Canadian Building Code

You can use this MCP server to search and navigate Canadian building codes from Claude. It connects to a large index of codes and guides, so you can quickly find requirements like egress, fire resistance, or stair widths across the major codes you work with.

How to use

Ask Claude natural questions to quickly locate code sections. You can use the hosted service for quick lookups in Map-Only mode, which returns page numbers, section IDs, and coordinates. For full text access to your own documents, run the MCP server locally in BYOD mode by connecting your own PDF with the set_pdf_path command. Claude will return full text for each section when you provide your own documents.

How to install

Choose one of the installation options below and follow the steps exactly. Prerequisites are listed for each option so you know what to install before you begin.

Option A: Smithery (One-click install)

npx -y @smithery/cli@latest install davidcho/ca-building-code-mcp --client claude

Option B: uvx (Auto-updates, recommended)

Install the uvx tool first, then add the MCP server to Claude through your configuration file.

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Or via pip
pip install uv

Configure Claude to use the built MCP server with uvx

Add the following to your Claude desktop config so it can manage the MCP server automatically.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "building-code": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["building-code-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Option C: pip install (Manual updates)

If you prefer a manual install path, install the MCP package with pip and reference it in your client configuration.

pip install building-code-mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "building-code": {
      "command": "building-code-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Update guidance

To update the pip-based install, run the upgrade command and then restart Claude to pick up the new version.

Notes on usage with the hosted API

The hosted API operates in Map-Only mode by default, which provides lookup across codes without handling full document text. If you need full text extraction, run the MCP server locally and connect your own PDFs.

Additional notes

The hosted service is reachable at the API URL below. For complete text extraction you must use a local MCP instance with your own documents.

Available tools

list_codes

List all available codes and guides from the MCP index.

search_sections

Search indexed sections for a query across 22,500+ sections.

get_section

Retrieve detailed information for a specific section by ID.