What Do They Know?
MCP server for UK Freedom of Information research. Connects AI assistants to WhatDoTheyKnow — the UK's largest FOI request platform to search requests, read responses, look up public authorities, and draft new requests.
README
whatdotheyknow-mcp
<!-- mcp-name: io.github.paulieb89/whatdotheyknow-mcp -->
A Model Context Protocol server for UK Freedom of Information research. Connects AI assistants to WhatDoTheyKnow — the UK's largest FOI request platform — to search requests, read responses, look up public authorities, and draft new requests.
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
search_request_events |
Full-text search of FOI requests and responses via WhatDoTheyKnow's Atom feed. Supports structured expressions (status:successful, body:"Liverpool City Council"). |
search_authorities |
Search UK public authorities by name. Returns slug for use with other tools. |
get_request_feed_items |
Fetch the event timeline (sent, response, clarification) for a specific FOI request. |
build_request_url |
Build a prefilled WhatDoTheyKnow request URL for a given authority and topic. |
create_request_record |
Create a request via the write API (requires WDTK_API_KEY). |
update_request_state |
Update user-assessed state of a request (requires WDTK_API_KEY). |
Resources
| URI template | Returns |
|---|---|
wdtk://authorities/{authority_slug} |
Authority profile JSON |
wdtk://requests/{request_slug} |
FOI request detail JSON |
wdtk://users/{user_slug} |
User profile JSON |
wdtk://requests/{request_slug}/feed |
Request event Atom feed |
wdtk://users/{user_slug}/feed |
User activity Atom feed |
wdtk://authorities/all.csv |
Full CSV of all UK public authorities |
Prompts
| Prompt | Description |
|---|---|
draft_foi_request |
Draft a narrow, specific FOI request for a given authority and topic. |
Quickstart
Run locally
pip install fastmcp httpx pydantic
fastmcp run server.py
Inspect with the MCP Inspector:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector http://localhost:8000/mcp
Environment variables
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
WDTK_API_KEY |
Optional | Enables create_request_record and update_request_state write tools |
Upstream API and Licence
| Source | API | Licence | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatDoTheyKnow | www.whatdotheyknow.com |
OGL v3 | None (read) / API key (write) |
Data is sourced directly from the WhatDoTheyKnow public API. The platform is operated by mySociety.
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