{
  "id": "15-buffer",
  "slug": "buffer",
  "normalized_name": "buffer",
  "name": "Buffer",
  "vendor_url": "buffer.com",
  "category": "community-dark-social",
  "what_it_does": "A social-media scheduling and publishing tool covering channels, a posting queue, drafts, ideas and per-post analytics, with a remote MCP server that lets an AI assistant read channels, browse the queue and drafts, schedule and edit posts, capture ideas and pull analytics.",
  "ai_features": "An AI Assistant for drafting and repurposing post copy is included from the Free plan upward. The MCP server itself adds no intelligence; it makes the queue and the analytics addressable by whichever model the operator already uses.",
  "mcp_status": "official",
  "mcp_url": "https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp (docs: https://developers.buffer.com/guides/integrations/mcp.html)",
  "mcp_auth": "api key. The vendor's guide instructs the user to generate an API key from the developer site and send it as \"Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY\" against the server URL; the same key is shared with Buffer's API Explorer.",
  "api_gate": "free - Buffer's pricing page publishes a Free plan, \"Free forever\", connecting up to 3 channels, whose included feature list carries \"API access\" with \"1 API key\" and \"3,000 requests/month\". Paid tiers are Essentials at $5 per channel per month and Team at $10 per channel per month, raising the allowance to 3 keys and 7,500 requests and 5 keys and 15,000 requests respectively.",
  "revops_role": "The publishing arm of a founder-led or community-led motion: the place a distribution calendar actually executes, and, via MCP, the point where an agent can queue and adjust posts without a human opening the app.",
  "tier": "RESEARCHED",
  "last_checked": "2026-09-07",
  "sources": "https://developers.buffer.com/guides/integrations/mcp.html, https://buffer.com/pricing, https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp",
  "notes": "Verified 2026-09-07: POST of an MCP initialize to https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp returned HTTP 401 with {\"error\":\"Authorization header is required\",\"httpCode\":401}, confirming a live auth-gated server, and the endpoint is printed verbatim in Buffer's own developer guide. THIS IS THE CHEAPEST OFFICIAL MCP SERVER FOUND IN THIS CATEGORY: a genuine free-forever plan carries a working API key and 3,000 requests a month, in a category where 12 of 16 prior entries had no MCP server at all and the ones that did were paid. That makes Buffer the natural bench-test candidate for this file. Rate limits are the thing to watch rather than the price: the guide states MCP calls \"count against the same rate limits as any other client\", on rolling 15-minute, 24-hour and 30-day windows, per client and shared across every request rather than counted per tool, so one chatty conversation that lists posts, reads several and edits one can spend a noticeable share of a free monthly allowance. Write access is in scope (schedule and edit posts), so an agent connected here can publish to real audiences. 2026-09-07: https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp returned 401 to an MCP initialize POST (https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp).",
  "mcp_status_bucket": "official",
  "api_gate_bucket": "free",
  "mcp_urls": [
    "https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp",
    "https://developers.buffer.com/guides/integrations/mcp.html"
  ],
  "source_urls": [
    "https://developers.buffer.com/guides/integrations/mcp.html",
    "https://buffer.com/pricing",
    "https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp"
  ],
  "source_annotations": [],
  "vendor_domain": "buffer.com",
  "display_name": "Buffer",
  "docs_url": null,
  "jobs": [],
  "jobs_tagged_by": null,
  "jobs_tagged_on": null,
  "github_url": null,
  "github_stars": null,
  "github_last_commit": null,
  "github_archived": null,
  "github_fetched_on": null,
  "github_candidates": [],
  "docs_digest": null,
  "docs_last_crawled": null,
  "submission": null,
  "mcp_tools": [],
  "mcp_tool_count": 0,
  "mcp_tools_evidence": null,
  "mcp_tools_repo": null,
  "mcp_tools_repo_party": null,
  "mcp_catalog_shape": null,
  "mcp_catalog_note": null,
  "mcp_tools_fetched_on": null,
  "cli_status": "none-found",
  "cli_party": null,
  "cli_binary": null,
  "cli_install": [],
  "cli_login": null,
  "cli_commands_seen": [],
  "cli_docs_url": null,
  "cli_repo": null,
  "cli_packages": [],
  "cli_evidence": null,
  "cli_checked_on": "2026-09-27",
  "github_org": "bufferapp",
  "github_org_status": "resolved",
  "github_org_url": "https://github.com/bufferapp",
  "github_org_evidence": {
    "rule": "rule 3",
    "url": "search q=Buffer",
    "matched_domain": "buffer.com",
    "via": "website",
    "detail": "account website https://overflow.buffer.com has the vendor's domain",
    "confidence": "strong",
    "candidates_rejected": []
  },
  "github_org_repos": 129,
  "github_org_repos_mcp": 1,
  "github_org_repos_cli": 2,
  "github_org_latest_activity": "2026-09-02T16:56:01Z",
  "github_org_recent_repos": [
    {
      "name": "vpat",
      "url": "https://github.com/bufferapp/vpat",
      "kind": "other",
      "description": "Contains VPAT document for Buffer",
      "stars": 1,
      "pushed_at": "2026-09-02",
      "latest_release": null
    },
    {
      "name": "buffer-n8n",
      "url": "https://github.com/bufferapp/buffer-n8n",
      "kind": "plugin-or-integration",
      "description": "The official Buffer integration for n8n",
      "stars": 0,
      "pushed_at": "2026-08-27",
      "latest_release": "v3.8.1"
    },
    {
      "name": "smart-tag",
      "url": "https://github.com/bufferapp/smart-tag",
      "kind": "other",
      "description": null,
      "stars": 0,
      "pushed_at": "2026-05-13",
      "latest_release": null
    },
    {
      "name": "js-bufflog",
      "url": "https://github.com/bufferapp/js-bufflog",
      "kind": "other",
      "description": "logger for all javascript and typescript Buffer services",
      "stars": 0,
      "pushed_at": "2026-05-13",
      "latest_release": null
    },
    {
      "name": "go-base-worker",
      "url": "https://github.com/bufferapp/go-base-worker",
      "kind": "other",
      "description": "Golang packages needed to build a consumers",
      "stars": 3,
      "pushed_at": "2026-03-23",
      "latest_release": null
    }
  ],
  "github_org_checked_on": "2026-09-08",
  "mcp_endpoint": null,
  "mcp_docs_url": null,
  "endpoint_status": "not-probed",
  "endpoint_http_status": null,
  "endpoint_last_probed": null,
  "endpoint_wall_note": null,
  "canonical": true,
  "canonical_id": "15-buffer",
  "also_listed_in": [],
  "source_file": "15-community-dark-social.md",
  "source_line": 311,
  "file_index": 16,
  "category_num": "15",
  "category_slug": "community-dark-social",
  "category_label": "Community & Dark Social",
  "heading": "Buffer",
  "missing_schema_fields": [],
  "extra_fields": {},
  "display_rank": 7
}