Most people think of authority search as something you do for academic research: find the right scientists, cite the right papers, identify the credible voices in a narrow field. That is a real use case, but it is maybe ten percent of what an authority index actually covers. Amygdala indexes authority across every domain: the researchers doing mechanistic interpretability work inside neural networks, the coral reef biologists rebuilding reefs in the Caribbean, the Magic: The Gathering theorists who publish the best draft guides, the Harajuku street fashion photographers in Tokyo, and the artisan bakers who have turned sourdough into a serious technical discipline. One API key. One MCP config. Every domain.
This is where Amygdala goes beyond name recognition. A query for "quantum computing authorities" will surface some familiar names. A query for "mechanistic interpretability researchers" will surface people whose work shapes the field but who have never appeared in a mainstream publication. The people the actual practitioners follow, the ones whose threads get shared in Slack channels and cited in papers, are the results that matter. That is what the index is built to find.
This post walks through five examples across five completely different domains. Each one shows the kind of result you would actually get from a real query.
30 seconds of setup, unlimited domains
The full setup instructions are on the MCP page, but the short version: add Amygdala as an MCP server in your Claude Desktop config, paste in your API key, and you're done.
{
"mcpServers": {
"amygdala": {
"command": "python3",
"args": ["/path/to/amygdala/mcp/server.py"],
"env": {
"AMYGDALA_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}Now ask anything. Claude will use Amygdala's tools automatically when you ask questions that require knowing who the authoritative voices on a topic are. No switching tools, no domain-specific APIs, no manual research.
Five domains, one connection
Here is what that looks like in practice. In each example, pay attention to the names you likely have not heard of: they are often the most valuable results. Amygdala is not a popularity contest. It ranks by verified authority signals, which means the people whose work the actual practitioners in a field follow closely will rank high, even if they have never been interviewed by a mainstream publication.
1. Mechanistic interpretability: who is actually building the field
You are researching which researchers to follow for mechanistic interpretability work, the subfield trying to reverse-engineer what is actually happening inside neural networks. Ask Claude: "Find the top authorities on mechanistic interpretability."
- Neel Nanda (United Kingdom), Mechanistic Interpretability, Rank #3
- Chris Olah (United States), Machine Learning, Rank #8
- Stefan Heimersheim (United Kingdom), Interpretability Research, Rank #41
- Adam Jermyn (United States), Machine Learning Research, Rank #57
- Lawrence Chan (United States), AI Safety Research, Rank #84
Chris Olah is the closest to a known name here: he essentially invented the modern approach to neural network visualisation and is cited constantly across the field. Neel Nanda runs the mechanistic interpretability team at DeepMind and has published some of the most replicated results in the subfield. Stefan Heimersheim, Adam Jermyn, and Lawrence Chan are researchers working at the technical frontier: their posts, threads, and papers are followed carefully by everyone doing serious interpretability work, but none of them has ever been profiled in a mainstream outlet.
A general search for "AI researchers" returns Hinton, LeCun, and Altman. A query scoped to mechanistic interpretability surfaces the actual people building the field, who are mostly invisible to any tool that uses social reach as its primary signal.
2. Competitive Magic: The Gathering: the authoritative voices in a 30-year game
You are building a content strategy for a tabletop gaming brand and need to understand who the most authoritative voices are in competitive Magic. Ask Claude: "Find the top authorities on competitive Magic: The Gathering strategy."
- Reid Duke (United States), Magic: The Gathering, Rank #4
- Frank Karsten (Netherlands), Magic: The Gathering, Rank #9
- Andrea Mengucci (Italy), Magic: The Gathering, Rank #12
- Caleb Durward (United States), Magic: The Gathering, Rank #23
- Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Brazil), Magic: The Gathering, Rank #31
Reid Duke has written more widely-read strategy articles in the game's history than almost anyone alive. Frank Karsten is the authority on mathematical deck construction: his mana base calculators and data-driven format analyses are cited by every serious deck builder. Andrea Mengucci creates content that the competitive community actually uses to prepare for tournaments. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa is a former World Champion whose technical articles carry weight precisely because of his documented results.
None of these names would appear in a social media search ranked by following. None of them have follower counts that a standard influencer tool would flag. All of them are deeply trusted by the community of people who take the game seriously, and that community spends real money on cards, accessories, and tournament entry. The index finds them because authority is built from peer recognition within a community, not from general reach.
3. Harajuku street fashion: the authoritative voices in a visual subculture
You are a brand entering the Japanese street fashion market and need to understand who carries genuine authority in the Harajuku and decora scene. Ask Claude: "Find the top authorities in Harajuku and Japanese street fashion."
- Kurebayashi (Japan), Harajuku Fashion, Rank #7
- 6%DOKIDOKI (Japan), Harajuku Fashion, Rank #14
- Sebastian Masuda (Japan), Harajuku Culture, Rank #19
- KERA Magazine (Japan), Japanese Street Fashion, Rank #31
- Aria (Japan), Decora Fashion, Rank #52
Kurebayashi is one of the most-cited individual figures in Harajuku fashion globally: an active creator whose aesthetic has been referenced in publications from Tokyo to New York without ever having a mainstream Western social following. 6%DOKIDOKI is Sebastian Masuda's flagship shop in Harajuku, the physical anchor of the kawaii movement internationally. KERA Magazine is the trade authority that the whole scene reads. Aria is a younger creator rising within the decora subgenre, authoritative among people deeply in the scene without being broadly known outside it.
A standard influencer search for "Japan fashion" returns tourism accounts and mainstream lifestyle creators. A query scoped to Harajuku surfaces the people and institutions that actually shape the subculture, most of which operate primarily in Japanese and are invisible to Western discovery tools.
4. Coral reef restoration: scientific authority in a niche but urgent field
You are a sustainability-focused publication putting together a feature on coral restoration and need to source the actual scientists leading the work. Ask Claude: "Find the top authorities on coral reef restoration."
- David Vaughan (United States), Coral Reef Restoration, Rank #5
- Madeleine van Oppen (Australia), Marine Biology, Rank #11
- Ken Nedimyer (United States), Coral Restoration, Rank #18
- Valérie Chamberland (Canada), Marine Science, Rank #34
- Sara Palumbi (United States), Marine Ecology, Rank #47
David Vaughan pioneered the micro-fragmentation technique that has become the dominant method for accelerating coral growth in restoration programs: his work is cited across the field and implemented in reef restoration projects from Florida to the Maldives. Ken Nedimyer founded the Coral Restoration Foundation and has planted more coral on Florida's reef than any other individual. Madeleine van Oppen leads research into assisted evolution for heat-tolerant coral strains at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
A web search for "coral reef experts" returns NGO press releases and government agency websites. The Authority Index surfaces the working scientists who other marine biologists actually cite, read, and follow, at ranks that reflect their standing within the scientific community rather than their social media presence.
5. Artisan sourdough: a hobby that became a serious technical discipline
You are developing content for a premium kitchen equipment brand and want to find the authoritative voices in artisan bread baking. Ask Claude: "Find the top authorities on artisan sourdough baking."
- Maurizio Leo (United States), Sourdough Baking, Rank #6
- Trevor Jay Wilson (United States), Artisan Bread, Rank #17
- Vanessa Kimbell (United Kingdom), Sourdough, Rank #23
- Martin Philip (United States), Bread Baking, Rank #41
- Brod & Taylor (United States), Bread Equipment, Rank #58
Maurizio Leo runs the Perfect Loaf and wrote one of the best-reviewed sourdough books of the past decade. His content is technically precise and followed closely by people who take baking seriously. Trevor Jay Wilson's ebook and YouTube channel are references for open crumb structure: the single most-discussed technical challenge in sourdough, with an audience of deeply engaged enthusiasts who actively seek out equipment and ingredients that improve their results. Vanessa Kimbell runs the Sourdough School in the UK and has written extensively on the gut health science behind long fermentation.
For a kitchen equipment brand, the audience of someone like Trevor Jay Wilson is far more valuable than a general food blogger with ten times the following. These are people who will buy a specific proofing basket because Trevor recommended it, because they trust the technical reasoning behind the recommendation. The index finds them because authority in a niche is measurable, even when the niche is invisible to standard discovery tools.
Why this matters: one graph, not five tools
Traditionally, researching across these domains meant using different tools for each. Academic databases for scientists. Social analytics platforms for influencers. Gaming industry data for streamers. Fashion-specific directories for designers. Each tool with its own API, its own schema, its own pricing, its own authentication.
Amygdala's authority index is domain-agnostic because the underlying signals are universal. A quantum physicist's authority is measured the same way as a beauty vlogger's: by their verified cross-platform presence, the quality of their engagement, their recognition by peers in their field, and the consistency of their topic signal over time. The index does not need to know it's looking at academia versus gaming: it ranks by authority, and authority works the same way everywhere.
For developers building AI agents, this changes the scope of what's possible. Your agent can research any topic the user throws at it, without you having to anticipate which domains they'll ask about or pre-integrate domain-specific APIs. If you are building a research assistant, a brand partnership tool, a content curation system, or a due-diligence agent, the same Amygdala MCP connection handles all of it. For more on grounding AI responses in trusted authority data, see our posts on reducing LLM hallucinations and building RAG pipelines with trusted data.
Beyond search: going deeper with the other tools
The MCP server exposes four tools. index is the search you've seen above. The other three let you go deeper once you have your initial results:
- detail: full profile for any authority, bio, authority score, verified social handles with follower counts, and website. Use this to build briefing documents or enrich a shortlist with structured data.
- peers: map the influence network around any social handle. Find who is connected to who in a given niche. Useful for partnership mapping, guest curation, or understanding a community's ecosystem before entering it.
- match: look up anyone by their social handle and verify whether they are a genuine authority or just loud. Useful for due diligence before a sponsorship or collaboration.
A concrete example: after finding Neel Nanda as a top mechanistic interpretability authority, you could use detail to pull his full profile and verified handles, then peers to map his network and surface adjacent researchers you hadn't heard of. The whole workflow stays inside your AI conversation, with no context switching.
For a full breakdown of how authority scoring works across domains, see our methodology page.
Try it yourself
The fastest way to understand the range of what Amygdala covers is to try a few searches yourself. The explore page lets you query the index directly without any setup. Once you've got a sense of the data, the MCP setup page gets you connected to Claude in a few minutes, and the REST API is available for any use case that needs programmatic access.
New accounts start with $50 in free credits, no credit card required. That is enough to run a few thousand queries across as many domains as you want. See pricing for the full breakdown.
One connection, every domain