koreanpulse

Get pinged in English the moment a 5%-rule filing or DART event hits a stock you care about. (Beta — watchlist polling + alert dispatch ship Q3 2026.)

The pitch: We'll watch your KRX tickers in Korean and ping you in English when something material moves — foreign-holder 5%-rule disclosures, Korean activist filings, major DART events. KRX itself, ASIFMA, Wellington and Aberdeen all on record — Korean disclosure flow into English is structurally inadequate. Bloomberg costs $24K/yr and still misses the front page of 전자신문. We translate, classify, and route the same Korean primary sources institutional analysts read into your Discord / Telegram / inbox. Free public daily snapshot at /today (live today); paid Cloud tiers for the workflow (Solo $29/mo, Analyst $79/mo, Desk $249/mo) — lock-in pricing for waitlist; queries + hosted translation are live today, watchlist polling + alert dispatch ship Q3 2026. OSS self-host available for hackers — see Run it yourself.

For AI/MCP agent builders. koreanpulse plugs Korean equity primary sources into your existing Claude Desktop / Cursor / FastMCP agent — same MCP shape your agent already uses for US data. Three connection modes: (a) hosted remote MCP at https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp for ChatGPT / Claude.ai / OpenAI Responses API custom connectors, (b) pip install koreanpulse + 4-line config for Claude Desktop / Cursor stdio, (c) Smithery marketplace listing for Smithery CLI users. The 7 tools surface DART filings, foreign-holder 5%-rule flows, Korean activist filings, and 16-sector industry news as typed function calls; the rest of your trading-agent stack stays unchanged.

Claude.ai / ChatGPT (remote MCP) — live today. Add https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp as a custom connector in Claude.ai (Settings → Connectors), ChatGPT (Settings → Connectors or Apps SDK), or wire it directly from the OpenAI Responses API: tools=[{type: "mcp", server_url: "https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp"}]. Read-only — surfaces filings and disclosures only. No trading execution, no investment advice.

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Status

Pre-alpha (v0.1.5). 7 MCP tools shipped — 5 free + 2 paid (activist + foreign-holder classification gated to Solo $29/mo+). 181 tests pass, 1 skipped. Beta/waitlist tone — watchlist polling + alert dispatch ship Q3 2026. Beta acquisition plan in docs/BETA.md.

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Why this exists

"Majority of foreign investors find it surprisingly difficult to penetrate the Korean hedge fund market due to its limited accessibility and availability of information in foreign language." — HedgeVista, 2025

"Published information should be made available in both Korean and English for all investors." — ASIFMA Korean Capital Markets Report, 2022

"The Korea Exchange will provide investor relations services to companies that lack the capability, particularly in English." — Wellington Management on Korea Value-Up program, 2025

The English-IR gap is multi-source verified. The triggers below sit on top of it:

• 2026-04 to 05 retail inflection — Hana × Futu (3.3M HK retail accounts) and Samsung × Interactive Brokers (4.6M global retail) launched direct KRX trading in the last 7 days. ~7.9M foreign retail accounts now wired in, up from ~0 two years ago. May 4 saw a record 3.9T₩ ($2.7B) single-day foreign net-buy on KOSPI+NXT. (Sources: FSC, 주간한국, KED Global)
• KOSPI on the MSCI Developed Market watchlist → expected foreign capital inflow
• IRC (Investor Registration Certificate) abolished Dec 2023 — foreign account openings accelerated 3–4× vs 2023 baseline (FSC)
• Millennium made its first Korean allocation ($250M to Billionfold) in 2025
• Korean activist scene maturing (KCGI, Align Partners) + global activists filing in Korea (ValueAct, Elliott)
• Korean shipbuilding, HBM, defense, biotech all globally relevant — but Korean-only sourcing
• Korean retail rotated heavily out of crypto into KOSPI ($110B left Upbit/Bithumb in 2025)
• Bloomberg/FactSet enterprise tier only — indie/SMB tier empty

Who pays

Audience	Plan	Why
Crypto-native rotator into KOSPI/KOSDAQ	Cloud Solo $29/mo	One Discord channel pinged on watchlist hits — that's the whole job
Korean diaspora / overseas Korean investor	Cloud Solo $29/mo	English digest of the news they grew up reading, alerts to Telegram
K-content / EM journalist	Cloud Solo $29/mo	Replaces hours of manual translation, daily English digest
Boutique fund analyst covering Korea	Cloud Analyst $79/mo	25 watchlists, 1-year archive search, multiple alert channels, CSV/JSON export
Paid-research-budget retail trader	Cloud Analyst $79/mo	Saved searches, priority cache, multi-channel alerts
Boutique long/short desk, small research team	Cloud Desk $249/mo	3 seats, shared watchlists, Slack/webhook alerts, team archive

The free daily snapshot at /today (no login, no API key) is the funnel front door — a preview of the daily digest paying customers get pushed to their channel of choice.

Design partner program available for the first 20 named seats — contact us.

Pricing

🚧 Beta — lock-in pricing for waitlist. Solo $29 / Analyst $79 / Desk $249. The hosted translation cache + license validation path are wired and verified end-to-end; the monthly query cap (2K / 15K / 100K) is metered server-side and switches to a hard cap once the first paid signup lands and per-tier counters are sealed. Watchlist polling, alert dispatch, seat enforcement, and per-tier retention windows ship Q3 2026. Until then, seat counts, watchlist counts, alert-channel limits, and archive-retention windows are paper limits. Early supporters keep the launch rate — no auto-charge until the workflow ships.

Tier	$/mo	Watchlists	Queries/mo	Archive	Alert channels
Cloud Solo	29	5 (Q3 2026)	~2,000 (metered)	30 days (Q3 2026)	1 Discord or Telegram (Q3 2026)
Cloud Analyst	79	25 (Q3 2026)	~15,000 (metered)	1 year (Q3 2026)	Multi (Discord / Telegram / Email) (Q3 2026)
Cloud Desk	249	shared, 3 seats (Q3 2026)	~100,000 (metered)	team archive (Q3 2026)	Slack / webhooks (Q3 2026)

Annual billing: −20% at launch. 30-day refund.

Subscribe: koreanpulse.dev/#pricing — per-tier Polar checkouts (Solo / Analyst / Desk), each covered by Polar as Merchant of Record (sales tax / VAT / refunds handled). The license key is emailed by the webhook worker on subscription.created.

Enterprise / SLA: contact us. No published price.

Run it yourself (OSS)

Source is AGPL-3.0. Self-hosters can run the MCP server locally with their own DART and OpenAI keys. This path is for hackers and max-privacy users.

	OSS self-host	Cloud (Solo / Analyst / Desk)
Cost	$0	$29 / $79 / $249 per month
Provider keys	your DART_API_KEY + your OPENAI_API_KEY	your DART_API_KEY (stays local); we hold the OpenAI key for you
Local install required	yes (pip install koreanpulse)	yes (same pip install; only translation calls hit our Worker)
Watchlist polling + alerts	not included	Q3 2026 ship target (waitlist)
Hosted archive	none	Q3 2026 ship target (30 days / 1 year / team archive)
Hosted translation cache	none	included (cross-tenant cache hits compound, live today)
Account sync	none	Q3 2026 ship target
Support	community only (issues/PRs)	priority support on Analyst / Desk
Best for	hackers, privacy-strict envs, OSS contributors	anyone who'll want the watchlist-to-alert workflow once it ships

OSS self-host is not in the pricing table above — it's a separate lane. See docs/SELF_HOSTING.md for the install + key wiring. A true HTTP-transport remote MCP (no local install at all) is on the roadmap but not yet shipped.

What it does

7 MCP tools shipped — 5 free + 2 paid. Callable from Claude Desktop / Cursor / any MCP client. The paid tier unlocks the classification work that takes a Korean speaker to do by hand; the free tier ships the raw DART + RSS surface so distribution doesn't pay for itself.

Free tier (no license_key, no signup):

Tool	One-line
track_korean_filings	DART filings real-time + EN translation/summary
lookup_corp_code	Korean company name → DART corp code
resolve_stock_code	KRX 6-digit → DART corp entry
search_korean_industry_news	etnews / 한국경제 RSS, classified into 16 industries
koreanpulse_about	Server info, free vs paid tool list, current Polar checkout URL

Paid tier (Solo $29/mo+, requires license_key — pass as tool argument or via the calling client's secure-input field):

Tool	One-line
monitor_activist_investors	Activist 5%-rule filings auto-tagged (KCGI / Align / Truston / Anda / Cha / VIP / ValueAct / Elliott)
monitor_foreign_holders	Foreign 5%-rule disclosures (BlackRock / Vanguard / Norges / GIC / Temasek + 15 more)

When a paid tool is called without a license, the server returns a structured error message that surfaces the Polar checkout URL — ChatGPT / Claude.ai render that link inline so the user can subscribe in one click.

4 more planned (docs/SPEC.md): digest_analyst_reports, get_ma_pipeline, track_government_policy, summarize_korean_earnings_call.

Differentiation vs incumbents

	Bloomberg	FactSet	KED Global	koreanpulse
Korean primary source depth	medium	medium	English wire only	deep
Real-time AI agent integration (MCP)	none	none	none	native
Indie/SMB pricing	none ($24K+/yr)	none	free (low signal)	$29 / $79 / $249 Cloud tiers (waitlist, lock-in)
Korean activist / M&A pipeline	weak	weak	reactive	proactive watch (Q3 2026)

Differentiation vs other Korean MCP servers

A handful of Korean-data MCP servers exist. Pick what matches your job. We focus on English-first equity intelligence with named-entity classification, served as a hosted endpoint your LLM client can connect to in one click. If you need raw KRX OHLCV or Korean-language financial-statement tables, others do that better.

Capability	koreanpulse	korea-stock-mcp (jjlabsio, 124★)	korean-dart-mcp (chrisryugj, 35★)	openregistry (sophymarine)
Transport	Streamable HTTP + SSE	stdio only (npx)	stdio only (npx)	Streamable HTTP
Hosted endpoint	mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp	— (self-install)	— (self-install)	openregistry.sophymarine.com/mcp
1-click connect (ChatGPT / Claude.ai)	Yes	No (stdio)	No (stdio)	Yes
Activist filer classification (KCGI / Align / Truston / Anda / Cha / VIP / Life / Platform / ValueAct / Elliott)	10+ labels	— raw filings only	— raw filings only	— registry data only
Foreign-holder 5%-rule allowlist (BlackRock / Vanguard / Norges / GIC / Temasek + 16 more)	21+ labels	— raw filings only	— raw filings only	— registry data only
English-first docstrings (LLM-friendly)	All tools	Korean primary, English secondary	Korean primary	Yes
Korean industry news (etnews / 한국경제 RSS, EN translated)	16 industries	—	—	—
KRX OHLCV (daily prices)	— out of scope	Yes (KOSPI / KOSDAQ / KONEX)	—	—
XBRL financial statements	— out of scope	Yes	Yes	—
HWP / PDF attachment → markdown	— out of scope	—	Yes	—
Multi-user architecture (one endpoint, N AI agents in parallel)	N→1 hosted (~9,500 MAU on a single DART key, ~19,000 at 85% cache hit)	1:1 (one process per user on user's machine)	1:1 (one process per user on user's machine)	Hosted
DART API key required from end user	No (free tools use our shared key)	Yes (each user signs up)	Yes (each user signs up)	No
Pricing	Free 5 tools · Solo $29 · Analyst $79 · Desk $249/mo	Free OSS (BYO API keys)	Free OSS (BYO API keys)	Free anonymous tier

Other servers in the space (different scope or smaller install base): SongT-50/korean-stock-mcp, koreal6803/finlab-ai (quant-focused), eddmpython/dartlab (Python lib). Comparison verified 2026-05-07.

Capacity (DART quota math)

DART caps each API key at 40,000 calls/day (verified 2026-05). We enforce a soft cap at 32,000/day (80%) with DART_DAILY_QUOTA env override.

Filing-list responses go through list_filings_cached() with a freshness-aware TTL (60s for today's window, 1h for ≤6d old, 24h for ≥7d old). Cache hits don't burn DART quota.

Cache hit	Customer ceiling/day	MAU ceiling (12mo mix)
0% (no filing cache)	32,000	~800
70% (3-mo realistic)	107,000	~9,500
85% (mature)	213,000	~19,000
95% (high reuse)	~25,000 MAU (DART-limited)	—

Hard ceiling: ~30,000 MAU per DART key. Second key (separate 사업자등록번호) required beyond that.

Forecast 12mo mix (756 MAU) sits at ~930 DART calls/day = 2.9% of soft quota with 70% cache. ~34× headroom to scale before quota engineering.

See src/koreanpulse/cache.py, src/koreanpulse/dart.py:list_filings_cached.

Roadmap

Live today: queries (DART filings, foreign-holder + activist tracking, industry news), hosted translation cache (Cloud KOREANPULSE_CACHE_MODE=hosted), /today daily snapshot, Polar → D1 license issuance (Polar is our sole billing provider and Merchant of Record; the Lemon Squeezy store application was declined 2026-05-06 and LS is not in use), first-party hosted MCP endpoint at https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp (Streamable HTTP transport for ChatGPT / Claude.ai / OpenAI Responses API custom connectors — no pip install).

Q3 2026 ship targets (waitlist):

• Watchlist polling loop (Cloudflare cron + koreanpulse.alerts)
• Alert dispatch enforcement (Discord / Telegram / Slack / webhook)
• Per-tier limit enforcement: watchlist count, alert-channel count, archive retention, seat count

Earlier milestones:

• W1–2 ✅ project skeleton, FastMCP server, DART client, agentprod integration
• W3–4 ✅ MVP: track_korean_filings, lookup_corp_code, search_korean_industry_news, translation layer with cache
• W5–6 ✅ Webhook handler skeleton (license auto-issuance) — Lemon Squeezy first, then Polar after LS denied the store application 2026-05-06
• W5–6 ✅ Cloudflare D1-backed LicenseStore (replaces in-memory)
• W7–8 ⏳ Watchlist polling + alert dispatch (Q3 2026 ship target) — wiring cache-worker cron + daily-worker cron + koreanpulse.alerts module into the watchlist-to-alert workflow that powers Solo / Analyst / Desk. D1 schema and alert-dispatch primitives already shipped; the cron loop is the missing piece.
• W7–8 digest_analyst_reports, summarize_korean_earnings_call
• W9–10 Multi-seat / shared watchlists for Cloud Desk
• W11–12 First paid customer

Architecture

• MCP server — FastMCP (Python), runs on the user's machine over stdio. Zero hosting cost on our side. Cloud customers still install this locally; switching KOREANPULSE_CACHE_MODE=hosted routes translation calls (only) to the Worker.
• Cache Worker (cache-worker/) — Cloudflare Workers + KV. Holds our OpenAI key, fronts a global translation cache, gates each call behind a license check. Free tier (100K req/day Workers + 100K read/day KV) covers paid traffic until well past $5K MRR.
• Daily Worker (daily-worker/) — Cloudflare Workers + KV. Cron-driven /today dashboard build (KST 16:30 weekdays).
• Webhook Worker (webhook-worker/) — Cloudflare Worker + D1 (SQLite). Handles Polar billing events (Polar is our sole billing provider, active 2026-05-06+) and /v1/validate for the Cache Worker. The Lemon Squeezy store application was declined and LS is not in use; its handler code is retained only as a historical implementation reference. Replaces the old Lightsail/FastAPI/Postgres stack so the operator runs zero servers.
• Reuses agentprod — Throttle, Retry, CostTracker.

OSS self-host vs Cloud

Two ways to run the MCP, switched via KOREANPULSE_CACHE_MODE. Both require a local install (pip install koreanpulse + 4-line Claude Desktop config); the difference is whether translation calls go through our Worker or directly to OpenAI from your machine.

	local (OSS self-host)	hosted (Cloud Solo / Analyst / Desk)
Local MCP install	required	required (same pip install)
Provider key	your OPENAI_API_KEY	ours, on the Worker (no OpenAI key on your side)
Translation cache	local JSONL file	global Cloudflare KV (cross-tenant reuse)
Per-call cost	OpenAI billed to you	absorbed in your Cloud plan
Privacy	translation never leaves your machine + OpenAI	translation calls go to our Worker; DART traffic still local
Best for	hackers, OSS contributors, max-privacy envs	anyone who'll want the watchlist-to-alert workflow once it ships

Cache hits are the entire reason a $29/mo Solo plan can sustain healthy gross margin: the same Korean filing title gets translated once, then served to every other tenant on the same plan from KV. See docs/CLAUDE_DESKTOP.md for the env-var split between modes.

Hosted HTTP transport (no local install) — live today. First-party endpoint at https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp (Streamable HTTP, single-region node fronted by Caddy + Let's Encrypt cert). Add as a custom connector in ChatGPT (Settings → Connectors), Claude.ai (Settings → Connectors), or wire it directly from the OpenAI Responses API. Validated end-to-end against ChatGPT and Claude.ai 2026-05-06 — monitor_activist_investors chains lookup_corp_code and returns Korean→English translated 5%-rule filings without any client-side install. The local stdio install path remains canonical for self-hosters and max-privacy users; the Smithery listing keeps Smithery CLI users in the discovery path.

Legal posture

• Korean news: fair-use summaries with attribution + outbound links, no full-text republication.
• DART, government data: public, free to redistribute with attribution.
• Korean broker reports: public-facing summaries only (paywalled reports excluded).
• No spatial / mapping data → 공간정보관리법 무관.
• Not investment advice. koreanpulse provides translated and classified primary-source data. It is not investment advice and does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. The service performs no individualized analysis or personalized recommendation. All output is general data routing intended for informational purposes only. Korea Capital Markets Act §101 (유사투자자문업): we provide general informational data without individualized investment judgement, falling outside the registration scope (제공하는 정보가 단순히 금융관련 지식 등을 제공하는 수준).
• Privacy + data protection: see https://koreanpulse.dev/privacy — covers Korea PIPA, EU GDPR, US CCPA. Terms of service: https://koreanpulse.dev/terms.

Billing (Polar — active provider)

Billing runs on the webhook-worker/ Cloudflare Worker + D1 (SQLite). The operator runs zero servers.

Active provider: Polar (polar.sh) — Merchant of Record since 2026-05-06. Handles VAT / sales tax / refunds / chargebacks for all subscriptions. License keys are emailed automatically on subscription.created via the webhook worker.

Lemon Squeezy: not in use. Their store application was declined on 2026-05-06; we did not appeal. No LS variant secrets configured in production, no LS webhook deliveries accepted. The handler code remains in the repo only as a historical implementation reference. Anywhere this README mentions Lemon Squeezy below, treat it as documentation-only — Polar is the only billing provider serving real customers.

See webhook-worker/README.md for the full deploy + secrets walkthrough; the short version:

cd webhook-worker
npm install
npx wrangler d1 create koreanpulse_db   # paste returned id into wrangler.toml
npm run migrate:prod                     # applies 0001_licenses.sql + 0002_pricing_v2.sql

# ── Polar (active provider) ──────────────────────────────────────────
npx wrangler secret put POLAR_WEBHOOK_SECRET    # `polar_whs_...` from Polar webhook page
npx wrangler secret put POLAR_API_TOKEN         # `polar_oat_...` (subscriptions:read scope)
npx wrangler secret put POLAR_PRODUCT_SOLO      # UUID of Cloud Solo product
npx wrangler secret put POLAR_PRODUCT_ANALYST   # UUID of Cloud Analyst product
npx wrangler secret put POLAR_PRODUCT_DESK      # UUID of Cloud Desk product

# ── Shared ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
npx wrangler secret put KOREANPULSE_CACHE_SHARED_SECRET   # same value cache-worker uses

# ── Lemon Squeezy (not in use — store application declined 2026-05-06) ──
# Do NOT set these in production. They remain documented only because the
# handler code is still in the repo as a historical implementation
# reference; setting them would attempt to dispatch licenses on a
# provider that no longer holds an MoR relationship with us.
# npx wrangler secret put LEMONSQUEEZY_WEBHOOK_SECRET
# npx wrangler secret put LEMONSQUEEZY_VARIANT_SOLO / _ANALYST / _DESK / _LIFETIME

npm run deploy

Endpoints (deployed to https://api.koreanpulse.dev or https://koreanpulse-webhook.<account>.workers.dev):

• GET /health → {"status":"ok"}
• POST /webhook/polar → Standard Webhooks signature verified (webhook-id / webhook-timestamp / webhook-signature), idempotent on webhook-id
• POST /webhook/lemonsqueezy → HMAC-SHA256 (not in use; LS store application declined 2026-05-06, no LS variant secrets configured in production)
• POST /v1/validate → HMAC-signed by the cache-worker, validates license + atomically increments period counter

Polar events handled: subscription.created / .active / .updated / .canceled / .revoked. Auto-issues license keys, upgrades plans in place, deactivates on cancellation. License rows are tagged with metadata.provider = "polar" so the source is traceable per row.

The earlier path (Python koreanpulse-webhook FastAPI on Lightsail + Postgres) is superseded as of 2026-05-05; for operator memory it lives at docs/legacy/POSTGRES_LIGHTSAIL.md. New deploys should use the Cloudflare Worker path.

Distribution / marketplaces

Listing copy + submission checklists in docs/MARKETPLACE.md:

• First-party hosted endpoint — https://mcp.koreanpulse.dev/mcp (ChatGPT / Claude.ai / OpenAI Responses API custom connectors)
• Smithery — marketplace listing for Smithery CLI users
• PulseMCP — submitted (hand-reviewed)
• Glama — submitted (pending review)
• Awesome MCP — PR #5893
• MCP Market — Smithery ingest (auto)

Beta acquisition (50 users in 30 days) plan + crypto-native channel mix in docs/BETA.md. Demo recording script in docs/DEMO.md. CI / PyPI release pipeline in docs/CI.md.

Real-time alerts (Discord / Telegram / Slack)

Crypto-native rotators want pings, not dashboards. koreanpulse.alerts.send_alert(url, title=, body=) sends to any of:

• Discord webhooks (https://discord.com/api/webhooks/...)
• Slack incoming webhooks (https://hooks.slack.com/services/...)
• Telegram bots (shortcut tg://<bot_token>/<chat_id> or full sendMessage URL)

Fire-and-forget — transport / formatting failures return AlertResult(ok=False) instead of raising, so an outage in one channel never breaks a tool call. See src/koreanpulse/alerts.py.

License

Source: AGPL-3.0. Hosted service: commercial.