S&P Global - Adaptive Retrieval

What the S&P Global - Adaptive Retrieval connector does

The S&P Global Adaptive Retrieval MCP server answers natural-language questions from S&P Global's data with citations. Built by Kensho, it exposes one documented tool: you ask, and a router picks which of 24 data agents to search. It is read-only, and every agent the router reaches spends a billed search credit.

S&P Global - Adaptive Retrieval tools (1)

Tool names from Anthropic's directory listing. This server requires sign-in, so we could not read tool descriptions or parameter schemas.

Limits

• Every call spends, and the caller does not set the price. Usage is counted per data agent search, and the router decides how many agents to search. Do not grant blanket auto-approval to this tool. Use allowed_datasets to cap the fan-out where you know the destination.
• No idempotency key is documented. A retried timeout can be a second charge, and Kensho's own example notebook retries up to three times on any client error.
• The agent cannot see its own spend. Usage is reported only on HTTP headers, which MCP clients do not pass to the model. There is no accounting tool.
• Anthropic's directory lists zero tool names, so the vendor's own documentation is the only enumeration and no cross-check is possible. One tool is a floor, not a verified total.
• We could not read tool schemas or safety annotations. The endpoint returned 401 to an anonymous request on 2026-08-23, so the read-only claim rests on Kensho's published OpenAPI specification rather than on the server's own readOnlyHint declarations.
• The documented agent list is not your entitlement. Kensho searches only datasets included in your subscription and its agents endpoint returns those "accessible to the user". The 24 agents are a catalogue; your contract decides your subset, and only an authenticated call enumerates it.
• Four datasets in the API schema have no documented agent. credit_ratings, macroeconomics, ratings_research and executive_departures appear in Kensho's UnderlyingDataset enumeration and nowhere in the Adaptive Retrieval documentation. We could not establish whether they are reachable, staged for release, or vestigial.
• min_release_stage can widen the surface to beta agents. It is an ordinary parameter on the one tool, needing no separate grant, and Kensho documents it as controlling access to experimental features.
• No licensing terms are published in these docs. There is no redistribution, resale or terms-of-use language anywhere in the Adaptive Retrieval documentation — a different position from the sibling Deterministic Retrieval docs, which at least carry a licensing qualifier. S&P Global's own terms-of-use and privacy pages returned HTTP 403 to every client we tried on 2026-08-23, so we could not check them either. Read your contract.
• The refresh token is documented as permanent. Kensho's example notebook tells users the access token expires in one hour and that they may "alternatively, use the Refresh Token, which does not expire". Treat it as a long-lived credential and store it accordingly.
• Multi-step reasoning is a known limitation. Kensho names it as such and ships a separate ReAct agent notebook "to address one of the known limitations with multi-step reasoning". The connector answers questions; it does not chain them.
• Accuracy of the summary is your side of the line. The API returns cited data, but the sentence an agent writes from that data is the agent's. The citations exist so you can check it.
• The documentation understates its own availability. Kensho's notebooks page says to email for access to both example notebooks; both are in fact public on GitHub under Apache 2.0.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval overview (the URL Anthropic's directory nominates) (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval data agents, the 24-agent catalogue with descriptions and example queries (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval MCP guide, the only enumeration naming the search tool (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval API guide, covering parameters, authentication, response schema and the usage headers (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval usage tracking, quota and overage rules (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval FAQs, describing the router (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval supported datasets (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Adaptive Retrieval quickstart notebooks and third-party integrations — · (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho Grounding OpenAPI specification, 11 paths and the UnderlyingDataset enumeration (retrieved 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Kensho example notebooks, kensho-technologies/adaptive_retrieval_examples, Apache 2.0, last pushed 2026-08-20 (read 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-20
• Live OAuth posture check: anonymous initialize returning 401 with www-authenticate, RFC 9728 metadata at https://grounding.kensho.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/integrations/v2/mcp, authorization server metadata at https://grounding.kensho.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server/integrations/v2/mcp, and a bogus-path control confirming the root descriptor is a catch-all (2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23
• Anthropic Connectors Directory entry — , read from our directory snapshot dated 2026-08-16 · retrieved 2026-08-16
• S&P Global support — <mailto:support.datafeed.mi@spglobal.com> · Privacy (not retrievable; www.spglobal.com returned HTTP 403 to every client tried on 2026-08-23) · retrieved 2026-08-23