BostonVacay Connector – documentation

BostonVacay (bostonvacay.com) is an independent local guide and directory of Boston, Massachusetts businesses. BostonVacay is operated by Cloudalien Technologies LLC. This connector gives AI assistants read-only, structured access to the directory, plus live tour and activity listings from Viator. BostonVacay and Cloudalien Technologies LLC are not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta. Last updated October 11, 2026. Version 2.2.1.

Overview · Setup · Tools and classifications · Inputs · Outputs · Booking links and affiliate disclosure · Status handling and errors · Rate limits · Data sources and freshness · Content standards · Support

Overview

Setup

Tools, classifications and side effects

All 5 tools are Read tools under Muse guidelines section 3.2; none is a Write or a Sensitive write, and no tool combines a read with a write. Each tool declares MCP annotations, a JSON Schema inputSchema (unknown arguments are rejected) and an outputSchema, and returns structuredContent plus the same JSON as a text block.

Inputs

Out-of-range limit and page values are clamped (limit 1–50 for listings, 1–20 for tours). Dates are YYYY-MM-DD.

Outputs

• search_listings (MCP) returns compact listings: id, name, url (listing page on bostonvacay.com, /listings/<name>), category, area, price_tier, amenities, tags, summary, description (plain text, shortened to 350 characters with description_truncated: true), address fields and lat/lon, phone, website, booking[], links[], up to 2 photo_details (url, caption, credit, source), photo_count, has_hours; with a distance filter also distance_km/distance_mi. Envelope: total (matches after all filters), page, per_page, returned, has_more, match, notes, affiliate_disclosure, data_fetched_at.
• get_listing returns one full listing: everything above plus the full description, hours, faq, facts, image_main, up to 10 credited photos and updated.
• list_categories: categories[] with id, name, description, listing_count. list_filters: areas, price_tiers, amenities, tags, each with listing_count, and notes on how they are derived.
• search_tours: tours[] with product_code, title, description, from_price, currency, price_basis, rating, review_count, duration_minutes or duration_range_minutes, free_cancellation, flags (factual only: FREE_CANCELLATION, PRIVATE_TOUR, SKIP_THE_LINE, NEW_ON_VIATOR), image, image_credit, booking_url, provider, affiliate. Envelope: total, prices_checked_at, dates, notes, affiliate_disclosure. from_price is Viator's current starting price, not a quote for a specific date and party; Viator shows the final total including any taxes and fees before payment. Products without a live price are left out.
• The REST API returns the same records, plus the v1 fields search_description, booking_link and photos[] for backward compatibility; REST search returns up to 3 photos and 600-character descriptions.

Booking links and affiliate disclosure

Booking links are the path to book with the provider named in each link (for example Expedia, Hotels.com, Viator or Klook). Links marked affiliate:true and sponsored:true are affiliate links: Cloudalien Technologies LLC (operator of BostonVacay) may earn a commission if a user books through them, at no extra cost to the user. Listings are not paid placements, and results are never ranked or filtered by commission or affiliate status. Prices, availability and booking terms are set and confirmed by the provider.

• booking[] items are the way to book with the named provider (provider, label, url, affiliate, sponsored, purpose: "booking"). Links with affiliate: true and sponsored: true are affiliate links and are returned exactly as stored on bostonvacay.com (only check_in/check_out dates are added to Expedia hotel pages when you pass them). Listings are not paid placements, and no listing is shown or ordered because of these links.
• Every affiliate link is marked affiliate: true and named by provider, and every response that contains one carries affiliate_disclosure. Official business websites, menus and reservation pages are returned separately in website and links[] with affiliate: false.
• Ranking is not influenced by commissions: listings are ordered by keyword relevance, distance or name only. Commission, affiliate status, booking links and payments from businesses are not used for ranking or filtering (the optional has_booking_link filter applies only when the caller asks for it). Tours are ordered by keyword relevance when a keyword is given and by traveler rating otherwise, or by price, or by Viator's own default order only when sort=featured is requested.
• The connector does not fabricate urgency, discounts or reviews. Viator urgency or promotional flags (for example "likely to sell out" or "special offer") are not passed through.

Status handling and errors

Every tool is a single, synchronous, idempotent read: there are no pending, queued or partially completed operations, and the connector never creates or reports a booking, so there are no booking or payment statuses to check. Retrying a failed call is always safe. Successful results have status: "success"; an empty result is a success with total: 0 and an explanatory notes entry.

Rate limits

300 requests per minute per client IP (IPv6: per /64) across MCP and REST, and 60 search_tours calls per minute per client IP. Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header in seconds. For higher limits email michael@cloudalien.com. Typical latency: under 0.5 s for directory tools, about 0.5–1 s for search_tours.

Data sources and freshness

• Listings, categories and photos come live from the BostonVacay directory's public listings API (bostonvacay.com/api/directory/v1, operated by Cloudalien Technologies LLC); the connector re-reads it at most every hour. Listing text is written by BostonVacay from the business's own website and public sources, and businesses can claim and update their listing. Only published business listings with a real description are returned; placeholder, test and site-admin profiles are excluded.
• area comes from the listing's own neighborhood field or tags. price_tier is set only where the listing states one. amenities are detected from the listing's own tags, structured fields and description text (negated mentions such as "no pool" are ignored); confirm important details with the business.
• Gallery photos are served only when they carry an explicit credit (for example Photo via Expedia), which should be shown with the image; photos credited to Google or with no credit are not served.
• Tours, prices, ratings and review counts come live from Viator's partner API at request time (cached up to 15 minutes; prices_checked_at shows when).
• Nothing is estimated or generated by the connector: an unknown field is null or omitted.

Content standards

The directory lists lawful, general-audience travel businesses (lodging, restaurants, bars, attractions, activities, shops and services). It does not list adult entertainment, escort or sexual services, gambling operators, weapons or drug sellers. Listings are not changed or ranked based on any inference about the user, and the connector does not process or infer sensitive personal characteristics.

Example

curl -s https://bostonvacay-connector.michael-b38.workers.dev/mcp -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_listings","arguments":{"category":"Hotels","area":"Back Bay","amenities":["pet_friendly"],"check_in":"2027-04-09","check_out":"2027-04-11"}}}'

Support, security and maintenance

Changelog

• 2.1.0 (October 11, 2026): compact MCP search results; NOT_FOUND errors; unknown arguments rejected; request size limit and upstream timeouts; tours default to keyword relevance or traveler rating instead of Viator's featured order, and urgency/promotional flags removed; listing ordering no longer uses booking-link presence; site-admin and placeholder profiles excluded; expanded documentation, privacy policy and terms.
• 2.0.0 (October 11, 2026): structured filters, distance search, credited photo galleries, booking links, Viator tours, output schemas and annotations.