Vantage — Signal Tracker

Track what you're seeing. Use it later.

Vantage is a personal signal store for AI-native work — a place to capture and query the things you notice across the web.

A post on X. A thread on LinkedIn. An insight from an article. A competitor move. Instead of losing it across tabs, screenshots, and notes, you save it — and use it later.

---

One memory layer across all your AI tools

Your AI tools don't share memory.

• Claude doesn't know what you saw on X
• ChatGPT doesn't know what you read yesterday
• Your code tools don't know your research

Vantage fixes that.

Save signals once, and access them anywhere you have an MCP-compatible client — across Claude, Cursor, and other supported tools.

---

How it works

1. Connect Vantage to your AI (via MCP)
2. Save signals directly from your workflow
3. Ask questions on top of what you've saved

Example:

"Save this as a signal"

"What have I saved about pricing?"

"Show me signals from Lemkin"

---

What Vantage is (and isn't)

• Not a scraper — you choose what matters
• Not a feed — no noise or algorithmic clutter
• Not a knowledge base — no system to maintain

Vantage is a simple way to keep track of what you're seeing — so your AI can actually use it later.

---

Hosted + open source

• Free hosted version: vantage.cavendo.ai
• Self-hosted: MIT licensed, run it anywhere

---

Quick Start

Option 1: Use the hosted version (fastest)

Sign up at vantage.cavendo.ai. Connect to Claude or another supported client. Start capturing.

Takes about 2 minutes. No install required.

Option 2: Run locally

npm install
npm run dev

# If 3020 is already in use, choose another port
PORT=YOUR_PORT npm run dev

# Generate your first API key
curl -X POST http://localhost:3020/api/auth/keys \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name": "my-key"}'

The first API key can be created from localhost without auth. If you're bootstrapping a fresh remote deployment, set VANTAGE_BOOTSTRAP_TOKEN on the server and send the same value in the X-Vantage-Bootstrap-Token header on that first request. The API key is returned as data.key in the JSON response.

Capture your first signal:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3020/api/signals \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer vtg_YOUR_KEY_HERE' \
  -d '{
    "signalType": "post",
    "platform": "x",
    "content": "Every SaaS company will need an agent layer within 18 months.",
    "topics": ["AI Agents", "SaaS"],
    "importance": "high"
  }'

---

MCP Server

Vantage includes an MCP server with 13 tools for use with Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you want to use the bundled stdio MCP server directly, install its dependencies too:

cd mcp-server
npm install
cd ..

Claude Code

claude mcp add vantage --transport http "http://localhost:3020/mcp" --header "Authorization: Bearer vtg_YOUR_KEY"

For manual testing, note that /mcp is a streamable HTTP endpoint. MCP clients handle the response format automatically, but ad hoc curl calls need to be prepared for stream-oriented responses rather than a simple JSON-only request/response flow.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vantage": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/vantage/mcp-server/src/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "VANTAGE_API_URL": "http://localhost:3020",
        "VANTAGE_API_KEY": "vtg_YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools

Tool	What it does
capture_signal	Save a post, article, quote, or discussion. Auto-creates sources and topics.
search_signals	Full-text search with filters — platform, topic, date range, importance.
list_recent_signals	Latest signals feed.
get_signal	Full detail on a specific signal.
manage_source	Create or update a person/account you're tracking.
list_sources	See everyone you're tracking with signal counts.
manage_topic	Create or update a topic/theme.
list_topics	All topics with signal counts.
manage_collection	Group signals into named collections.
set_business_context	Upload strategy docs for comparison.
analyze_signals	Assemble signals + context for analysis.
get_dashboard	Summary — counts, top topics, top sources, highlights.
save_analysis	Persist an analysis for later reference.

---

Integrations

• OpenClaw community skill: vantage-shared-intel — capture signals, search prior intel, and generate shared digests against the same Vantage dataset from OpenClaw.

---

REST API

Most API requests require Authorization: Bearer vtg_YOUR_KEY.

Exceptions:

• GET /health
• POST /api/auth/keys for first-key bootstrap from localhost, or from a remote client that supplies a valid X-Vantage-Bootstrap-Token

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/signals	Create a signal
GET	/api/signals	List signals with filters
GET	/api/signals/search?q=query	Full-text search
GET	/api/signals/feed	Chronological feed
GET	/api/signals/:id	Signal detail
POST	/api/sources	Create a source
GET	/api/sources	List sources
POST	/api/topics	Create a topic
GET	/api/topics	List topics
POST	/api/collections	Create a collection
POST	/api/contexts	Upload business context
GET	/api/dashboard/summary	Dashboard summary
POST	/api/auth/keys	Generate API key

---

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 20+ / Express / ESM
Database	SQLite via better-sqlite3
Validation	Zod
Auth	API key (vtg_ prefix), SHA-256 hashed
MCP	@modelcontextprotocol/sdk (stdio + HTTP)

---

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3020	Server port
NODE_ENV	development	Environment
DATABASE_PATH	./data/vantage.db	SQLite file path
CORS_ORIGIN	*	CORS allowed origin
VANTAGE_BOOTSTRAP_TOKEN	unset	Allows first API key creation from a non-localhost client when sent as X-Vantage-Bootstrap-Token

---

License

MIT — use it however you want.

---

Built by Jonathan Arehart at Cavendo AI.