# Conference Partner — MCP server & REST API
[](https://github.com/sundou82/conference-partner-mcp/actions/workflows/snapshot.yml)
[](https://github.com/sundou82/conference-partner-mcp/actions/workflows/sync-spec.yml)
[](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io)
Academic **conference and journal** data for AI agents and scripts: CFP deadlines,
CCF / CORE / QUALIS rankings, the **Conference Partner Index (CP-I)** — a 0–100 score we
compute for every conference, including the majority that carry no external rank —
acceptance-rate history, edition history, journal impact factors and special issues —
served by [Conference Partner](https://www.myhuiban.com)
(会伴), a conference tracker that has been maintained since 2013.
Two surfaces over one dataset:
| | Endpoint | For |
|---|---|---|
| **MCP** | `https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP) | Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, any MCP client |
| **REST** | `https://www.myhuiban.com/api/*` | scripts, backends, OpenAPI codegen |
Both are backed by the same services and return **identical payloads** — the only
difference is the protocol envelope.
**Search, ranking lists and site statistics need no credentials at all.** Point a client
at the URL and the first call works.
```bash
curl "https://www.myhuiban.com/api/conferences?ccf_rank=A&field=ai&submission_date_start=2026-08-05"
```
---
## Add it to your MCP client
Claude Code
```bash
claude mcp add --transport http conference-partner https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp
```
Claude.ai / Claude Desktop (Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector)
Remote MCP server URL:
```
https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp
```
To unlock the detail tools, add a static request header in the connector's advanced
settings: `Authorization: Bearer hb_xxx` (see [Credentials](#credentials)).
Cursor — ~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"conference-partner": {
"url": "https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp"
}
}
}
```
VS Code — .vscode/mcp.json
```json
{
"servers": {
"conference-partner": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp"
}
}
}
```
ChatGPT (Settings → Connectors → Create)
MCP server URL `https://www.myhuiban.com/mcp`, authentication **No authentication**
(or *API key* with your `hb_` key to enable the detail tools).
Ready-to-copy files for each client live in [`examples/mcp-config/`](examples/mcp-config/),
and the per-client walkthrough — including how to attach a key — is in
[`docs/mcp-clients.md`](docs/mcp-clients.md).
Also listed on [Smithery](https://smithery.ai/server/sundou82/conference-partner),
[Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/connectors/com.myhuiban.www/conference-partner) and the
[official MCP registry](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io) as
`com.myhuiban.www/conference-partner`.
---
## Tools
Eight read-only tools, each with a REST twin returning the same payload.
| Tool | REST twin | Credentials |
|---|---|---|
| `search_conferences` | `GET /api/conferences` | — |
| `search_journals` | `GET /api/journals` | — |
| `list_conferences` | `GET /api/conferences/rankings/{ranking}` | — |
| `list_journals` | `GET /api/journals/rankings/{ranking}` | — |
| `get_statistics` | `GET /api/statistics` | — |
| `get_conference` | `GET /api/conferences/{id}` | free account |
| `get_journal` | `GET /api/journals/{id}` | free account |
| `get_researcher` | `GET /api/researchers/{id}` | free account |
Search accepts any combination of keyword, `ccf_rank` (A/B/C), `core_rank` (A\*/A/B/C),
`qualis_rank`, `field` (research areas, CS and beyond), submission/conference date
ranges and `updated_since` for incremental sync. **Every parameter is optional** — filter-only
queries such as "AI conferences with a deadline in the next 90 days" are the point.
Ranking lists cover open CFPs, the three tier lists, popularity, lowest acceptance rate,
trending, upcoming/past — and for journals, special-issue CFPs and highest impact factor.
### Prompts
The MCP server also ships **prompts** — ready-made tasks your client offers as one-click
starting points, so you are not left staring at a list of tool names:
| Prompt | What it does |
|---|---|
| `upcoming_deadlines` | deadlines you can still submit to, by field and tier |
| `where_to_submit` | give it a paper topic, get ranked venues whose calls are open |
| `venue_snapshot` | everything on record for one conference or journal |
| `open_special_issues` | journals currently running a special-issue call |
Full machine-readable definitions, refreshed from production by CI:
[`spec/openapi.json`](spec/openapi.json) and [`spec/mcp-tools.json`](spec/mcp-tools.json).
---
## Credentials
| Tier | How | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| **Anonymous** | send nothing | 50 requests/day per source IP |
| **Free account** | `Authorization: Bearer hb_xxx` | 200 requests/day, shared across REST + MCP |
| Paid | — | *planned, not available yet* |
Create a key at [myhuiban.com/account/api-keys](https://www.myhuiban.com/account/api-keys)
— it never expires and can be revoked individually, which is what you want for a client
that only lets you pin a fixed request header. A JWT from `POST /api/login` works too and
draws on the same pool.
Every response carries `X-Quota-Limit` and `X-Quota-Remaining`. CORS is open, so browser
JavaScript works.
`401` = this endpoint needs a credential, or the one you sent is invalid. An unusable
credential is **never** silently downgraded to the anonymous tier.
`402` = account quota exhausted. `429` = anonymous per-IP quota exhausted.
---
## Examples
Runnable, no API key required:
```bash
# upcoming CCF-A deadlines in AI, next 90 days
python examples/python/upcoming_deadlines.py --field ai --ccf A --days 90
# same thing in Node
node examples/node/upcoming-deadlines.mjs --field ai --ccf A --days 90
# build your own deadline snapshot (JSON + CSV + Markdown table)
python examples/python/export_deadlines.py --out ./snapshot
# incremental sync — only what changed since your last checkpoint
python examples/python/incremental_sync.py --since 2026-07-01
# shell one-liners
bash examples/curl/quickstart.sh
```
See [`examples/README.md`](examples/README.md).
### Watch deadlines from your own repo
[`actions/deadline-watch`](actions/deadline-watch/) is a GitHub Action that keeps one
issue up to date with the deadlines you can still submit to — no API key, nothing to
host. [Issue #1](https://github.com/sundou82/conference-partner-mcp/issues/1) is this
repo running it on a schedule, so you can see the output before adopting it.
```yaml
- uses: sundou82/conference-partner-mcp/actions/deadline-watch@main
with:
field: security
days: 120
```
---
## Download the data
[**`data/`**](data/) carries a snapshot refreshed daily by CI, as JSON and CSV:
| | |
|---|---|
| [`upcoming-deadlines`](data/upcoming-deadlines.csv) | every conference whose deadline has not passed |
| [`ccf-conferences`](data/ccf-conferences.csv) · [`core-conferences`](data/core-conferences.csv) · [`qualis-conferences`](data/qualis-conferences.csv) | the tier catalogues — all three ranks are columns on every row, alongside CP-I |
| [`open-calls-by-rank`](data/open-calls-by-rank.csv) | the ranked venues you can still submit to today |
| [`ccf-journals`](data/ccf-journals.csv) · [`top-impact-factor-journals`](data/top-impact-factor-journals.csv) | journals by tier and by impact factor |
| [`journal-special-issues`](data/journal-special-issues.csv) | journals with an open special-issue call |
[`data/README.md`](data/README.md) renders the next 90 days as a table you can read in
the browser.
The snapshot covers exactly what the **anonymous tier already serves** — nothing in it is
gated. Per-venue detail (CFP full text, acceptance-rate history, edition history, ratings)
stays behind the API, where a free key reaches it.
A file is stale the moment a deadline is extended, which in submission season is daily.
Use it to browse, diff or bulk-load; call the API when it has to be right.
### Subscribe to deadline changes, for free
CI commits `data/` once a day and only when something actually changed, so the commit
history of that directory **is** a change feed. GitHub publishes it as Atom, no account
needed:
```
https://github.com/sundou82/conference-partner-mcp/commits/main/data.atom
```
Point a feed reader at it, or diff two commits to see exactly which deadlines moved:
```bash
git log --oneline -- data/
git diff HEAD~1 HEAD -- data/upcoming-deadlines.csv
```
Watching the repo on GitHub (*Watch → Custom → Releases*, or all activity) gets you the
same signal as email.
---
## Why this dataset
Deadline lists are easy to find. These are the parts that are hard to reproduce:
- **Three ranking systems in one row** — CCF, CORE and QUALIS on the same venue, so
"CCF-A that is also CORE-A\*" is one query rather than a join across three sources.
- **A score for the venues those three leave blank** — CCF, CORE and QUALIS between them
cover about a fifth of the catalogue; for everything else the rank columns are empty.
`cp_index` is our own 0–100 index over academic recognition, selectivity, longevity,
community and how much a venue publishes about itself, so the long tail is comparable
too. Every value ships with a `confidence` and a link to the method — a low score on a
thinly documented venue means we know little about it, not that it is weak.
- **Acceptance-rate history** and **edition history** — how a venue's selectivity and
location moved across editions, back to 2013.
- **Journals as first-class entities** — impact factor, publisher, ISSN, and
special-issue CFPs, which conference-only lists do not carry.
- **Incremental sync** — `updated_since` with an `updated_at` watermark on every row, so
a mirror is a diff rather than a re-crawl.
- Human-curated, not scraped: dates are entered and corrected by maintainers and by the
organisers themselves through a venue-claim process.
Methodology, coverage and known limits: [myhuiban.com/methodology](https://www.myhuiban.com/methodology).
---
## About this repository
This repo is the distribution entry point for the API and MCP server: client
configuration, examples, and CI-synced specs. **The server itself is not open source** —
it is a hosted service; nothing here needs to be installed or run to use it.
- [`docs/mcp-clients.md`](docs/mcp-clients.md) — per-client setup, with and without a key
- [`docs/rest-api.md`](docs/rest-api.md) — endpoints, parameters, errors, incremental sync
- [`docs/data.md`](docs/data.md) — what is in the dataset, attribution, terms
- [`examples/`](examples/) — runnable Python, Node and curl clients; MCP config files
- [`spec/`](spec/) — OpenAPI 3 document, MCP tool definitions and server card, re-fetched
from production daily by [CI](.github/workflows/sync-spec.yml) so they cannot go stale
Authoritative reference: **[myhuiban.com/developers](https://www.myhuiban.com/developers)**.
Where this repo and that page ever disagree, the page is right — it ships with the API.
Issues and PRs about the client-side material here are welcome. For data corrections use
the "report" link on the venue page, and for anything else email `admin@myhuiban.com`.
## License
[MIT](LICENSE) for the code and configuration in this repository.
The **data served by the API is not covered by that license**. It is free to use,
including commercially, with attribution: cite the canonical venue URL and
"Conference Partner (myhuiban.com)". If your claim is about a CCF, CORE or QUALIS value
itself, cite that body — Conference Partner reproduces those lists, it does not define
them. `cp_index` is the exception: it is ours, so cite
[myhuiban.com/ranking](https://www.myhuiban.com/ranking) and the `algorithm` version the
row carries.
Bulk use should start from `data/` rather than a crawl of your own, and dataset licensing
or model training needs a conversation first. See [`docs/data.md`](docs/data.md) and the
[terms on the site](https://www.myhuiban.com/developers).