Inflation check

Is the economy in recession territory? CPI, fed funds, unemployment, and Sahm rule in one call.

When to use this pack

Quick macro health check - the four numbers that answer 'are we in a recession?'

Tools in this pack

All 4 run inside the single $0.018 call above. Each is also callable on its own if you only need one part.

• US CPI year-over-year inflation GET /api/cpi-yoy Latest US Consumer Price Index year-over-year inflation rate (headline CPI-U) plus the trailing 12 months of YoY readings - the headline inflation number. Source: FRED CPIAUCSL with pc1 transformation. No params.
• Effective federal funds rate GET /api/fed-funds Current effective federal funds rate (current, as of date, in percent) plus a trailing N-day history of {date, value}. Source: FRED DFF (Board of Governors), a daily series that includes weekends. ?days=30 (1-365, default 30). This product uses the FRED(R) API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
• US unemployment rate (UNRATE) GET /api/unemployment-rate Latest US unemployment rate (current, as of date) plus a trailing N-month history of {date, value} for trend, seasonally adjusted, in percent. Source: FRED UNRATE (Bureau of Labor Statistics). A month with no published value is listed in missingDates rather than dropped silently. ?months=12 (1-120, default 12). This product uses the FRED(R) API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
• Sahm Rule recession indicator GET /api/sahm-rule Real-time Sahm Rule recession indicator from FRED (SAHMREALTIME series). The Sahm Rule triggers when the 3-month moving average of US unemployment rises ≥0.50 percentage points above its prior-12-month low - historically a clean recession signal. No params.

Bought one at a time, these 4 tools cost $0.02 together; the pack is that sum less a 10% bundle discount, rounded up to the $0.001 settlement floor, which is $0.018.

Workflow

1. Pull CPI year-over-year for the headline inflation read.
2. Get the effective fed funds rate for the current policy stance.
3. Pull the unemployment rate (U-3).
4. Compute the Sahm rule - triggers when 3-month unemployment average rises >0.5pp above its 12-month low.

What one call returns

A JSON object with pack, args, steps, summary; steps holds one entry per tool (cpi-yoy, fed-funds, unemployment-rate, sahm-rule), each with its own result or error. Full example on the API page.

Call it directly

Any x402 client pays the 402 and gets the whole workflow back in one response. With the agent402-client SDK (npm i agent402-client, an ES module):

import { Agent402 } from "agent402-client";
// payFetch: an x402-wrapped fetch your wallet signs (@x402/fetch).
// Tools on the free tier need no options: new Agent402() pays them by proof-of-work.
// an existing prepaid credits key also works: new Agent402({ creditsKey })
const client = new Agent402({ fetch: payFetch });
const result = await client.call("skill-inflation-check", {});

Run it in Claude

claude mcp add agent402 -s user -- npx -y agent402-mcp@latest

Then paste this prompt into Claude:

Run a recession check using Agent402's inflation-check skill pack. Get (1) CPI YoY, (2) fed funds rate, (3) unemployment rate, (4) Sahm rule. Is the economy in recession territory?

← All skill packs