CommuteScout

Live California road conditions: a map, a route planner, and an AI assistant.
Also an MCP server, so your assistant can use it too.

CI Release Evals License: MIT

Open the app · Add to Claude · Self-hosting · Data · MCP tools · Architecture

No install, no account: commutescout.com

CommuteScout watches 13 public agency feeds (CHP dispatch, Caltrans closures, chain controls, cameras and message signs, wildfire perimeters, weather) and turns them into one live picture of California's roads. Look at the map, plan a route and see what's actually on it, or just ask about a drive in plain English. The same data is served over MCP, so Claude and other AI assistants can use it as a tool instead of guessing about traffic.

What you get

• A live statewide map: incidents by type, closures by class, chain controls, wildfires with burn footprints, weather stations, ~3,300 verified-live cameras, and every message sign currently displaying something.
• A route planner that knows the roads: autocomplete, route options, turn-by-turn directions, live conditions along the way, and print / GPX / KML / share-link export.
• An assistant that reads the feeds: plan a route, tap a suggested question, and the answer streams in from the same live data, with per-source timestamps.
• Watch areas: draw a circle, polygon, or route corridor and get a push or email alert when an incident, closure, chain control, or wildfire appears inside it.
• An MCP server: nine tools over curated corridors and regions, with a closure taxonomy that keeps a closed on-ramp from reading as a closed highway.
• Public evals: 91 golden questions on recorded fixtures gate every release; the scorecard and its history are committed to this repo.

Plan a trip. Autocomplete, route options, directions, print or export.

Ask about it. One tap on a suggested question; the answer reads the live feeds.

Or just look. Every layer toggleable, from full closures to blank signs.

Get started

The fastest way to use CommuteScout is the hosted app: commutescout.com. Nothing to run, always on the latest release, feeds already warm.

Add to Claude

Give Claude live road data with a custom connector:

https://mcp.commutescout.com/mcp

Local stdio setup and the full tool reference: docs/mcp.md.

Self-hosting (advanced)

Everything here is MIT licensed and the core runs with zero accounts or keys:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "commutescout": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/nicglazkov/commutescout", "ca-roads-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The web app is pip install ".[demo]" then ca-roads-demo with an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in the environment. For your own Cloud Run copy (small enough for the free tier most months), optional feed keys, and the watch-areas setup, see docs/deploy.md.

Self-hosted deployments are supported on a best-effort basis: issues and PRs are very welcome, but there is no support guarantee for deployments I don't run.

The data

CHP incidents, Caltrans lane closures, chain controls, message signs, cameras, and road weather; WFIGS and CAL FIRE wildfires with perimeters; NWS alerts; USGS quakes; and optional TomTom, 511 SF Bay, and Nevada DOT feeds. Every response carries per-source data_as_of timestamps, and a failing feed is never silent: the last good data is served, flagged stale, with the error attached.

Full source table, refresh rates, and the closure taxonomy: docs/data-sources.md.

How good are the answers?

An eval suite gates every release: recorded fixtures for four scenarios (a Sierra storm day, a fire-closure day, a quiet day, and a byte-for-byte capture of a real fire-season day), 91 golden questions with ground truth including traps, and an LLM judge that is never an evaluated model. Every run appends to a committed history file, so the trend is public: EVALS.md.

Under the hood

Three cleanly layered Python packages (a feed layer with stale-while-revalidate caches and salvaging parsers, the MCP surface, and the web app) sharing one data spine. Diagram and design notes: docs/architecture.md.

Contributing

PRs welcome. The test suite is fixture-based and runs without network access. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, and see adding a data source if you want to wire up a new feed.

License & sustainability

CommuteScout is MIT licensed: the map, the planner, the MCP server, and every data parser, with no open-core carve-outs. The hosted app at commutescout.com will soon offer optional premium features (deeper history, more alerts); that is what funds the servers and keeps the free tier free.

Disclaimer

Data: CHP, Caltrans, WFIGS, CAL FIRE, NWS, USGS. Not affiliated with any agency. Conditions change faster than any feed; verify before you drive (511 or quickmap.dot.ca.gov).

Place names resolve through the Nominatim and Photon OpenStreetMap geocoders; the web app loads map tiles from CARTO and route previews from the public OSRM and Valhalla routers, so those services see the coordinates involved. Fonts and map libraries are served locally.