restosignals

RestoSignals

Overview

RestoSignals turns public government records into a scored list of US restaurants and bars that are about to open. Each lead is one deduped venue with an opening_score (0-100), built by fusing up to three signal types: liquor (a liquor-license application or issuance), food_permit (a new food or health permit) and business (a new LLC or corporation filing). More independent signals give a higher score. The data is served through a hosted MCP server and a REST API with the same key.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when the user wants restaurants, bars or cafes that are opening soon in a US city or state.
• Use when the user is prospecting new food and beverage venues before they open (POS, beverage distribution, insurance, equipment).
• Use when the user wants to be alerted when a new venue files in an area.
• Use when the user asks why a venue is considered close to opening and wants to see the underlying filings.
• Do not use for restaurants that are already open, reviews, menus or reservations.

How It Works

Step 1: Connect and authenticate

The MCP endpoint is https://api.restosignals.com/mcp (streamable HTTP). initialize and tools/list work without a key; every tools/call needs an API key in the x-api-key header. A free key with 100 lead credits is available at https://restosignals.com/signup.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "restosignals": {
      "url": "https://api.restosignals.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "x-api-key": "YOUR_RESTOSIGNALS_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Check coverage first

Call the free coverage tool before anything else. It returns the live states with venue and hot-lead counts. Query only states it returns. Today that is New York, Texas, Illinois and California (deepest), plus Oregon, Colorado and Washington (lighter).

Step 3: Pull leads

• new_openings with {state, min_score, limit} returns scored venues. Each returned lead costs 1 credit, and empty results are free, so keep limit small while testing.
• venue_signals with {venue_id} returns the raw liquor, permit and filing rows fused into one venue.
• watch_area with {url, criteria} registers a webhook that fires when a new matching venue appears. Free.

Step 4: Present the result

Show business name, city, opening_score and signal_types for each lead, strongest first. signal_types values are exactly liquor, food_permit and business.

Examples

Example 1: Restaurants opening soon in New York

"Which restaurants are about to open in New York? Strongest leads first."

The agent calls coverage, then new_openings(state="NY", min_score=40, limit=10), and lists name, city, score and signal types.

Example 2: Only multi-signal leads

"Give me only the strongest Illinois leads."

Call new_openings(state="IL", min_score=80). A venue with fused signals always outranks a single-signal one.

Example 3: Watch an area

"Alert me when a new bar files in Brooklyn."

Call watch_area(url="<your webhook endpoint>", criteria={"state": "NY", "city": "Brooklyn", "signal_type": "liquor"}).

Example 4: REST call

curl -s "https://api.restosignals.com/v1/openings?state=NY&min_opening_score=40&limit=5" \
  -H "x-api-key: $RESTOSIGNALS_API_KEY"

Full REST docs: https://restosignals.com/docs/

Best Practices

• ✅ Call coverage first and only query states it returns.
• ✅ Start with a small limit, since each returned lead uses a credit.
• ✅ Use venue_signals to explain a score instead of guessing.
• ❌ Don't promise coverage for states that coverage does not list.
• ❌ Don't put the API key in prompts, logs or committed files; keep it in the MCP client config or an environment variable.

Limitations

• US only, and only the states returned by coverage (NY, TX, IL, CA deepest; OR, CO, WA lighter).
• Owner contact details are for subscribers. Free keys see whether a contact exists on each lead, not the contact itself.
• Data comes from public government open-data. RestoSignals is not affiliated with any government agency, and a filing does not guarantee a venue will open.
• Not a directory of open restaurants; no reviews, menus or reservations.

Security & Safety Notes

• Every tool call sends the API key to api.restosignals.com. Use a key scoped to this purpose and revoke it if exposed.
• watch_area registers a webhook that posts lead data to the URL you give it. Only register endpoints you control, and confirm with the user before creating one.
• Lead pulls consume credits on the user's account; confirm large limit values before running them.

Common Pitfalls

• Problem: tools/call returns an auth error. Solution: Add the x-api-key header to the MCP client config. initialize and tools/list work without it, tool calls do not.
• Problem: A state returns no leads. Solution: Check coverage; the state may not be live yet.

Related Skills

• @apify-lead-generation - General lead scraping across web sources, when you need venues that are already open.

Additional Resources

• RestoSignals
• API docs
• RestoAPI
• GitHub repository