Yelp MCP Server — Local Business Leads for Claude, Cursor & AI Agents

Give your AI assistant local-business lead generation. This Actor runs as a hosted MCP server (Model Context Protocol): connect Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, VS Code or any MCP client and it can search local businesses by keyword + location and pull a complete lead record for any of them — direct website, phone number, full address, opening hours, owner name, year established, rating, review count, categories and amenities. No Yelp API keys, no Fusion quota, nothing to host.

Apify hosts it, authenticates it with your Apify token, and bills it per tool call — you don't run or host anything.

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🧰 Tools

Two tools, both returning clean, typed JSON — ready for an LLM to reason over.

Tool	What it does	Key arguments
search_businesses	Search local businesses by what + where. Returns up to 20 leads per call with name, Yelp URL, rating, review count, price level, categories, street + city, and phone when available.	query (required), location (required), limit (1–20)
get_business	Fetch one business's full lead record from its URL or alias: direct website, phone, full address, opening hours, owner name, year established, claimed status, rating, categories, amenities and photos.	url (required — URL or alias from search_businesses)

Pricing is per-call: one search_businesses event per search (up to 20 leads), one get_business event per full record.

Agent combo tip: pair it with an email-finder tool — get_business returns the business's direct website, which is exactly what email discovery needs for a complete outreach record.

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🔌 Connect it

This Actor runs in Standby mode and exposes an MCP endpoint at /mcp over the Streamable HTTP transport. Point your MCP client at the Actor's Standby URL and authenticate with your Apify API token as a bearer token.

Add this to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, …):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-leads": {
      "url": "https://<YOUR-STANDBY-URL>/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" }
    }
  }
}

• Your Standby URL is shown on the Actor's page once you enable Standby (looks like https://<user>--yelp-mcp-server.apify.actor).
• Your Apify API token is under Settings → Integrations in the Apify Console.

That's it — your assistant will discover both tools automatically and pick the right one.

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💬 Example prompts

Once connected, just ask your assistant naturally:

• “Find plumbers in Austin, TX and give me their phone numbers and websites.”
• “List the top-rated coffee shops in Portland with their owner names.”
• “Build me a lead list of dentists in the 10001 zip — name, phone, website, rating.”
• “Is Coava Coffee Roasters claimed on Yelp? What are their hours today?”
• “Find HVAC companies in Phoenix rated 4+ with over 50 reviews.”

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📦 Example tool calls & output

search_businesses

{ "query": "coffee shop", "location": "Portland, OR", "limit": 3 }

{
  "query": "coffee shop",
  "location": "Portland, OR",
  "returned": 3,
  "businesses": [
    {
      "name": "Coava Coffee Roasters",
      "url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/coava-coffee-roasters-portland",
      "yelpBizId": "…",
      "rating": 4.4,
      "reviewCount": 909,
      "priceLevel": "$$",
      "categories": ["Coffee & Tea", "Coffee Roasteries"],
      "address": "1300 SE Grand Ave",
      "city": "Portland",
      "phone": null
    }
  ]
}

get_business

{ "url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/coava-coffee-roasters-portland" }

{
  "title": "Coava Coffee Roasters",
  "rating": "4.4",
  "reviewCount": "909 reviews",
  "isClaimed": "Claimed",
  "priceLevel": "$$",
  "categories": "Coffee & Tea,Coffee Roasteries",
  "fullAddress": "1300 SE Grand Ave\nPortland, OR 97214",
  "phoneNumber": "(503) 894-8134",
  "website": "http://www.coavacoffee.com/",
  "businessOwnerName": "Matt H.",
  "hours": { "Mon": "7:00 AM - 6:00 PM", "Tue": "7:00 AM - 6:00 PM" },
  "businessServices": { "Offers Delivery": true, "Accepts Credit Cards": true },
  "images": ["…22 photo URLs…"]
}

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✅ Why use it

• Real lead fields, not just listings. Direct website, phone and owner name — the fields cold-outreach actually needs, which map/geo APIs rarely expose.
• No API keys. No Yelp Fusion application, no quota management, no OAuth.
• Built for agents. Two clean, typed tools; search returns compact rows, detail returns the full record — the model composes them naturally.
• Managed unblocking included. Enterprise-grade anti-bot handling is bundled into every call — no proxy setup, no CAPTCHA babysitting.
• Pay per call. Billed per search / per record — no subscription, no idle server cost.
• Works everywhere. Standard Streamable HTTP MCP transport — Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, VS Code, Windsurf, or your own agent.

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🎯 Great for

• Local lead generation — agent-built prospect lists with phone + website + owner, ready for a CRM.
• Sales territory research — who operates in a category and area, at what rating and price level.
• Competitor scans — a business's hours, services, claimed status and review standing at a glance.
• Data enrichment — resolve a business name to its website and phone inside any agent workflow.

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⚙️ Notes & limitations

• Search rows are summaries. Phone/website are often absent at the search level — that's Yelp's data model, not a gap; call get_business for the full record (phone/website/hours/owner live there).
• US-centric. Coverage mirrors Yelp's own: strongest in the US/Canada, thinner elsewhere.
• Up to 20 leads per search call (two result pages). Fan out with more specific queries or neighborhoods for deeper lists.
• Owner name appears when the business profile exposes one (typically claimed businesses).
• Occasional upstream turbulence returns a clear “temporarily unavailable — try again shortly” error rather than partial junk; retrying is safe and unbilled on failure.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor accesses only publicly available business listing data — the same pages any visitor sees — with no login or private-account access. Business data belongs to the respective businesses and platforms; you are responsible for using the output — including any outreach — in compliance with applicable laws (TCPA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM…) and terms. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Yelp Inc.

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🔎 SEO keywords

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