US Government Open Data MCP

An MCP server + TypeScript SDK for 37 U.S. government and international data APIs — 198 tools covering economic, fiscal, health, education, energy, environment, lobbying, housing, patents, safety, banking, consumer protection, workplace safety, transportation, seismic, clinical trials, pharma payments, and legislative data.

Works with any MCP client (VS Code Copilot, Claude Desktop, Cursor) via stdio or HTTP Stream. Supports selective module loading and standalone SDK imports for use without MCP.

Built with FastMCP. Disk-cached, rate-limited, retries with backoff.

I did collapse all older commits into a single commit hence the large initial commit. This was to consolidate as well as get rid of many old files that were no longer relevant to the project when I made it public.

Data Sources

API	What it covers	Auth
Treasury Fiscal Data	53 datasets, 181 endpoints: national debt, revenue, spending, interest rates, exchange rates, gold reserves	None
FRED	800K+ economic time series: GDP, CPI, unemployment, interest rates, money supply, housing, S&P 500	FRED_API_KEY
BLS	Employment by industry, wages, CPI by component, PPI, JOLTS, labor productivity	BLS_API_KEY (optional)
BEA	State GDP, GDP by industry, personal income by state, national accounts (NIPA)	BEA_API_KEY
EIA	Petroleum, electricity, natural gas prices; state energy profiles	EIA_API_KEY
Census Bureau	Population, demographics, income, housing from ACS and Decennial Census	CENSUS_API_KEY
OpenFEC	Campaign finance: candidates, committees, contributions, expenditures	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
Congress.gov	Bills, members, laws, amendments, House & Senate roll call votes (1990+)	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
Federal Register	Executive orders, presidential documents, rules, agency notices, document detail, 470+ agency directory	None
USAspending	Federal contracts, grants, loans — $6T+ annually by agency, recipient, state	None
SEC EDGAR	Company filings, XBRL financials, full-text search	SEC_CONTACT_EMAIL
FBI Crime Data	Crime statistics by state, national estimates, arrests	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
GovInfo	Full text of bills, laws, CBO reports, Federal Register	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
NOAA Climate	Weather observations, temperature, precipitation from U.S. stations	NOAA_API_KEY
USDA NASS	Crop production, livestock, farm prices, Census of Agriculture	USDA_NASS_API_KEY
World Bank	International indicators: GDP, population, health spending for 200+ countries	None
CDC Health Data	Leading causes of death, life expectancy, mortality rates, county/city health indicators (PLACES), drug overdose, obesity, disability, birth indicators, weekly death surveillance, COVID-19 — 13 tools across 12 datasets	None
NAEP (Nation's Report Card)	Reading, math, science test scores by state, grade, race, gender, poverty — the gold standard for U.S. education measurement	None
College Scorecard	College costs, graduation rates, post-graduation earnings, student debt, admission rates for every U.S. college	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
NREL (Clean Energy)	EV charging stations, alt fuel infrastructure, electricity rates, solar resource data	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
FDA (OpenFDA)	Drug adverse events (20M+ reports), drug recalls, FDA-approved drugs (Drugs@FDA), drug labels, food recalls, food adverse events (CAERS), medical device events, device recalls — 8 tools	None
EPA	Air quality data, facility compliance/violations, UV index forecasts	None
Senate Lobbying Disclosures	Lobbying filings, expenditures by issue, campaign contributions, individual lobbyist search — follow the money	None
Regulations.gov	Federal rulemaking: proposed rules, final rules, public comments, regulatory dockets	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
USDA FoodData Central	Nutritional data for 300K+ foods: calories, macros, vitamins, minerals for branded and reference foods	DATA_GOV_API_KEY
FEMA	Disaster declarations, housing assistance, public assistance, NFIP flood claims, hazard mitigation	None
NHTSA	Vehicle safety recalls, consumer complaints, NCAP 5-star safety ratings, VIN decoding, make/model lookup	None
CMS Provider Data	Hospital quality ratings, nursing home inspections, home health, hospice, dialysis facility data	None
HUD	Fair Market Rents by bedroom count, income limits by household size, county/metro area housing data	HUD_USER_TOKEN
USPTO PatentsView	U.S. patent search by keyword, assignee, inventor, CPC class; inventor and assignee lookup	None
CFPB	Consumer complaint database: 13M+ complaints against financial companies, searchable by company/product/state/issue with trend analysis	None
FDIC	Bank data: 5,000+ insured institutions, failures since 1934, quarterly financials, branch deposits, merger history	None
DOL	OSHA inspections/violations/accidents, WHD wage theft enforcement, weekly unemployment insurance claims (national + state)	DOL_API_KEY
Open Payments	CMS Sunshine Act data: 15M+ payments/year from pharma/device companies to doctors. Search by company, doctor, state, specialty	None
USGS	Earthquake events (magnitude, location, depth, tsunami risk), water resources monitoring (real-time and daily historical streamflow, water levels) from 13,000+ stations	None
ClinicalTrials.gov	400K+ clinical trials: search by condition, drug, sponsor, phase, status, location. Track pharma drug pipelines	None
BTS	Bureau of Transportation Statistics: monthly transport stats (airline traffic, transit, rail, safety, fuel), border crossings at U.S. ports of entry	None

Quick Start

npx us-gov-open-data-mcp

VS Code / Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "us-gov-open-data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "us-gov-open-data-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your_key",
        "DATA_GOV_API_KEY": "your_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "us-gov-open-data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "us-gov-open-data-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP Stream (for web apps, remote access)

# Start on port 8080
node dist/server.js --transport httpStream --port 8080

# Or via npm script
npm run start:http

The HTTP Stream endpoint will be at http://localhost:8080/mcp. Works with any MCP client that supports HTTP transport.

Selective Module Loading

Load only the modules you need for faster startup and smaller tool lists:

# Via CLI flag
node dist/server.js --modules fred,treasury,congress

# Via environment variable
MODULES=fred,bls,treasury node dist/server.js

# Combine with HTTP transport
node dist/server.js --modules fred,treasury --transport httpStream --port 8080

Available module names: treasury, fred, bls, bea, eia, census, fec, congress, federal-register, usaspending, sec, fbi, govinfo, noaa, usda-nass, world-bank, cdc, naep, college-scorecard, nrel, fda, epa, senate-lobbying, regulations, usda-fooddata, fema, nhtsa, cms, hud, uspto, cfpb, fdic, dol, usgs, clinical-trials, bts, open-payments

API Keys

19 APIs require no key at all (Treasury, Federal Register, USAspending, World Bank, CDC, FDA, EPA, NAEP, Senate Lobbying, FEMA, NHTSA, CMS, USPTO, CFPB, FDIC, USGS, ClinicalTrials.gov, BTS, Open Payments). The rest need free keys — most take under a minute to get:

Key	Where to get it	Used by
DATA_GOV_API_KEY	api.data.gov/signup	Congress, FEC, FBI, GovInfo, College Scorecard, NREL, Regulations.gov, USDA FoodData
FRED_API_KEY	fredaccount.stlouisfed.org/apikeys	FRED
CENSUS_API_KEY	api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html	Census
BLS_API_KEY	bls.gov/developers	BLS (optional — works without, higher limits with)
BEA_API_KEY	apps.bea.gov/API/signup	BEA
EIA_API_KEY	eia.gov/opendata/register.php	EIA
NOAA_API_KEY	ncei.noaa.gov/cdo-web/token	NOAA
USDA_NASS_API_KEY	quickstats.nass.usda.gov/api	USDA NASS
HUD_USER_TOKEN	huduser.gov/hudapi/public/register	HUD
SEC_CONTACT_EMAIL	Any valid email	SEC EDGAR
DOL_API_KEY	data.dol.gov/registration	DOL (OSHA, WHD, UI Claims)

Set keys via environment variables or a .env file in the project root.

Using as a TypeScript SDK

Every API is importable as a standalone typed client — no MCP server required:

// Individual module imports
import { getObservations } from "us-gov-open-data-mcp/sdk/fred";
import { getIndicator } from "us-gov-open-data-mcp/sdk/world-bank";
import { getLeadingCausesOfDeath } from "us-gov-open-data-mcp/sdk/cdc";
import { searchBills } from "us-gov-open-data-mcp/sdk/congress";

// Or barrel import everything
import * as sdk from "us-gov-open-data-mcp/sdk";
const gdp = await sdk.fred.getObservations("GDP", { sort: "desc", limit: 5 });

// FRED
const gdp = await getObservations("GDP", { sort: "desc", limit: 5 });
console.log(gdp.observations); // [{ date: "2025-10-01", value: "31490.07" }, ...]

// World Bank — compare U.S. to Germany
const health = await getIndicator("SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD", { country: "US;DE", dateRange: "2015:2023" });

// CDC
const deaths = await getLeadingCausesOfDeath({ state: "California", year: 2017 });

All SDK functions include disk-backed caching, retry with exponential backoff, and token-bucket rate limiting. See docs/sdk.md for the full API reference.

Architecture

src/
  client.ts              # createClient() factory — cache, retry, rate-limit
  server.ts              # FastMCP bootstrap — stdio + HTTP, selective loading
  instructions.ts        # Cross-referencing guide for MCP clients
  sdk/
    index.ts             # Barrel export for all SDK modules
    fred.ts, bls.ts, ... # Typed API clients (no MCP dependency)
  modules/
    fred.ts, bls.ts, ... # MCP tool definitions + metadata

Each API is 2 files:

• sdk/*.ts — typed async functions, usable anywhere (no MCP/Zod dependency)
• modules/*.ts — MCP tool definitions wrapping the SDK, with metadata for client instructions

Adding a new API: create sdk/new-api.ts + modules/new-api.ts, add 2 lines to server.ts. See docs/adding-modules.md.

Documentation

• SDK API Reference — all exported functions and types
• Adding New Modules — how to add a new API
• Architecture — how the system works

Disclaimer

This project was built with the assistance of AI tools. All data is sourced from official U.S. government and international APIs — the server does not generate, modify, or editorialize any data. It returns raw results from federal databases exactly as provided.

Important:

• Data accuracy depends on the upstream government APIs. Numbers may lag days to years behind reality depending on the source.
• Correlation does not imply causation. Cross-referencing data sources (e.g., campaign finance + legislative votes) shows documented patterns, not proven cause-and-effect.
• This tool is for research and informational purposes. It is not legal, financial, medical, or policy advice.
• API rate limits and availability vary. Some endpoints may be temporarily unavailable or return incomplete data.
• The example analyses in the examples/ folder demonstrate the server's capabilities and should not be treated as investigative conclusions.

License

MIT