MCP Civic Data Server

Provides access to seven free government and open data APIs via Claude with zero-key access for most features.

python

0

GitHub Stars

python

Language

4 months ago

First Indexed

2 months ago

Catalog Refreshed

Documentation & install

Readme and setup notes from the catalogue, plus a client-ready config you can copy for your MCP host.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ericgrill-mcp-civic-data": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "-m",
        "mcp_govt_api"
      ],
      "env": {
        "API_TIMEOUT": "30",
        "NASA_API_KEY": "optional-for-higher-limits",
        "OPENWEATHER_API_KEY": "optional-for-global-weather"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can access multiple free government and open data APIs through a single MCP server, enabling Claude to fetch weather, demographics, space imagery, economic indicators, and more without juggling keys. This server provides ready-made tools to query live data from trusted sources, all wired through an easy-to-use runtime.

How to use

You interact with the Civic Data MCP server by connecting it to your MCP client, then issuing natural-language requests that map to the available tools. The server exposes a suite of tools across weather, census, NASA imagery, economics, and data portals. When you ask for specific data, your client routes the request to the corresponding tool and returns the live results.

Typical workflows include requesting a 7-day weather forecast for a location, looking up population or demographics for a region, exploring NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, comparing GDP indicators across countries, or searching datasets on Data.gov. If a specific API key is not provided for a feature, that tool gracefully won’t appear in your session, keeping your environment clean and focused on available data.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need Python and pip installed on your system.

Install the Civic Data MCP package from PyPI.

pip install mcp-civic-data

Run the MCP server locally using Python. This starts the MCP server that Claude will connect to.

python -m mcp_govt_api

Optionally, provide global API keys to increase limits. You can set them in the environment when running the server or configure them in your environment globally.

Configuration and usage notes

Environment variables you may configure for enhanced data access:

OPENWEATHER_API_KEY: used for global weather data (optional)
NASA_API_KEY: optional for higher rate limits
API_TIMEOUT: request timeout in seconds (default 30)

Status on startup shows which APIs are available with or without keys. For example, NOAA, Census, NASA (limited without keys), World Bank, Data.gov, and EU Open Data are available by default, while OpenWeather requires OPENWEATHER_API_KEY to be set.

Examples

Ask for the 7‑day weather forecast for a location: “What is the weather forecast for Washington DC?” The server uses get_weather_forecast with the provided coordinates.

Ask for population and demographics: “What’s the population and median income in California?” The server uses get_demographics for the CA region.

Explore Mars rover imagery: “Show me recent photos from the Perseverance rover” The server uses get_mars_rover_photos with rover=perseverance.

Development

To contribute or run locally for development, install dependencies and run the local module as shown in the development steps.

Available tools

get_weather_forecast

7-day weather forecast for US coordinates.

get_weather_alerts

Active weather alerts by state.

get_global_weather

Current weather for any city worldwide.

query_noaa

Raw NOAA API access.

query_openweather

Raw OpenWeather API access.

get_population

Population by state or county.

get_demographics

Age, race, income breakdown by area.

get_housing_stats

Home values, rent, vacancy rates.

query_census

Raw Census API access with custom variables.

get_astronomy_photo

Astronomy Picture of the Day.

get_mars_rover_photos

Photos from Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.

search_nasa_images

Search NASA image/video library.

query_nasa

Raw NASA API access.

get_country_indicators

GDP, population, poverty indicators by country.

compare_countries

Compare indicators across countries.

query_worldbank

Raw World Bank API access.

search_datasets

Search 300,000+ US government datasets.

get_dataset_info

Dataset metadata and download links.

query_datagov

Raw CKAN API access.

search_eu_datasets

Search European Union datasets.

get_eu_dataset_info

Details and distributions for EU datasets.

query_eu_data

Raw EU Data Portal API access.