find_metros
Cap Rate Signals — discover and rank US real estate markets by region, investment theme, specific employer, or entry price budget. Covers semiconductor, defense, pharma, EV, data center, logistics, and military catalyst markets across all US geographies. Use when the investor has a filter but no specific city in mind:
GEOGRAPHY — state, region, or area:
'show me Ohio markets', 'what do you have in Texas?', 'rust belt markets', 'midwest opportunities', 'southeast markets', 'sun belt', 'show me the south', 'what's in the mountain west?', 'great lakes region', 'what markets are in Indiana?', 'show me affordable markets in the midwest', 'I want to stay in the southeast'
THEME / SECTOR — industry, employer type, or macro catalyst:
'show me military base markets', 'markets near military installations', 'defense industry cities', 'defense contractor markets', 'semiconductor markets', 'CHIPS Act cities', 'fab towns', 'college towns', 'university markets', 'markets near a big university', 'pharma markets', 'biotech cities', 'life sciences markets', 'data center markets', 'AI infrastructure cities', 'cloud campus markets', 'EV markets', 'electric vehicle cities', 'battery plant markets', 'automotive markets', 'manufacturing cities', 'industrial markets', 'logistics markets', 'distribution hub cities', 'warehouse markets', 'nuclear energy markets', 'aerospace markets', 'defense manufacturing'
EMPLOYER / MACRO HEADLINE — investor reads news, wants to know which markets benefit:
'where is Lilly building?', 'what does Eli Lilly's investment mean for real estate?', 'where is Intel building a fab?', 'what does the CHIPS Act mean for housing?', 'where is Anduril building?', 'what does Anduril mean for real estate?', 'where is Meta building data centers?', 'Amazon real estate markets', 'where is SK Hynix?', 'GM EV markets', 'Ford battery plant cities', 'Toyota EV markets', 'where is Micron building?', 'Raytheon markets', 'what markets benefit from defense spending?', 'NGA campus real estate', 'Oak Ridge expansion markets', 'where is Boeing hiring?'
BUDGET — max entry price for a duplex or small multifamily:
'show me markets under $300K', 'affordable markets under $250K', 'where can I invest for under $200K?', '$400K budget', 'cheap markets with good cap rates', 'low entry markets', 'what can I buy for $300K?'
COMBINED — mix any of the above:
'military markets in the southeast under $300K', 'semiconductor markets in the midwest', 'pharma markets under $400K', 'college town markets in Ohio', 'defense markets with high cap rates', 'affordable industrial markets in the rust belt'
Returns results grouped by Buy Now / Get In Early / Early Watch. After results, if investor says 'yes', 'go deeper', or names a city — call get_metro_brief on the top result with depth='summary'. Do NOT use compare_metros unless the investor explicitly names two cities.
get_metro_map_data
Cap Rate Signals — display an annotated map of employer sites and target investment neighborhoods for a specific US metro. Shows TI, Intel, Lilly, and other catalyst employer pins overlaid on color-coded target zip codes. Call when the investor wants a visual or geographic view:
'show me the map', 'map it', 'show me on a map', 'can you map that?', 'where are the jobs located?', 'show me where the employers are', 'show me the employer sites', 'where exactly is the Intel fab?', 'show me Columbus on a map', 'map out Indianapolis for me', 'where are the target neighborhoods?', 'show me the geography', 'I want to see where this is', 'give me a visual', 'show me the layout', 'where is this relative to the city?', 'show me all your markets on a map'
Omit city to show all tracked markets. Pass a city name for a single-metro zoom with employer pins and neighborhood shading.
get_metro_brief
Cap Rate Signals — full investment brief on a specific US metro: conviction rating, catalyst stack, worker arrival timing, target neighborhoods, cap rates, entry price, and downside risks. The primary tool for any investor question about a named city. Triggers on phrasings like:
'should I invest in Columbus?', 'is Indianapolis a good market?', 'what do you think about Sherman TX?', 'give me your take on Tulsa', 'is West Lafayette worth looking at?', 'what's your opinion on Knoxville?', 'tell me about St. Louis', 'explain the Columbus opportunity', 'walk me through Indianapolis', 'break down Sherman for me', 'give me the story on Knoxville', 'what's the deal with Tulsa?', 'what's happening in West Lafayette?', 'what's going on in Columbus?', 'how is Indianapolis doing?', 'how does Columbus look?', 'how is Sherman performing?', 'what's the market like in Knoxville?', 'what are conditions like in St. Louis?', 'I'm looking at Columbus', 'I'm thinking about Indianapolis', 'I'm considering Sherman TX', 'I have a deal in Bethlehem PA', 'I found a property in Tulsa', 'I'm underwriting a deal in West Lafayette', 'Columbus — yes or no?', 'Indianapolis — worth it?', 'quick take on Knoxville', 'is there opportunity in St. Louis?', 'is Sherman still good?', 'I heard Columbus is hot, is that true?', 'someone told me to look at Tulsa', 'I read about the Intel fab in Columbus', 'what does the Lilly investment mean for Indy?'
Always start with depth='summary' (2-3 sentences). If the investor says 'go deeper', 'more detail', 'tell me more', or 'yes' — call again with depth='narrative' (full city breakdown). If the investor says 'full brief', 'everything', 'full picture', 'complete analysis', or 'LP brief' at ANY point — call immediately with depth='full' (complete LP-ready brief). Do not make the investor pass through narrative first if they asked for full. A bare 'yes' always means next depth on the same city — never switch to compare_metros. Only use compare_metros if the investor explicitly names two cities together.
get_weekly_review
Surface the weekly review digest — every metro that needs manual attention before the next newsletter cycle. Returns two buckets:
1. 🔴 Stale Progress (col AF=TRUE): a CRITICAL_NEGATIVE event hit a NOW/NEXT market since the last review. Published Tier (AE) may no longer be accurate.
2. 📋 Pending Tier Proposals (col AG non-empty): automated tier suggestions queued for human approval — call set_published_tier() to accept, or clear AG manually to reject.
Trigger phrases: 'weekly review', 'what needs review this week', 'any stale flags?', 'pending tier changes', 'what needs my attention', 'run the weekly check', 'weekly sync', 'show me what moved'
set_published_tier
Update the Published Tier (col AE) for a metro after weekly review. AE is the investor-facing tier that overrides col E in all server responses. This does NOT change col E (Status) — E drives monitoring and is only changed by db_corrections scripts. Side effects: if AF (Stale Progress) is flagged, it is cleared automatically. If AG (Proposed Tier) matches the tier being set, AG is cleared too. Use this when you agree with a stale-flag demotion or a tier proposal. Trigger phrases: 'set published tier for X to NOW', 'promote X to NEXT', 'accept the tier proposal for X', 'demote X to LATER', 'update AE for X'
clear_stale_progress_flag
Clear the Stale Progress flag (col AF) for a metro without changing its tier. Use this when you've reviewed the CRITICAL_NEGATIVE event and decided the existing Published Tier (AE) is still accurate — no tier change needed. If you ARE changing the tier, use set_published_tier instead (it clears AF automatically). Trigger phrases: 'clear the stale flag for X', 'dismiss the alert for X', 'flag resolved for X', 'no tier change needed for X — clear it', 'Indianapolis stale flag — reviewed and OK'
ping
Returns the running server version. Use this to confirm which build of the metro-catalyst server is active.
log_missed_query
Call this whenever you answer a US real estate investing question using your own training data WITHOUT calling any other metro-catalyst tool. Captures questions that fell through the tool routing — used to improve coverage over time. Pass the user's verbatim question as `query`.