Geowire

What geowire/geowire MCP server does

The geowire/geowire MCP server exposes location intelligence through MCP, with REST and SDK interfaces also available in the project. It presents a shared interface for searching places, retrieving place details, converting addresses to coordinates, reverse geocoding, calculating routes, building distance matrices, generating travel-time isochrones, and examining commercial areas.

The server can work with OpenStreetMap, OSRM, Google, Yelp, Foursquare, US Census, Kakao, Naver, Baidu, and a user’s own CSV data. Search responses can combine results from multiple providers, remove duplicates, and preserve provenance for individual fields. Response metadata identifies providers used, skipped, or failed, along with deduplication information, cache status, estimated cost, and source attribution.

How it works

The MCP tool layer includes search_places, get_place, geocode_address, reverse_geocode, get_directions, distance_matrix, analyze_area, get_isochrone, get_demographics, and list_geo_providers. Tool responses contain a readable summary and structured JSON content.

OpenStreetMap is the zero-key default for geocoding and place data, while OSRM supplies key-free routing, distance matrices, and isochrones. OpenStreetMap may be less useful for category searches, ratings, and business hours. Google, Yelp, or Foursquare credentials can be added for commercial attributes, and the Census provider supplies US population, age, and income data with a free Census key.

analyze_area accepts a center, radius, and categories to report measures such as category counts and density, competition, rating information, price mix, review-volume activity, and available Census demographics. Routing tools can rank candidates by drive time or answer reachability questions such as which places fall within a selected travel-time threshold.

Setup and configuration

For Claude Desktop or Cursor, configure the geowire/geowire MCP server as a local stdio process using npx -y @geowirehq/mcp. The default setup requires no API keys and uses OpenStreetMap with OSRM for the supported zero-key operations.

Optional provider credentials are supplied through environment variables. The documented examples include GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY, YELP_API_KEY, and CENSUS_API_KEY. The project also supports a self-hosted Docker deployment and exposes REST endpoints, including an HTTP MCP endpoint at /mcp. REST deployments can enable optional Bearer authentication with GEOWIRE_API_KEYS.

Tools and capabilities

• Search for places using natural language, coordinates, or regions.
• Fetch a place by its provider:providerPlaceId reference.
• Geocode addresses and reverse geocode coordinates.
• Calculate directions, N×M distance and travel-time matrices, and isochrones.
• Analyze commercial areas using density, competition, ratings, and demographics.
• Inspect active providers, capabilities, and status.
• Merge provider results with deduplication and per-field provenance.

Limitations and notes

The zero-key configuration does not provide the same commercial coverage as paid or credentialed providers. The README specifically notes that OpenStreetMap is strong for place names, addresses, and landmarks but thinner for category terms, ratings, and hours. Google, Yelp, and Foursquare access requires the user’s own credentials where applicable, and US Census demographics require a free Census key.

The geowire/geowire MCP server applies provider fallback, cost budgets, and a policy engine for caching and attribution terms. Provider availability and the fields returned therefore depend on configuration, provider capabilities, and the applicable provider policies. It is intended as a gateway rather than a replacement for any one map or business-data provider.