you can ask questions like "is Stripe down right now?" or "how reliable is Klaviyo?" and get answers from StatusBird's live monitoring data: 84 e-commerce services checked every 2 minutes, with 90-day uptime figures and A+ to F reliability grades. No account, no API key, read-only.
What the StatusBird MCP server can answer
The server exposes five tools that map to the questions store owners actually ask during an incident:
- check_service_status: "Is Shopify down right now?" Returns the current status, when it was last checked, and 90-day uptime. It also understands component slugs, so you can ask specifically about
shopify-checkout,stripe-api, orklaviyo-emailand get the vendor's own component-level status. - get_reliability_grade: "How reliable is Klaviyo?" Returns the 90-day uptime percentage, the A+ to F grade, incident count, downtime minutes, and how the service compares to its category average.
- list_monitored_services: all 84 monitored services with current status, filterable by category (payments, email, shipping, and so on).
- get_outage_index: month-by-month major and critical incident totals across the whole e-commerce stack, from the E-commerce Outage Index.
- get_downtime_statistics: aggregate figures from the current 180-day measurement window, the same numbers behind our e-commerce downtime statistics.
How to connect it
Claude Code (terminal): one command, then just ask.
claude mcp add --transport http statusbird https://statusbird.io/mcp
Claude on the web or desktop: Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and paste https://statusbird.io/mcp.
ChatGPT: custom MCP connectors are supported in ChatGPT's connector settings (developer mode). Add the same URL.
Anything else that speaks MCP: the server uses the standard streamable HTTP transport with no authentication, so any MCP client can connect to https://statusbird.io/mcp directly.
Questions worth trying
- "Is Stripe down right now, or is it just my store?"
- "Is Shopify checkout having problems?"
- "How reliable has Klaviyo been over the last 90 days compared to other email platforms?"
- "Which shipping services does StatusBird monitor, and are any down?"
- "How many major e-commerce outages happened last month?"
Where the data comes from
Every answer is backed by StatusBird's own monitoring network, which checks each service's official status endpoint every 2 minutes, around the clock. The current 180-day window covers more than 7 million independent status checks across 84 services. Availability counts major and critical outages only, and the full measurement approach is documented in our methodology. All of it is licensed CC BY 4.0: free to cite with a link.
If you would rather consume the same data without MCP, it is also available as a public JSON API and a single markdown file for LLM tools.
FAQ
What is an MCP server?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT call external tools and read live data during a conversation. An MCP server is the endpoint that provides those tools. StatusBird's MCP server gives assistants read-only access to its e-commerce service monitoring data.
Is the StatusBird MCP server free?
Yes. It is free, requires no account or API key, and is read-only. The underlying data is licensed CC BY 4.0, so answers built from it can be cited with a link to statusbird.io.
What data can Claude or ChatGPT access through it?
Only StatusBird's public monitoring data: current service statuses, component statuses, 90-day uptime and reliability grades, monthly outage totals, and aggregate downtime statistics. It has no access to user accounts, alert settings, or anything private.
Which services can I check?
All 84 services StatusBird monitors, including Shopify, Stripe, PayPal, Klaviyo, ShipStation, Gorgias, ReCharge, Cloudflare, Meta Ads, and Google Ads, plus component-level status for Shopify (checkout, admin, storefront, API, POS), Stripe (checkout, API, webhooks, dashboard), and Klaviyo (email, API, SMS, forms).
Can the MCP server alert me when something goes down?
No. MCP tools answer questions when you ask them. For push alerts by SMS, email, Slack, Teams, or Discord within 2 minutes of an outage, that is the StatusBird product itself, which is free for up to 3 services.
MCP is an open standard with a public specification at modelcontextprotocol.io, so any MCP-capable assistant or agent framework can use the same server.