mcp-civic-data

Access free government and open data APIs through Claude

Quick Start | Tool Catalog | Configuration | Examples

🌐 What is this?

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives Claude access to 7 free government and open data APIs - weather forecasts, census demographics, NASA imagery, economic indicators, and more. No API keys required for most features.

Part of the Claude Code Plugin Marketplace ecosystem.

🚀 Quick Start

Add to Claude Desktop:

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

Or install manually:

pip install mcp-civic-data

📡 Included APIs

API	Coverage	Key Required
NOAA Weather	US forecasts, alerts, radar	No
OpenWeather	Global weather conditions	Yes
US Census	Population, demographics, housing	No
NASA	APOD, Mars rovers, image library	No (optional)
World Bank	GDP, poverty, country indicators	No
Data.gov	300,000+ US government datasets	No
EU Open Data	European Union datasets	No

💡 Why Use This?

Feature	Description
Zero config	Works immediately - most APIs need no keys
Graceful fallback	Missing keys? Those tools just won't appear
Real data	Live government sources, not cached or stale
22 tools	From quick lookups to raw API access
Well-documented	Every tool has clear parameters and examples

📦 Tool Catalog

Category	Tools	What You Can Do
Weather	5	US forecasts, alerts, global conditions
Census	4	Population, demographics, housing stats
NASA	4	Astronomy photos, Mars rovers, image search
Economics	3	Country GDP, poverty, comparisons
Data.gov	3	Search/explore US government datasets
EU Data	3	Search/explore European datasets

🔧 All Tools

Weather (NOAA + OpenWeather)

Tool	Description
`get_weather_forecast`	7-day forecast for US coordinates
`get_weather_alerts`	Active alerts by state (CA, TX, NY...)
`get_global_weather`	Current weather for any city worldwide
`query_noaa`	Raw NOAA API access
`query_openweather`	Raw OpenWeather API access

US Census

Tool	Description
`get_population`	Population by state or county
`get_demographics`	Age, race, income breakdown
`get_housing_stats`	Home values, rent, vacancy rates
`query_census`	Raw Census API with custom variables

NASA

Tool	Description
`get_astronomy_photo`	Astronomy Picture of the Day
`get_mars_rover_photos`	Curiosity, Perseverance photos
`search_nasa_images`	Search NASA's image/video library
`query_nasa`	Raw NASA API access

World Bank Economics

Tool	Description
`get_country_indicators`	GDP, population, poverty for any country
`compare_countries`	Compare indicators across countries
`query_worldbank`	Raw World Bank API access

Data.gov

Tool	Description
`search_datasets`	Search 300,000+ US government datasets
`get_dataset_info`	Metadata and download links
`query_datagov`	Raw CKAN API access

EU Open Data

Tool	Description
`search_eu_datasets`	Search European Union datasets
`get_eu_dataset_info`	Dataset details and distributions
`query_eu_data`	Raw EU Data Portal API access

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`OPENWEATHER_API_KEY`	For global weather	Get free key
`NASA_API_KEY`	Optional	Higher rate limits (1000/hr vs 30/hr)
`API_TIMEOUT`	Optional	Request timeout in seconds (default: 30)

API Availability on Startup

API Availability:
  ✓ NOAA (no key required)
  ✓ Census (no key required)
  ✓ NASA (no key, limited to 30 req/hour)
  ✗ OpenWeather (OPENWEATHER_API_KEY not set)
  ✓ World Bank (no key required)
  ✓ Data.gov (no key required)
  ✓ EU Open Data (no key required)

📝 Examples

Get weather forecast

"What's the weather forecast for Washington DC?"
→ Uses get_weather_forecast(38.8894, -77.0352)

Check demographics

"What's the population and median income in California?"
→ Uses get_demographics("CA")

Explore Mars

"Show me recent photos from the Perseverance rover"
→ Uses get_mars_rover_photos(rover="perseverance")

Compare economies

"Compare GDP between USA, China, and India"
→ Uses compare_countries(["USA", "CHN", "IND"])

Find government data

"Find datasets about climate change on Data.gov"
→ Uses search_datasets("climate change")

🏗️ Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/EricGrill/mcp-civic-data.git
cd mcp-civic-data
pip install -e .

# Run locally
python -m mcp_govt_api

🤝 Contributing

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing)
Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to branch (git push origin feature/amazing)
Open a Pull Request

📜 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Civic Data MCP Server