christyfrink/mcp-maryland-opendata

MCP Maryland Open Data Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to Maryland Open Data through the Socrata API. Focused on state government spending, payments, and public records useful for campaign finance and political influence research.

Features

• Search state payments by vendor, agency, fiscal year, or amount
• Get aggregated payment totals grouped by vendor or agency
• Query any Maryland Open Data dataset with SoQL
• No API key required (anonymous access supported)
• Partial name matching for fuzzy searches
• Pagination support for large result sets

Requirements

• Node.js (v16 or higher)

No API key is required, though you can optionally register for an app token at Socrata for higher rate limits.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/christyfrink/mcp-maryland-opendata
cd mcp-maryland-opendata

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the server:

npm run build

Configuration

To use this MCP server with Claude Code, add to your Claude configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "maryland-opendata": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-maryland-opendata/build/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

State Payments Tools

• search_state_payments: Search Maryland state payments by vendor name, agency, fiscal year, or amount range. Covers FY2008-FY2024 with ~390,000 payment records.

• get_vendor_payment_totals: Get aggregated payment totals grouped by vendor or agency. Useful for finding top vendors or analyzing spending patterns.

General Query Tools

• query_dataset: Execute custom SoQL queries against any Maryland Open Data dataset. Use for advanced queries not covered by specific tools.

• get_dataset_info: Get metadata about a dataset including column names, types, and descriptions.

• list_available_datasets: List commonly used datasets for campaign finance and government spending research.

Key Datasets

Example Queries

Find payments to a specific vendor:

search_state_payments with vendor_name: "Venable"

Top vendors by total payments in FY2023:

get_vendor_payment_totals with group_by: "vendor", fiscal_year: 2023, limit: 20

Agency spending analysis:

get_vendor_payment_totals with group_by: "agency", fiscal_year: 2023

Custom SoQL query:

query_dataset with dataset_id: "7syw-q4cy",
  where: "amount > 1000000",
  order: "amount DESC",
  limit: 50

Rate Limiting

The server implements conservative rate limiting (500 requests/hour) for anonymous access. For higher limits, register for a Socrata app token.

Investigation Use Cases

This MCP is designed to support campaign finance research:

1. Donor-to-vendor matching: Cross-reference campaign contributors with state payment recipients
2. Timing analysis: Compare payment dates with donation dates
3. Agency patterns: Identify which agencies pay which vendors
4. Law firm analysis: Track legal fees paid by the state

Development

To modify the server:

1. Make changes to TypeScript files in src/
2. Rebuild:

npm run build

License

MIT License

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Create a Pull Request