Arcgis Durham

What Arcgis Durham does

Arcgis Durham exposes Durham City-County GIS open geospatial data to MCP-compatible clients. Its data scope includes datasets related to parcels, zoning, public safety, planning, and other areas published through the local GIS system. The integration is independent and unofficial; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

The server supports a discovery-to-query workflow. An agent can search for a relevant dataset, take the returned Feature Service URL, inspect the layer structure, and then retrieve matching records. Results can include attribute values and geometry, making the server suitable for questions that require both tabular data and spatial records.

How it works

The hosted connection is available at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/arcgis-durham/mcp. A client initializes an MCP session and can list or call the Arcgis Durham tools. The same gateway endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, including routing and discovery functions, so the tool list is larger than the three Arcgis Durham-specific tools. The full Pipeworx gateway is another connection option and provides direct access to the broader catalog.

A local package is also available through npm. Running @pipeworx/mcp-arcgis-durham with npx starts an MCP server that communicates over standard input and output. The local mode exposes only the pack's own tools and does not include the gateway's shared meta-tools.

The tools can also be called over HTTP without an MCP client. For example, the gateway provides a POST endpoint for arcgis_durham_search_datasets, and tool details can be inspected through its HTTP API.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted setup, add the following MCP server entry to a compatible client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arcgis-durham": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/arcgis-durham/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For local stdio execution, configure the client to run:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arcgis-durham": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-arcgis-durham"]
    }
  }
}

The package can be started directly with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-arcgis-durham to verify that it launches. The hosted quick-start uses no account for the first calls.

Tools and capabilities

• search_datasets finds Durham GIS datasets by keyword. Each result can include the dataset name, summary, record count, owner or organization, and a Feature Service URL.
• query_layer reads an ArcGIS Feature Service or Map Service layer by URL. It accepts a SQL-like where expression, selected fields, ordering, a result limit, and an offset. Returned data includes attribute rows and geometry.
• layer_info reports a layer's fields and types, geometry type, total record count, and supported capabilities.

A typical workflow starts with search_datasets, continues with layer_info to understand the schema, and then uses query_layer to retrieve records. To sample a layer, use where="1=1" with out_fields="*".

Limitations and notes

The service queries Durham City-County GIS and is focused on the datasets and ArcGIS layers available there. Queries to query_layer and layer_info require a layer URL, normally obtained from search_datasets. The hosted pack endpoint includes shared Pipeworx tools in addition to the pack-specific tools, while the standalone package does not. Both connection styles use the same source and Arcgis Durham tool set.