Bundestag Server

⚠️ Work in Progress: This project is under active development. APIs may change. Contributions welcome!

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides programmatic access to official German Bundestag parliamentary data. This enables LLMs to answer questions about German parliament activities, legislation, voting records, and members.

Disclaimer

This project is strictly non-partisan and has no political intentions.

The sole purpose is to provide transparent, programmatic access to publicly available official data from the German parliament. All data comes from official government sources and independent transparency organizations. This tool:

• Does not interpret, editorialize, or present any political opinions
• Does not favor or oppose any political party
• Simply provides factual access to public parliamentary records
• Is intended for civic engagement, journalism, research, and education

The authors are not responsible for how this data is used or interpreted.

Data Sources

All data is retrieved from official, publicly available sources:

Source	Organization	Data Provided	License
DIP API	Deutscher Bundestag (Official)	Parliamentary documents, legislative procedures, plenary protocols, MP information	Public government data
AbgeordnetenWatch API	AbgeordnetenWatch e.V. (Independent)	Roll-call votes, individual MP voting records	CC0 1.0

About the Data Sources

• DIP (Dokumentations- und Informationssystem für Parlamentsmaterialien): The official documentation system of the German Bundestag. All parliamentary documents, procedures, and protocols are public records.

• AbgeordnetenWatch: An independent, non-partisan transparency organization that documents how elected representatives vote. Their data is published under CC0 (public domain) license.

Both sources provide factual records of parliamentary proceedings without editorial content.

Features

Core Tools (DIP API)

• Search Documents: Find parliamentary documents (Drucksachen) including bills, motions, and interpellations
• Track Legislation: Follow legislative procedures (Vorgänge) and their current status
• Access Debates: Search plenary protocol transcripts (Plenarprotokolle)
• MP Information: Look up members of parliament, their party, constituency, and roles
• Weekly Schedule: Get the current week's Bundestag activities

Voting Record Tools (AbgeordnetenWatch API)

• Roll-Call Votes: Access official recorded votes (namentliche Abstimmungen)
• Vote Details: See party-by-party breakdown of specific votes
• Party Comparison: Compare voting patterns across parties on any topic
• MP Voting History: Access individual MP voting records
• Party Alignment: Calculate voting alignment between parties
• Absence Rates: View attendance statistics
• Party Unity: Measure internal party voting cohesion

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• pip or uv package manager

Install from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/oguzhan/bundestag-mcp.git
cd bundestag-mcp

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install the package
pip install -e .

Usage

With Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bundestag": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "bundestag_mcp.server"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/bundestag-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Running Standalone

python -m bundestag_mcp.server

Available Tools

Document & Procedure Tools

Tool	Description
search_documents	Search parliamentary documents by keywords, date, type
search_procedures	Track legislative procedures and their status
get_plenary_protocols	Access debate transcripts
get_mp_info	Get MP biographical information
get_current_week	Get current week's parliamentary schedule

Voting Record Tools

Tool	Description
get_roll_call_votes	List recorded votes with results
get_vote_details	Party breakdown for a specific vote
compare_party_votes	Compare party voting on a topic
get_mp_voting_history	Individual MP's voting record
check_party_consistency	Analyze party voting patterns on a topic
get_party_alignment_score	Calculate voting alignment between two parties
get_absence_rates	Party attendance statistics
get_party_unity_scores	Internal party voting cohesion
find_rebel_mps	Find MPs who voted differently from their party

Example Queries

"What documents about renewable energy were published this month?"
"What is the current status of the housing reform bill?"
"Show me the voting breakdown for the recent tax legislation"
"How often do the coalition parties vote together?"
"What is the attendance rate for each party?"

Caching

The server caches API responses locally (~/.bundestag_mcp/cache.db) to:

• Improve response times
• Reduce load on public APIs
• Enable offline access to previously fetched data

Cache duration: 4-24 hours depending on data type.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
ruff check .

Tests

The project includes unit tests and validation tests for the voting analysis:

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run voting calculation tests with verbose output
pytest tests/test_voting*.py -v

Key test coverage:

• Alignment calculation: Tests for 0%, 50%, 100% alignment scenarios
• Real data validation: Tests using actual Poll 6391 data to verify calculations
• Edge cases: Missing parties, abstention handling, interpretation text

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please ensure any changes maintain the non-partisan nature of this project.

Acknowledgments

• Deutscher Bundestag for providing public access to parliamentary data
• AbgeordnetenWatch e.V. for their transparency work and open API
• bundestag-api Python package maintainers