Data Kcmo

What Data Kcmo does

Data Kcmo gives MCP-compatible agents access to the Kansas City, Missouri open-data catalogue at data.kcmo.org. It is an unofficial integration that routes requests through the Pipeworx gateway and uses the Socrata SODA API behind the scenes.

The server covers two levels of access. For common questions, an agent can request recent rows from the 311 or crime dataset by friendly name, without knowing a Socrata resource identifier. For broader work, it can search the catalogue, identify a resource ID, and send a structured SoQL query against that resource.

How it works

The hosted MCP endpoint is available at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/data-kcmo/mcp. An MCP client connects to that URL and receives the Data Kcmo tools. Pack endpoints also expose shared Pipeworx meta-tools, so the tool list can contain more than the three Data Kcmo-specific tools. The initialization response defines the available scope for a connection.

A full Pipeworx gateway connection at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp can also reach these tools. Alternatively, clients can call tools over HTTP through the gateway's /v1/tools/{tool_name} endpoints. The npm package provides a local stdio process that forwards MCP calls to the hosted endpoint; it still requires network access and has no offline mode.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted MCP connection, add the Data Kcmo URL to the client's MCP server configuration:

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

The local option uses npx and the @pipeworx/mcp-data-kcmo package:

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

Anonymous use is available, with a limit of 50 calls per day. Setting PIPEWORX_API_KEY authenticates the bridge; a free account raises the stated daily limit to 200 calls. The key is sent as a Bearer token, and authenticated calls are metered and billed in the same way as hosted calls. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 if the local bridge should also list the shared gateway tools. When using an HTTPS proxy, Node may require NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 for its built-in fetch to honor the proxy environment settings.

Tools and capabilities

• kcmo_datasets searches the Kansas City open-data catalogue by keyword and returns dataset names, descriptions, and Socrata resource IDs.
• kcmo_recent returns newest-first records from the common 311 or crime datasets. It accepts a SoQL where filter and is intended for recent-record questions.
• kcmo_query sends a raw SoQL query to any Kansas City open-data resource by its eight-character Socrata ID. Supported query operations include where, select, group, order, limit, and offset.

A typical workflow is to search for a dataset with kcmo_datasets, use the returned resource ID with kcmo_query, and use kcmo_recent directly when the request concerns recent 311 or crime records.

Limitations and notes

The integration is independent and unofficial; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream data provider. The local npm bridge depends on network connectivity. Hosted pack connections include shared Pipeworx meta-tools alongside the pack-specific tools, and the pack endpoint cannot currently remove those shared tools. Use the full gateway if connecting several packs individually would create unnecessary tool schemas, or use ask_pipeworx to route a natural-language question across the wider catalogue.

The service accepts anonymous calls but applies daily limits. Authenticated usage requires a Pipeworx API key and is metered. Data availability and freshness depend on the Kansas City open-data resources exposed through data.kcmo.org.