Data Fcc

What Data Fcc does

Data Fcc exposes the FCC Open Data catalog through the Model Context Protocol. The underlying catalog is hosted at opendata.fcc.gov and uses Socrata datasets. Agents can search for relevant datasets, inspect a dataset before querying it, and retrieve filtered or grouped records as JSON.

The integration is independent and unofficial. It is delivered through the Pipeworx gateway, which also provides shared gateway tools on the hosted pack endpoint when enabled or exposed by that connection.

How it works

A typical workflow starts with datasets, using a keyword such as broadband. The result includes each dataset's resource_id, name, description, category, and update date. That identifier is then used with metadata to inspect available columns, their types, row count, category, and last-updated value.

After identifying the required fields, query sends a Socrata SoQL request for the selected FCC dataset. The tool accepts where, select, group, and order clauses without the leading $, along with limit and offset. Matching records are returned as JSON.

The hosted MCP endpoint is https://gateway.pipeworx.io/data-fcc/mcp. The full Pipeworx endpoint, https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp, exposes all gateway packs directly; either endpoint can use the gateway's ask_pipeworx routing capability when available.

Setup and configuration

Add the hosted endpoint to an MCP client that supports remote MCP connections:

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

For a local stdio connection, run the npm bridge with npx:

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

The npm bridge forwards requests to the same hosted gateway and therefore requires network access. Anonymous use is capped at 50 calls per day. A free Pipeworx account and PIPEWORX_API_KEY raise the allowance to 200 calls per day. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to include gateway-wide tools alongside the pack's tools in the local bridge.

For clients or environments without MCP support, the gateway also accepts HTTP calls. For example, dataset search can be invoked with POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/data_fcc_datasets and a JSON body containing a query value.

Tools and capabilities

• datasets searches the FCC Open Data catalog by keyword and returns identifiers and dataset details.
• metadata reports a dataset's schema, column types, row count, category, and last-update information.
• query runs SoQL filters, projections, grouping, ordering, pagination, and related clauses against a dataset.
• ask_pipeworx can route plain-language questions across the wider Pipeworx catalog when gateway meta-tools are enabled or available.

Limitations and notes

The npm bridge has no offline mode because it forwards calls to the gateway. Anonymous requests have a daily limit, while keyed requests use a Pipeworx API key and are metered by the gateway. The pack endpoint lists its FCC tools together with shared Pipeworx meta-tools in hosted connections; the exact tool list is returned during MCP initialization. Behind an HTTPS proxy, Node's built-in fetch may require NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 on Node versions that support that setting.