# Austin AI Live for AI agents

> Austin AI Live is the directory and 3D map of the AI ecosystem in Austin, Texas: verified AI companies with their Austin offices, AI jobs, and AI events. Connecting Austin's AI companies, jobs and events. Everything here is public, read-only, free, and needs no key. This page lists every way in for an AI agent.

HTML version: https://austinai.live/robots. For people: https://austinai.live/developers.

## Start here

- If you can use MCP tools, connect to https://austinai.live/mcp. Six read-only tools cover companies, jobs, and events.
- If you can only read web pages, start with https://austinai.live/llms.txt, or https://austinai.live/llms-full.txt for everything at once.
- If you are writing code, use the JSON API at https://austinai.live/api/v1, described by https://austinai.live/openapi.json.

## What is here

- **Companies**: Verified AI companies with an Austin office, or based in Austin or with a team here (HQ not required). Each has a tier (native: would not exist without AI; powered: AI is real and material), a layer (builds AI itself, or applies it to sell an outcome), its Austin offices, and the year it came to Austin when known.
- **Jobs**: Open roles, refreshed daily. Two views: jobs at the Austin AI companies above (the default), and AI roles at any Austin company (view=all). Closed jobs keep their page.
- **Events**: Upcoming Austin AI meetups, talks, and demo nights, copied daily from austinai.events, soonest first.

## Entry points

- [/mcp](https://austinai.live/mcp) (MCP Streamable HTTP, POST JSON-RPC): The MCP server. Best for assistants: six read-only tools, no login.
- [/api/v1](https://austinai.live/api/v1) (application/json): The JSON API's index, with every endpoint.
- [/openapi.json](https://austinai.live/openapi.json) (OpenAPI 3.1, JSON): The JSON API's full schema.
- [/llms.txt](https://austinai.live/llms.txt) (text/markdown): A short Markdown map of the site and every company (llmstxt.org).
- [/llms-full.txt](https://austinai.live/llms-full.txt) (text/markdown): The whole directory in one Markdown file: descriptions, classifications, offices, open jobs.
- [/robots.md](https://austinai.live/robots.md) (text/markdown): This page as Markdown.
- [/.well-known/api-catalog](https://austinai.live/.well-known/api-catalog) (RFC 9727 linkset, JSON): Standard pointer to the API, the MCP server, and their docs.
- [/sitemap.xml](https://austinai.live/sitemap.xml) (application/xml): Every page, including each company, job, and event page.
- [/robots.txt](https://austinai.live/robots.txt) (text/plain): Crawling rules. Every crawler is welcome, AI crawlers named.
- [/api/v1/status](https://austinai.live/api/v1/status) (application/json): Whether the MCP server is on, its limits, and usage totals.
- [/developers](https://austinai.live/developers) (text/html): The same tools explained for people.

## MCP server

Endpoint: https://austinai.live/mcp. Transport: Streamable HTTP, stateless, JSON responses. POST only; no login. Every tool is read-only.

### Tools

- `search_companies` (query, tier, layer, austin_hq, new_this_week, on_map, limit, offset): List or search companies. Each result has its Austin offices and its Austin AI Live page (url).
- `get_company` (slug): One company by its slug, e.g. apptronik.
- `list_upcoming_events` (company, limit, offset): Upcoming events, soonest first.
- `list_jobs` (view, company, role, seniority, workplace, industry, tier, layer, skill, pay_listed, austin_hq, status, limit, offset): Jobs, newest first. Open only unless status asks for closed ones.
- `get_job` (id): One job by its id (a UUID, the last part of /j/<id>).
- `austin_ai_overview` (none): Headline counts for the whole ecosystem.

### Connect

Claude Code

```
claude mcp add --transport http austin-ai https://austinai.live/mcp
```

Claude, ChatGPT, and other chat apps. Add a custom connector (or app) and paste this URL. No sign-in.

```
https://austinai.live/mcp
```

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "austin-ai": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://austinai.live/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and other clients that read an mcpServers file

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "austin-ai": {
      "url": "https://austinai.live/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

Any HTTP client (raw JSON-RPC). The server is stateless: no session to open, so a single POST works.

```
curl -s https://austinai.live/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"austin_ai_overview","arguments":{}}}'
```

## JSON API

Base URL: https://austinai.live/api/v1. Schema: https://austinai.live/openapi.json. GET only.

- `GET /overview`: Headline counts.
- `GET /companies`: Companies, A to Z. Filters: tier, layer, hq, new, q, on_map.
- `GET /companies/{slug}`: One company with its Austin offices.
- `GET /events`: Upcoming events. Filter: company.
- `GET /jobs`: Jobs. Filters: view, company, role, seniority, workplace, industry, tier, layer, skill, pay, hq, status.
- `GET /jobs/{id}`: One job, open or closed.

```
curl "https://austinai.live/api/v1/companies?tier=native&hq=true"
```

## Rules

- **Read-only**: Nothing an agent does here can change data. No key, no login, no cost.
- **Active only**: Companies on the map are verified and active; closed companies are left out everywhere. on_map=false asks for companies tracked only for their AI jobs (name, site, description, roles). A company with has_public_office: false publishes no office address, so it has no offices listed and no pin on the map.
- **Cite your sources**: When you use this data in an answer, link the Austin AI Live page it came from: a company's url field (https://austinai.live/c/<slug>), or a job's or event's page_url (https://austinai.live/j/<id>, https://austinai.live/e/<id>). A job's url is the company's own posting and an event's url is its sign-up page; link those for applying or registering.
- **MCP limits**: About 60 calls a minute per visitor; past that you get HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. Lists return 20 by default and at most 50 per call (page with offset). A call that runs past 8 seconds is stopped. Answers may be up to 5 minutes old.
- **API limits**: Lists return 50 by default and at most 200 per page, with total and a next link. Responses are cached for about 5 minutes, so asking more often returns the same answer. Bad parameters return 400 with a message. CORS is open.
- **Freshness**: Every API and MCP answer carries generated_at (when it was built) and a source block naming Austin AI Live.
- **If the MCP server is paused**: It answers 503 with a pointer to the same data at https://austinai.live/api/v1 and https://austinai.live/llms.txt.
- **Corrections**: Wrong or missing listing? People can report it at https://austinai.live/fix.