MunicipalMCP

MunicipalMCP provides programmatic access to municipal codes and ordinances from the Municode digital library through a standardized MCP interface. You can discover municipalities, explore code structures, search text, retrieve specific content, and generate direct URLs for public records across thousands of jurisdictions.

How to use

You connect to the MunicipalMCP server through an MCP client and use its tools to explore municipal codes. Start by listing municipalities within a state, then drill into a specific city to view its code structure or contents. You can search for terms across ordinances, retrieve exact sections, and generate direct links to code pages for quick sharing.

Key workflows you can perform include: listing states and municipalities, getting detailed information about a municipality, inspecting the code structure to understand the hierarchy, viewing the content of specific code sections, performing full-text searches across codes, and obtaining the direct URL to a municipality’s code library.

Example tool usage patterns you will run in your MCP client: use the list_municipalities tool to see all municipalities in a state, call get_municipality_info to fetch details about a city like Norfolk, then request get_code_structure to view the table of contents for that city’s code. If you need specific regulations, run search_municipal_codes with your query and navigate results by page. Finally, use get_municipality_url to share direct access to the city’s code page.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need Python 3 and access to pip for installing dependencies.

Step 1. Clone the project directory.

Step 2. Install dependencies.

Step 3. Run tests to verify the server is functioning.

Configuration for MCP clients

To run the MCP server locally, you can start the server script using Python. The following configurations show how to integrate with common MCP clients.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "municode": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/path/to/MunicipalMCP/municode-mcp-server.py"],
      "description": "Access municipal codes and ordinances from Municode digital library"
    }
  }
}

For another client, you can add the same server configuration to your Claude Desktop App settings to enable MCP access from that environment.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "municode": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/path/to/MunicipalMCP/municode-mcp-server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Notes on usage and capabilities

This server leverages the unofficial Municode API to provide structured access to municipal codes. It supports discovering municipalities by state, navigating code structures, performing full-text searches, retrieving specific code sections, and generating direct URLs to code pages.

Troubleshooting and tips

If you encounter rate limiting or missing data for a municipality, verify that the city is available through Municode and that you are querying within supported endpoints. Some documents may be PDFs or images and not fully searchable via the API.

Available tools

get_states_info

Get information about a US state by its abbreviation.

list_municipalities

List all municipalities in a state that use Municode.

get_municipality_info

Get detailed information about a specific municipality.

get_code_structure

Get the table of contents structure for a municipality's code.

get_code_section

Get the content of a specific section of municipal code.

search_municipal_codes

Search through municipal codes and ordinances.

get_municipality_url

Get the URL for a municipality's code library page.