Datacircle: LinkedIn Profiles, No Markup

Overview

Datacircle is a data co-op. Query your favorite B2B data APIs through us. Same request, same price, no markup.

You send the provider's own request to api.datacircle.dev, with your Datacircle key. That's the only change. Right now we have 3 live LinkedIn profile APIs that we trust: Up2Data, HarvestAPI and Fetchin. Each request goes to the provider and gets the profile as it is today.

This skill covers both ways in, the hosted MCP server and the REST API: which provider to pick, asking before every paid lookup, reading the cost and balance on each answer, and the errors.

When to Use

• Use when the user gives one or more LinkedIn profile URLs and wants the person's current role, company, work history, education or skills.
• Use when the user asks for their Datacircle balance, or why a Datacircle call answered 402 or 429.
• Do not use to find people by name, title or company: Datacircle looks a profile up by its LinkedIn URL only.
• Do not use for outreach. This skill reads profiles; it never sends a message or a connection request.

Access and Authentication

MCP server (preferred when the client supports it)

• Endpoint: https://api.datacircle.dev/mcp (Streamable HTTP), in the official MCP registry as dev.datacircle/datacircle.
• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http datacircle https://api.datacircle.dev/mcp, then run /mcp to sign in. In Claude (Settings, Connectors) and ChatGPT (developer mode), add the same URL as a custom connector. The first time, your client signs you in with your Datacircle email (OAuth). Or send your API key as a Bearer token:

claude mcp add --transport http datacircle https://api.datacircle.dev/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY"

• If the client already has it connected, prefer its tools over raw HTTP: get_linkedin_profile (url, and provider: up2data, the default, harvestapi or fetchin) and get_balance (free). It also has list_files, get_download_link and add_funds.

REST API

• Base URL: https://api.datacircle.dev. OpenAPI spec: https://docs.datacircle.dev/openapi.json. Docs: https://docs.datacircle.dev.
• Read the API key from the DATACIRCLE_API_KEY environment variable and send it as Authorization: Bearer $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY. Never put the key in a URL and never print it.
• The X-Data-Provider header names the provider (up2data, harvestapi or fetchin). The request and the answer are the provider's own, plus a datacircle_meta object.

Prices and limits

• Sign up at datacircle.dev with your work email: a $5 credit, that's 2,105 LinkedIn profiles at $2.375 per 1,000.
• $2.375 per 1,000 through Up2Data (a profile it can't find is free), $3.70 per 1,000 through HarvestAPI.
• $1.485 per 1,000 through Fetchin, a profile it can't find billed the same.
• Up2Data takes $1 a day per account (421 profiles), with a shared daily limit for all customers, then answers 429 until 00:00 UTC. HarvestAPI has no daily limit.
• Fetchin has no daily limit either.
• A call your balance can't cover answers 402. Add funds, from $5, on your dashboard.

How It Works

Step 1: Say the cost, then wait for the user's yes

Every lookup is paid from the user's balance. Before any lookup, even a single one, say which provider you will use and what it costs ($0.002375 a profile through Up2Data, $0.0037 through HarvestAPI, $0.001485 through Fetchin; for a list, the total), and wait for the user's yes. Ask again before switching provider or adding URLs the user didn't give.

Step 2: Look the profile up through Up2Data (the default)

Pick Up2Data first: a profile it can't find is free. Send the full profile URL; Up2Data refuses a bare public identifier with a 400.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.datacircle.dev/v1/profiles/enrich" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Data-Provider: up2data" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates"}' \
  | jq '{name: .data.full_name, headline: .data.headline, company: .data.current_company.name, positions: [.data.positions[]? | {title, company, started_at, ended_at}], cost: .datacircle_meta}'

The body also takes fields (only those top-level fields of data, same price), with_followers_and_connections and with_full_skills_and_endorsements (same price, slower).

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