HEY Research Lab vs PDFGate MCP Server
A side-by-side look at the HEY Research Lab and PDFGate MCP Server MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose HEY Research Lab for legal work as a local process; choose PDFGate MCP Server for legal as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose HEY Research Lab when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- Its auth model fits you: No auth required.
- You want tools like
research_answer, find_projects, get_project_snapshot.
Choose PDFGate MCP Server when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- Its auth model fits you: API key required.
- You have the keys it needs:
PDFGATE_API_KEY. - You want tools like
generate_pdf, upload_file, get_document.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Legal | Legal |
| Quality signal | 63/100 · Good | 61/100 · Good |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | No auth required | API key required |
| Pricing | Free | BYOK (pay the provider) |
| Required env vars | None listed | PDFGATE_API_KEY |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 5 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 13 | 24 |
| Full listing | View HEY Research Lab | View PDFGate MCP Server |
Tools & capabilities
HEY Research Lab tools 13
research_answerIs this Robinhood Chain project still being built, what did it ship, what changed, is this contract its own? One bounded answer, cited. capability: research_project or builder_status (q: a name or $TICKER, or address, or project: a slug; a name several projects share lists them); what_changed (project or chain, 1–30 days); verify_project (address, project?); compare_builders (2–4, no winner); unknowns (every coverage state). Claims FACT/DERIVED/UNKNOWN with freshness and evidence ids. Not price advice or a safety verdict.find_projectsWhich Robinhood Chain project is this name, $TICKER or 0x contract, and is anyone building it? A full 0x address is a contract lookup: its ships in 30 days, the last one with its source. Or browse who is shipping now, back from dormancy, accelerating or building ahead of market attention. Surfaces: building-with-token: verified shipping, active or resumed, with a token whose market is live. still-building: verified activity continuing through a market drawdown HEY tracked. under-the-radar: eligible under HEY's Under the Radar rule (status shipping, active or resumed; Build Momentum at least 30; at least 2 meaningful events in the last 30 days, one of them a ship rather than a commit summary; a fresh reading of an active market beyond a launch curve or a launch pool, for the project's own token) and a positive Discovery Gap — market-attention percentile below the build percentile; a positive gap alone is not enough, and it does not bound attention itself. shipping-now: status SHIPPING. most-active: shipping, active or resumed, by Build Momentum. new-builders: recorded in the last 7 days. back-from-dormancy: status RESUMED, narrowed to verified builders native to the chain (status=RESUMED gives every resumed project). utility, memes: by kind. shipping-in-silence: eligible under the Under the Radar rule AND below the 40th market-attention percentile. accelerating: more meaningful events in 30 days than in the 30 before. builder-radar: the Builder Radar, ranked by verified development, on-chain use and research, never price. shipping-in-silence and accelerating take no other argument (at most 100 rows); builder-radar takes query, radar, limit and offset. Not a ranking by price: a market sort is context, and rows without the figure follow in activity order.get_project_snapshotWhere does this Robinhood Chain project stand? One read by slug — the Research Summary, identity, activity status and Build Momentum, last ships, market context with its kind or why it is withheld, on-chain use, 7-day usage (calls; caller addresses per day, not people), verification, HoodLock locks, latest changes with evidence ids, freshness and what HEY does not know. Context blocks, never building: paid promotion (presence and dates), DefiLlama protocol economics (measured, not tracked or unread), developer footprint. Not price advice.get_changesWhat changed on Robinhood Chain today or this week, or for one project or contract? The change ledger: releases, ships, status moves, contract deploys and upgrades, verification, sources, unlocks — one event per change with its own time and precision, when HEY first knew, and its evidence. Newest first by first arrival; for today pass detectedSince; to sync, pass after=c1.0 and keep each cursor. A retraction means HEY no longer makes that claim. Facts, never causes.get_project_timelineWhat did this project ship, and when? Builds, releases, code, contract deploys, upgrades and interface changes, token verification, locks and unlocks, each with how precisely HEY knows its time. Lenses: everything, build, code, onchain, market, locks. Paged with the before cursor.explain_factWhy does HEY say a project is Shipping, Dormant or Still Building, or show a figure? The value, FACT, DERIVED or UNKNOWN, the rule and version, the winning source, the inputs, the lineage and the evidence ids. Omit fact to list what can be explained; source.counted takes a source id.get_evidenceWhat backs this claim? Open the record a HEY answer cited by its typed id — ship:, signal:, abi:, impl:, lock:, source:, claim:, state:, narrative:, method:, sourcechange:, security:, v4hook:, v4pool:, ponsgrad: — as a receipt: what it claims, its source URL, when it happened at what precision, when HEY knew, how it is backed. A withdrawn record says so.get_token_marketDoes this token still trade? Context beside the building, from HEY's daily index: current reading (valuation kind, provider), price, liquidity, volume and trades by day, lifecycle (deploy, launchpad claim, stage, first trade, launch graduation, permanent lock), pools and depth, supply concentration (shares only, no addresses), contract checks. include=["moves"] adds each day-on-day valuation move with the building events published before it — a sequence, never a cause. Not price advice.get_contractWho made this Robinhood Chain contract, and is it a known project's? Project, creation, deployer (the only account named, with a count of other tracked projects' tokens it deployed), verified source and whose code it is (template, bytecode match or its own), Sourcify's answer, proxy and implementation history, interface changes, 7 days of calls per method (counts, names withheld; a selector's signature candidate — a guess, never a name). Address (chainId default 4663) or slug for all of a project's. An unread proxy is "not read", never "not a proxy". Not a safety verdict.get_v4_hookWho built this Robinhood Chain Uniswap v4 hook? The project HEY ties it to and why (named only while listed; never a creator account), declared callbacks (not a safety verdict), source, hooklist entry, pools by week and unknowns.project_diffWhat changed for this project between two dates (YYYY-MM-DD, at most 400 days apart)? Releases and meaningful ships, status, Build Momentum, valuation and liquidity then and now, and the changes recorded — each from the nearest persisted point with its date and basis. Never a cause.ask_heyAsking something else about one project? Put it in free text, by slug, in English or Malay ("did they ship this month?"). HEY answers only from its record, every line tagged FACT, DERIVED or UNKNOWN with its source. Building only; no view on price.- +1 more on the listing page
PDFGate MCP Server tools 24
generate_pdfGenerate a PDF from a URL or raw HTML. Provide either 'url' or 'html', not both.upload_fileUpload a PDF to PDFGate so it can be referenced by other operations. Provide either 'filePath' (local path) or 'url'.get_documentRetrieve metadata for a stored PDFGate document by its ID.delete_documentDelete a PDFGate document.flatten_pdfFlatten an interactive PDF into a static, non-editable PDF. Creates a new document; does not overwrite the original.extract_form_dataExtract form field values from a fillable PDF. Returns a JSON object mapping field names to their values.add_form_fieldsAdd interactive form fields to a stored PDF — from placeholder tags (refined via fieldOverrides) and/or explicitly positioned fields.compress_pdfCompress/optimise a PDF to reduce file size without changing visual content.protect_pdfEncrypt a PDF with a password and optional permission restrictions. Produces a new document; the original is unchanged.watermark_pdfApply a text or image watermark to a PDF. For type='text' provide 'text'; for type='image' provide 'watermarkImagePath'.download_fileDownload the raw PDF bytes of a stored document, returned as an embedded resource. For a shareable link instead, use get_document.create_envelopeCreate a signing envelope from one or more existing PDFGate documents. Each recipient is given either as email and name or as the recipientId of a stored recipient. Recipients marked embedded sign inside your application via create_embed_link and receive no emails. Use signingOrder to make recipients sign in sequence. Returns an envelope in 'created' status; call send_envelope to dispatch signing emails.- +12 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
HEY Research Lab
{
"mcpServers": {
"hey-research-lab": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@hey-research-lab/mcp"
]
}
}
}
PDFGate MCP Server
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp-server-37": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pdfgate/mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"PDFGATE_API_KEY": "YOUR_PDFGATE_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
HEY Research Lab is categorized under Legal and uses a local stdio subprocess. PDFGate MCP Server belongs to Legal and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick HEY Research Lab for legal work and PDFGate MCP Server for legal.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
HEY Research Lab is listed as free. Auth: no auth required. PDFGate MCP Server is bring-your-own-key: usage is billed by the API provider you supply a key for. Auth: api key required. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add hey-research-lab and mcp-server-37 as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, HEY Research Lab has a quality signal of 63/100 (Good) with 2 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. PDFGate MCP Server has 61/100 (Good) with 5 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars.