Perception Tools - Updates & Changes¶

Summary¶

Updated the Perception Tools MCP Server to use 100% free, open APIs that require no API keys. This makes the tool immediately usable without any setup or registration.

Changes Made¶

1. Weather API - Replaced OpenWeather with Open-Meteo¶

Previous: OpenWeather API (required API key) New: Open-Meteo (free, no API key required)

Benefits: - No registration or API key needed - Automatic geocoding of city names - High-quality weather data from national weather services - Hourly resolution with up to 16-day forecasts - 80 years of historical weather data available

Implementation: - get_weather(location, latitude=None, longitude=None) - Automatically geocodes location names to coordinates - Returns temperature, humidity, wind speed, precipitation, and weather description

2. Web Search - Replaced Google Custom Search with DuckDuckGo¶

Previous: Google Custom Search API (required API key and CSE ID) New: DuckDuckGo HTML search (free, no API key required)

Benefits: - No registration or API key needed - Privacy-focused search engine - Clean, ad-free results - No usage limits

Implementation: - search_web(query, num_results=5, region="wt-wt") - Scrapes DuckDuckGo HTML results - Returns title, URL, and snippet for each result

3. Cryptocurrency Prices - NEW TOOL ✨¶

API: CoinGecko (free, no API key required)

Features: - Real-time cryptocurrency prices - Support for 15+ major cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, SOL, etc.) - Market cap, 24h volume, and price change data - Multi-currency support (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.)

Implementation: - get_crypto_price(symbol, vs_currency="usd") - Maps common symbols (btc → bitcoin, eth → ethereum) - Returns comprehensive price and market data

Example:

result = await get_crypto_price("btc", "usd")
# Returns: BTC price, market cap, 24h volume, 24h change

4. Location Search - NEW TOOL ✨¶

API: Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) (free, no API key required)

Features: - Geocode any location worldwide - Search landmarks, cities, addresses - Detailed address information - Country filtering option

Implementation: - search_location(query, limit=5, country_code=None) - Returns latitude, longitude, and detailed address - Importance ranking for result relevance

Example:

result = await search_location("Eiffel Tower")
# Returns: coordinates, full address, location type

5. Point of Interest (POI) Search - NEW TOOL ✨¶

API: Overpass API (OpenStreetMap) (free, no API key required)

Features: - Find restaurants, cafes, hotels, ATMs, hospitals, etc. - Search within specified radius - Rich metadata (phone, website, opening hours, cuisine) - Worldwide coverage from OpenStreetMap data

Implementation: - search_poi(query, latitude, longitude, radius=1000, limit=10) - Searches for amenities, shops, tourism POIs - Returns name, type, coordinates, and metadata

Example:

result = await search_poi("restaurant", 48.8584, 2.2945, radius=500)
# Returns: nearby restaurants with details

Existing Free APIs (Already Implemented)¶

These tools were already using free APIs:

Stock Prices - Yahoo Finance (free, no API key)
Currency Conversion - ExchangeRate-API (free, no API key)
Wikipedia - Wikipedia API (free, no API key)
ArXiv - ArXiv API (free, no API key)
Wayback Machine - Internet Archive (free, no API key)

Complete List of Free Tools¶

🔍 Search & Discovery¶

✅ Web Search (DuckDuckGo)
✅ Knowledge Base Search
✅ Wikipedia Search
✅ ArXiv Search
✅ Location Search (OpenStreetMap)
✅ POI Search (OpenStreetMap)

🌐 Public Data¶

✅ Weather (Open-Meteo)
✅ Stock Prices (Yahoo Finance)
✅ Crypto Prices (CoinGecko)
✅ Currency Conversion (ExchangeRate-API)

📄 Content Processing¶

✅ Web Page Reader
✅ Document Reader (PDF, DOCX, PPTX)
✅ File Operations
✅ Grep Search

🕰️ Historical Data¶

✅ Wayback Machine

Testing¶

All new and updated tools have been tested and verified:

# Test original tools
python quickstart.py

# Test new tools
python test_new_tools.py

All tests pass successfully with no API keys required!

Documentation Updates¶

✅ Updated README.md with new tool descriptions
✅ Updated env.example to reflect free APIs
✅ Added comprehensive parameter documentation
✅ Highlighted "No API Keys Required" throughout

Benefits of These Changes¶

Zero Setup - Works immediately after pip install -r requirements.txt
No Cost - All APIs are free for reasonable use
No Registration - No need to sign up or manage API keys
Privacy - DuckDuckGo and OpenStreetMap don't track users
Production Ready - APIs are stable and well-maintained
Global Coverage - Weather, maps, and location data worldwide

API Sources & Links¶

Tool	API Provider	Documentation
Weather	Open-Meteo	https://open-meteo.com/
Web Search	DuckDuckGo	https://duckduckgo.com/
Crypto Prices	CoinGecko	https://www.coingecko.com/en/api
Location Search	Nominatim (OSM)	https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/
POI Search	Overpass API (OSM)	https://overpass-api.de/
Stock Prices	Yahoo Finance	https://finance.yahoo.com/
Currency	ExchangeRate-API	https://www.exchangerate-api.com/
Wikipedia	Wikipedia API	https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API
ArXiv	ArXiv API	https://arxiv.org/help/api

Acknowledgments¶

Special thanks to: - Open-Meteo for providing free, high-quality weather data - OpenStreetMap community for maintaining global map data - CoinGecko for free cryptocurrency market data - DuckDuckGo for privacy-respecting search

Next Steps¶

Potential future enhancements: - Add rate limiting to respect API usage policies - Implement caching for frequently accessed data - Add more cryptocurrency exchanges - Support for reverse geocoding - Route planning with OpenStreetMap