Data Cookcounty

What Data Cookcounty does

The Data Cookcounty MCP server exposes Cook County Open Data through an MCP interface. Its source catalog is hosted at datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov and uses Socrata datasets. Agents can search the catalog, identify a dataset resource ID, inspect its structure, and retrieve matching records.

The catalog search returns each matching dataset’s resource ID, name, description, category, and update date. That resource ID is then used with the metadata or query tools. This workflow is useful when the agent does not already know which Cook County dataset contains the requested information.

How it works

The datasets tool accepts a keyword and searches the Cook County catalog. The metadata tool accepts a resource ID, such as cjeq-bs86, and returns schema and catalog details including columns, data types, row count, category, and last-updated information.

The query tool runs a Socrata SoQL query against a selected dataset. It supports where, select, group, and order clauses, along with limit and offset. Clause values are supplied without the leading $, and matching rows are returned as JSON.

The gateway endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools. Its ask_pipeworx tool can route a plain-language question across the wider Pipeworx catalog, while the standalone package exposes only the Cook County tools.

Setup and configuration

For a remote connection, add the Pipeworx MCP endpoint to an MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "data-cookcounty": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/data-cookcounty/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The Data Cookcounty MCP server can also run locally through npm and communicate over standard input and output:

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

Run npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-data-cookcounty directly to verify that the local process starts. The gateway can alternatively be connected at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp for direct access to the wider Pipeworx catalog.

Tools and capabilities

• Search Cook County Open Data datasets by keyword.
• Retrieve dataset schema and catalog metadata by resource ID.
• Execute filtered, grouped, selected, ordered, paginated SoQL queries.
• Return query results as JSON.
• Use the gateway’s plain-language routing through ask_pipeworx.

Limitations and notes

The Data Cookcounty MCP server requires a dataset resource ID for metadata and query operations. Search should be used first when that identifier is unknown. The gateway endpoint lists the pack tools together with shared Pipeworx tools, so its tool list is larger than the three Cook County-specific tools. The local stdio package lists only the pack tools and does not provide the shared gateway meta-tools.