MCP server
by srobbin
Access and analyze open government data, including budgets and crime stats, from Socrata gov datasets—no API key needed.
Connects to government open data portals powered by Socrata to search and query public datasets like budgets, crime stats, and transportation data. No API key required for accessing public government information.
OpenGov Socrata is a community-built MCP server published by srobbin that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Access and analyze open government data, including budgets and crime stats, from Socrata gov datasets—no API key needed. It is categorized under databases, analytics data.
You can install OpenGov Socrata in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
MIT
OpenGov Socrata is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
Enable Claude to query your database directly using natural language
Example
Ask 'Show me top 10 customers by revenue this month' and get SQL results instantly
Eliminate manual SQL writing for ad-hoc queries, get insights 10x faster
Generate complex reports and analytics without leaving conversation
Example
Analyze sales trends, cohort retention, user behavior patterns conversationally
Democratize data access—non-technical team members can query databases
Understand database structure, relationships, and data models
Example
'Explain the user_orders table schema and its relationships'
Onboard engineers faster, explore unfamiliar databases efficiently
Share your MCP server with the developer community
OpenGov Socrata has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
We evaluated OpenGov Socrata against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
According to our notes, OpenGov Socrata benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
We evaluated OpenGov Socrata against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
Useful MCP listing: OpenGov Socrata is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
I recommend OpenGov Socrata for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
Useful MCP listing: OpenGov Socrata is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
Strong directory entry: OpenGov Socrata surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
We wired OpenGov Socrata into a staging workspace; the listing’s GitHub and npm pointers saved time versus hunting across READMEs.
OpenGov Socrata is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.
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An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that enables MCP clients like Claude Desktop to access Socrata Open Data APIs. This integration allows Claude Desktop to search for, retrieve, and analyze public datasets from government data portals.
This MCP server provides access to open data from any Socrata-powered data portal, including those from cities, states, and federal agencies such as:
No API key is required for basic usage, as the server accesses public data.
With this MCP server, clients can:
The easiest way to use this MCP server is with npx, which doesn't require any installation:
Create or edit your Claude Desktop configuration:
Create or edit claude_desktop_config.json in your home directory:
{
"mcpServers": {
"opengov": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "opengov-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"DATA_PORTAL_URL": "https://data.cityofchicago.org"
}
}
}
}
You can replace the DATA_PORTAL_URL with any Socrata-powered data portal.
Restart Claude Desktop (if it was already running)
Start using the MCP server:
In Claude Desktop, you can now ask questions like:
How many cars were towed in Chicago this month?
and you can follow up with questions that drill further into detail:
Which make and color were towed the most?
Also, were there any interesting vanity plates?
The first time you run a query, npx will automatically download and run the latest version of the server.
If you prefer to run from source (for development or customization):
Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/srobbin/opengov-mcp-server.git
cd opengov-mcp-server
Install dependencies and build:
npm install
npm run build
Create Claude Desktop configuration:
Create or edit claude_desktop_config.json in your home directory:
{
"mcpServers": {
"opengov": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"/path/to/your/opengov-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
],
"env": {
"DATA_PORTAL_URL": "https://data.cityofchicago.org"
}
}
}
}
Replace /path/to/your/opengov-mcp-server with the actual path where you cloned the repository.
Restart Claude Desktop (if it was already running)
This MCP server provides a unified get_data tool that Claude Desktop uses to access Socrata data.
type (string, required): Operation type
catalog: Search and list datasetscategories: List dataset categoriestags: List dataset tagsdataset-metadata: Get dataset detailscolumn-info: Get dataset column informationdata-access: Query and retrieve recordssite-metrics: Get portal statisticsdomain (string, optional): Data portal hostname (without protocol)
query (string, optional): Search query for datasets
datasetId (string): Dataset identifier for specific operations
soqlQuery (string, optional): SoQL query for filtering data
limit (number, optional): Maximum results to return (default: 10)
offset (number, optional): Results to skip for pagination (default: 0)
These are examples of how Claude Desktop will format queries to the MCP server:
// Find datasets about budgets
{
"type": "catalog",
"query": "budget",
"limit": 5
}
// Get information about a dataset
{
"type": "dataset-metadata",
"datasetId": "6zsd-86xi"
}
// Query dataset records with SQL-like syntax
{
"type": "data-access",
"datasetId": "6zsd-86xi",
"soqlQuery": "SELECT * WHERE amount > 1000 ORDER BY date DESC",
"limit": 10
}
The server requires one environment variable:
DATA_PORTAL_URL: The Socrata data portal URL (e.g., https://data.cityofchicago.org)This can be set:
DATA_PORTAL_URL=https://data.cityofchicago.org opengov-mcp-serverRun data quality queries to catch anomalies and inconsistencies
Example
Find duplicate records, missing values, orphaned foreign keys automatically
Maintain data integrity with less manual SQL work
Prerequisites
Time Estimate
15-30 minutes including configuration and testing
Steps
Troubleshooting
✓ Do
✗ Don't
💡 Pro Tips
Architecture
MCP server acts as bridge between Claude and database, translating natural language to SQL queries and returning results in structured format.
Protocols
Compatibility
✓ Use when
Use for ad-hoc data queries, exploratory analysis, report generation, schema exploration, and democratizing data access. Best for read-heavy analytics workloads.
✗ Avoid when
Avoid for production write operations, mission-critical transactions, real-time OLTP workloads, or when database contains sensitive PII without proper access controls. Use read replicas, not primary.