Yelp
Yelp Fusion API provides access to business search, reviews, ratings, and local business information with rich data for location-based services
Verdict
Common use cases
- Scout event venues before team offsites
- Research competitor locations and ratings
- Find lunch spots near client meetings
- Validate vendor quality before outreach
- Compare service providers by neighborhood
Integration
- Vendor
- Yelp
- Category
- other
- Auth
- NONE
- Composio slug
yelp
Tools
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. Open your Switchy workspace and navigate to Settings > Integrations. 2. Find Yelp in the MCP directory and click Connect. 3. No authentication is required — the connection activates immediately. 4. Return to any Space and type '@Yelp' to confirm the integration appears in the mention menu. 5. Test it by asking '@Yelp find coffee shops near 123 Main St, Austin TX' — you should see a list of businesses with ratings and addresses. 6. If results don't appear, refresh the Space and verify the MCP shows as active in your integration list.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Yelp are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Find Lunch Options
@Yelp find lunch restaurants within 1 mile of our office at 456 Market St, San Francisco CA, open now, rated 4 stars or higherOpen in a Space →
Competitor Check
@Yelp search for coffee shops in downtown Seattle, show me the top 5 by review count and summarize common themes in recent reviewsOpen in a Space →
Vendor Research
@Yelp find plumbing contractors in Austin TX with at least 50 reviews and a 4.5 star average, include phone numbersOpen in a Space →
Event Venue Scout
@Yelp search for event spaces in Brooklyn NY that can host 40 people, show ratings and any mentions of catering qualityOpen in a Space →
Hours and Contact
@Yelp get the hours, phone number, and address for Blue Bottle Coffee on Hayes Street in San FranciscoOpen in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@yelp find highly-rated coffee shops near Pike Place Market in Seattle that are open now
Here are three coffee shops near Pike Place Market currently open: Elm Coffee Roasters (4.5 stars, 847 reviews, $$) at 240 2nd Ave — known for single-origin pour-overs; Storyville Coffee Company (4.0 stars, 1,203 reviews, $$) at 94 Pike St — popular for their espresso drinks and pastries; Cherry Street Coffee House (4.2 stars, 456 reviews, $) at 2719 1st Ave — casual spot with reliable drip coffee. All three accept walk-ins and have seating available according to their current status.
This example shows location-based search with real-time filtering. Yelp's API returns business details, ratings, and operational status. Results depend on the search radius you specify and Yelp's current business data — hours and availability can change without notice.
@yelp compare reviews for Italian restaurants in Brooklyn with outdoor seating, focusing on mentions of service quality
Analyzing reviews for five Italian restaurants with outdoor seating in Brooklyn: Lilia (4.5 stars) — reviewers frequently praise attentive service and timing between courses; L'Antagoniste (4.3 stars) — mixed feedback on wait times but consistent praise for staff knowledge of the menu; Frankies 457 Spuntino (4.1 stars) — casual service style, some mention slow refills during peak hours. Common theme: outdoor seating gets positive mentions for ambiance, but service speed varies significantly during weekend dinner rush across all locations.
This synthesis example combines search results with AI analysis of review text. The MCP provides raw review data; the AI extracts patterns. Review sentiment reflects a snapshot in time and may not represent current operations, especially for newer restaurants with limited review history.
@yelp get details on Tartine Bakery in San Francisco including their menu highlights and busiest hours
Tartine Bakery (600 Guerrero St, San Francisco) holds 4.0 stars from 3,421 reviews. Price range: $$. Menu highlights frequently mentioned in reviews: morning buns, country bread, croque monsieur, seasonal fruit tarts. Busiest hours based on Yelp data: Saturday-Sunday 9-11am (expect 30-45 minute waits), weekday mornings 8-9am. Quieter windows: weekday afternoons 2-4pm. Currently open Tuesday-Sunday, closed Mondays. Note that wait times are estimates derived from user activity patterns, not live queue data.
This demonstrates single-business lookup with aggregated insights. Yelp provides structured business data (hours, location, price) and user-generated content (reviews, photos). Popularity metrics are based on historical patterns — actual wait times vary by season, weather, and local events not captured in the API response.
Use-case deep-dives
When Yelp MCP helps teams scout venues and caterers fast
A 6-person marketing team planning quarterly offsites needs to compare 15 venues across three cities in two days. The Yelp MCP pulls ratings, hours, price ranges, and recent reviews into a shared workspace where the team can filter by budget and location without opening 15 browser tabs. This works when the decision hinges on public sentiment and logistical basics—address, phone, photos. It falls short if you need private event pricing or availability calendars, which aren't in Yelp's API. If your team books venues more than twice a quarter, the time saved on initial research justifies adding this MCP to your stack.
Why support teams use Yelp MCP for store-hours questions
A 3-person support team at a local-services marketplace answers 40 tickets a day asking 'Is this business open now?' or 'What's their phone number?' The Yelp MCP lets agents query business details without leaving the ticket thread, cutting average handle time by 90 seconds per lookup. This pays off when your product surfaces third-party businesses and customers expect you to know their hours. It doesn't help if the business isn't on Yelp or if you need real-time inventory data. If more than 20% of your tickets involve business-info lookups, this MCP turns repetitive tab-switching into a single prompt.
When Yelp MCP speeds up market-landscape research
A 2-person product team at a restaurant-tech startup needs to map competitor sentiment in five metro areas before a pitch deck deadline. The Yelp MCP aggregates star ratings, review counts, and top complaints for 30 competitors in an hour, feeding a spreadsheet the team can pivot by city and category. This works when you need directional sentiment and category benchmarks, not deep qualitative analysis. It breaks down if competitors aren't consumer-facing or if Yelp coverage is thin in your vertical. If you run competitive scans monthly and your market lives on Yelp, this MCP replaces manual scraping with structured queries.
Frequently asked
What does the Yelp MCP do in Switchy?
The Yelp MCP lets your team query business listings, reviews, and location data from Yelp's database directly inside Switchy conversations. You can ask Claude to find restaurants, read recent reviews, check opening hours, or compare ratings across neighborhoods without opening a browser. It's useful for customer research, local market analysis, or planning team events.
Do I need a Yelp API key to use this MCP?
No authentication is required to connect the Yelp MCP in Switchy. The integration uses Yelp's public data endpoints, so you don't need a developer account or API key. Just enable it in your workspace settings and start querying. If Yelp changes their access model in future, we'll update the auth flow and notify you.
Can the Yelp MCP write reviews or claim business listings?
No. This MCP is read-only — it pulls public business data and reviews but can't post content, claim listings, or interact with your Yelp account. If you need to manage a business profile or respond to reviews, you still have to do that directly on Yelp's website or their business owner app.
How is this different from just searching Yelp in a browser?
Claude can filter, compare, and summarize results in ways Yelp's UI doesn't support — like 'find coffee shops open past 9pm with outdoor seating and ratings above 4.2 stars within 2 miles'. You get structured answers in your chat thread instead of clicking through dozens of listings. It's faster for research tasks where you need data, not photos.
Does using the Yelp MCP count against my Switchy plan limits?
MCP usage counts toward your workspace's monthly message quota, not as a separate add-on. Each query to Yelp consumes tokens based on how much data Claude retrieves and processes. If you're on a team plan with 10,000 messages per month, heavy Yelp lookups will eat into that total like any other Claude interaction.