5-minute setup — no coding required

Setup Guide

Query company relationships, suppliers, and competitors directly from your AI assistant. No terminal or coding experience needed.

What you'll be able to do

“Who are NVIDIA's main suppliers?”

Returns TSMC, Samsung, Amkor — with SEC filing citations

“What's Apple's supply chain risk?”

Shows concentration risks and sole-source dependencies

“How are Tesla and AMD connected?”

Finds the path through shared suppliers in the graph

“Who competes with Microsoft?”

Lists competitors named in Microsoft's own SEC filings

Get Your Free API Key

Go to valafi.dev/signup
Enter your name and email address
Click Get API Key
Copy the key that appears (it starts with vfi_)

Save your key somewhere safe. You'll need it in the next step. It's shown only once.

Free beta — 50 requests/day, no credit card, no expiration.

Set Up Your AI Assistant

Pick the AI tool you already use (or want to try). Each one takes about 2 minutes to configure.

Claude Desktop

Free AI assistant from Anthropic. Download here if you don't have it yet.

Step A: Install Python (one-time)

Claude Desktop runs MCP servers locally, so you need Python installed. If you already have it, skip to Step B.

Mac

Open Terminal (search “Terminal” in Spotlight)
Paste this and press Enter: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Close and reopen Terminal

Windows

Open PowerShell (search “PowerShell” in Start menu)
Paste this and press Enter: irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex
Close and reopen PowerShell

Step B: Open the settings file

Mac

Open Claude Desktop
Click Claudein the top menu bar → Settings
Click Developer in the left sidebar
Click Edit Config — this opens the configuration file in a text editor

Windows

Open Claude Desktop
Click the hamburger menu (three lines, top-left) → Settings
Click Developer → Edit Config

Step C: Find your uvx path

Claude Desktop needs the full path to uvx. Open Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows) and run:

Terminal

which uvx

Copy the output (e.g., /Users/yourname/.local/bin/uvx) — you'll need it in the next step.

Step D: Paste this configuration

Replace the entire contents of the file with this. Put your uvx path from Step C and your API key from Step 1:

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vala-fi": {
      "command": "/full/path/to/uvx",
      "args": ["vala-fi-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VALAFI_API_KEY": "vfi_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example: If which uvx returned /Users/jane/.local/bin/uvx, then set "command": "/Users/jane/.local/bin/uvx"

Step E: Save and restart

Save the file (Cmd+S on Mac, Ctrl+S on Windows)
Completely quit Claude Desktop
Reopen Claude Desktop
You should see a small hammer icon or tools indicator in the chat input area — that means Vala-Fi is connected

Cursor

AI-powered code editor. Download here if you don't have it yet.

Open Cursor and go to Settings (Cmd+, on Mac)
Search for MCP in the settings search bar
Click Add new MCP server
Select Type: SSE or HTTP
Enter the URL: https://mcp.valafi.dev/mcp
Add header: X-API-Key = vfi_your_key_here

Or add this to .cursor/mcp.json in any project folder:

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vala-fi": {
      "url": "https://mcp.valafi.dev/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-API-Key": "vfi_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

AI-powered code editor by Codeium. Download here

Open Windsurf and go to Windsurf Settings → MCP
Click Add Server
Paste the same configuration below
Save and restart Windsurf

Windsurf MCP settings

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vala-fi": {
      "url": "https://mcp.valafi.dev/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-API-Key": "vfi_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Start Asking Questions

Once connected, just ask your AI assistant in plain English. Here are some questions to try:

Supply Chain

“Who are Apple's main suppliers according to SEC filings?”

“Show me TSMC's customer base”

“What companies supply Tesla?”

Competition

“Who are Microsoft's competitors according to their SEC filings?”

“Do Apple and Samsung compete? Show me the evidence.”

Risk Analysis

“What's Apple's supply chain concentration risk?”

“Which companies are sole-source suppliers for NVIDIA?”

Connections

“How are Tesla and AMD connected through the supply chain?”

“Find the path between JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs”

Research

“Give me a due diligence summary on NVIDIA using SEC filing data”

“Compare Apple and Microsoft's supplier networks”

“What's the supply chain risk for a portfolio of AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL?”

Every answer includes SEC citations

When your AI assistant returns a relationship (e.g., “TSMC supplies Apple”), it includes the exact paragraph from the SEC 10-K filing as proof. You can verify any claim against the original source.

Troubleshooting

I don't see the tools/hammer icon after restarting

Double-check that you saved the config file and fully quit the app (not just closed the window). On Mac, right-click the dock icon and click "Quit."

It says my API key is invalid

Make sure you copied the full key including the "vfi_" prefix, with no extra spaces. Keys are case-sensitive.

The assistant isn't using Vala-Fi to answer my question

Try being more specific: "Use Vala-Fi to look up Apple's suppliers" or "Query the Vala-Fi supply chain for TSLA." Some assistants need a nudge the first time.

I'm getting rate limited

The free tier allows 50 requests per day. If you've hit the limit, it resets at midnight UTC.

Ready to start?

Get your free API key and set up in under 5 minutes.

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