Zurich Open Data Server

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

🏙️ Zurich Open Data MCP Server

PyPI License: MIT Python 3.11+ MCP No Auth Required

🌐 English | Deutsch

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server providing AI-powered access to Open Data from the City of Zurich, Switzerland.

Enables Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible AI assistants to directly query 900+ datasets, geodata, parliamentary proceedings, council resolutions, tourism data, linked data, and real-time environmental and mobility information from the City of Zurich. 23 Tools (+3 deprecated aliases), 5 Resources, 6 APIs.

Demo

✨ Features

CKAN Open Data (data.stadt-zuerich.ch)

• zurich_search_datasets – Full-text search with Solr syntax across 900+ datasets
• zurich_get_dataset – Complete metadata and download URLs for a dataset
• zurich_datastore_query – Query tabular data directly (filters, sorting)
• zurich_datastore_sql – SQL queries on the DataStore
• zurich_list_categories – Browse 19 thematic categories
• zurich_list_tags – Tag-based thematic search

Real-Time Environmental Data

• zurich_weather_live – 🌤️ Current weather (temperature, humidity, pressure, rain) from 4 UGZ stations
• zurich_air_quality – 🌬️ Live air quality (NO₂, O₃, PM10, PM2.5) with WHO thresholds
• zurich_water_weather – 🌊 Lake Zurich data (water temperature, level, wind) every 10 min

Real-Time Mobility Data

• zurich_pedestrian_traffic – 🚶 Pedestrian counts on Bahnhofstrasse (3 locations, hourly)
• zurich_vbz_passengers – 🚊 VBZ public transit ridership (800,000+ records, all lines/stops)
• zurich_parking_live – 🅿️ Real-time occupancy of 36 parking garages (ParkenDD)

Geoportal (WFS Geodata)

• zurich_geo_layers – 📍 List 14 available geodata layers
• zurich_geo_features – 📍 Fetch GeoJSON features (schools, districts, playgrounds, climate data, etc.)

City Parliament (Paris API)

• zurich_parliament_search – 🏛️ Search parliamentary proceedings (interpellations, motions, postulates)
• zurich_parliament_members – 🏛️ Search council members (party, commissions, mandates)

Zurich Tourism

• zurich_tourism – 🏨 Attractions, restaurants, hotels, events (Schema.org data, 4 languages)

Linked Data (SPARQL)

• zurich_sparql – 📊 SPARQL queries on the statistical linked data endpoint (endpoint not productive yet — the tool is not registered by default; opt in with the environment variable ZURICH_OPENDATA_ENABLE_SPARQL=1)

Stadtratsbeschlüsse (Council Resolutions)

• zurich_strb_search – 📜 Full-text search of public council resolutions (title, department, date range)
• zurich_strb_by_department – 📜 List all resolutions of a department (e.g. SSD, FD, PRD)
• zurich_strb_detail – 📜 Single resolution by NNNN/YYYY number

(The former names search_stadtratsbeschluesse, get_beschluesse_by_departement and get_stadtratsbeschluss_detail remain available as deprecated aliases until the next major release.)

Analysis Tools

• zurich_analyze_datasets – Comprehensive analysis: relevance, recency, data structure
• zurich_catalog_stats – Catalog overview with statistics
• zurich_find_school_data – Curated search for education-related datasets

MCP Resources

• zurich://dataset/{name} – Dataset metadata
• zurich://category/{group_id} – Category details
• zurich://parking – Current parking data
• zurich://geo/{layer_id} – GeoJSON geodata (14 layers)
• zurich://tourism/categories – Tourism categories

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• pip or uv
• mcp[cli] 2.x — installed automatically; the server uses the 2.x API (mcp.server.mcpserver) and cannot run on mcp 1.x

Use 0.6.0 or newer. Release 0.5.1 declared mcp[cli]>=1.28.1 with no upper bound. Once mcp 2.0.0 removed mcp.server.fastmcp, every fresh install of 0.5.1 resolved to 2.0.0 and failed at import with ModuleNotFoundError. 0.6.0 runs on the 2.x API and pins >=2.0.0,<3. If you are pinned to 0.5.1, upgrade — there is no working configuration of that release left.

Install

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/zurich-opendata-mcp.git
cd zurich-opendata-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .

# Or with uv
uv pip install -e .

⚙️ Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zurich-opendata": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "zurich_opendata_mcp.server"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, using the installed command:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zurich-opendata": {
      "command": "zurich-opendata-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add zurich-opendata -- python -m zurich_opendata_mcp.server

Cursor / VS Code

Add to .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zurich-opendata": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "zurich_opendata_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

💬 Example Queries

Once configured, you can ask Claude:

Open Data

• "What datasets are available about schools in Zurich?"
• "Show me school holidays for public schools"
• "Analyze the available geodata"

Real-Time Data

• "What's the current temperature in Zurich?" → zurich_weather_live
• "How is the air quality today?" → zurich_air_quality
• "What's the water temperature in Lake Zurich?" → zurich_water_weather
• "How many parking spaces are free right now?" → zurich_parking_live
• "How many people are on Bahnhofstrasse right now?" → zurich_pedestrian_traffic

Geodata

• "Show me all school facilities in Zurich as GeoJSON" → zurich_geo_features
• "What geodata layers are available?" → zurich_geo_layers
• "Where are the playgrounds in Zurich?"

City Parliament

• "What parliamentary motions about schools were filed?" → zurich_parliament_search
• "Which council members belong to the SP party?" → zurich_parliament_members

Council Resolutions (Stadtratsbeschlüsse)

• "Find council resolutions about Volksschule from 2025" → zurich_strb_search
• "List all SSD resolutions in 2025" → zurich_strb_by_department
• "Show council resolution 1203/2025" → zurich_strb_detail

Tourism

• "What restaurants does Zurich Tourism recommend?" → zurich_tourism

🔗 Data Sources

API	Endpoint	Data
CKAN	data.stadt-zuerich.ch/api/3/	900+ open datasets
Geoportal WFS	ogd.stadt-zuerich.ch/wfs/geoportal	14 geodata layers (GeoJSON)
Paris API	gemeinderat-zuerich.ch/api	Parliamentary proceedings & members
Zurich Tourism	zuerich.com/en/api/v2/data	Attractions, restaurants, hotels
SPARQL	ld.stadt-zuerich.ch/query	Linked Open Data / statistics
ParkenDD	api.parkendd.de/Zuerich	Real-time parking occupancy

📊 Available Data Categories

Category	ID
Employment	arbeit-und-erwerb
Base Maps	basiskarten
Construction & Housing	bauen-und-wohnen
Population	bevolkerung
Education	bildung
Energy	energie
Finance	finanzen
Leisure	freizeit
Health	gesundheit
Crime	kriminalitat
Culture	kultur
Mobility	mobilitat
Politics	politik
Prices	preise
Social Affairs	soziales
Tourism	tourismus
Environment	umwelt
Administration	verwaltung
Economy	volkswirtschaft

📍 Available Geo Layers

Source of truth: GEOPORTAL_LAYERS in src/zurich_opendata_mcp/config.py.

Layer ID	Description
schulanlagen	School facilities (kindergartens, schools, after-school care)
schulkreise	School district boundaries (polygons)
schulwege	School-route crossings and hazard points
stadtkreise	City district boundaries (polygons)
spielplaetze	Public playgrounds
kreisbuero	City district offices
sammelstelle	Waste collection points
sport	Sports facilities
klimadaten	Climate data (raster, temperatures, heat islands)
lehrpfade	Educational trails
stimmlokale	Polling stations
sozialzentrum	Social centres
velopruefstrecken	Bicycle exam routes for schools
familienberatung	Family-counselling meeting points

🏗️ Project Structure

zurich-opendata-mcp/
├── src/zurich_opendata_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── app.py               # Shared FastMCP instance
│   ├── server.py            # Console entry + back-compat re-exports
│   ├── config.py            # Endpoints, layer maps, resource IDs
│   ├── http_client.py       # Shared httpx client + CKAN wrapper
│   ├── formatters.py        # CKAN→model mapping + Markdown rendering
│   ├── models.py            # Pydantic structured-output models
│   ├── clients/             # API clients: paris, sparql, tourism, wfs
│   └── tools/               # @mcp.tool implementations:
│                            #   catalog, datastore, geo, parliament,
│                            #   realtime, sparql, strb, tourism,
│                            #   resources (zurich:// URIs)
├── tests/                   # respx round-trip, unit and live-marked tests
├── audits/                  # Code-audit reports
├── .github/workflows/       # ci.yml + publish.yml (Trusted Publisher)
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md / README.de.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md / .de.md
├── SECURITY.md / .de.md
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CLAUDE.md                # Project conventions for Claude
├── LICENSE
└── claude_desktop_config.json

🧪 Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Unit + validation tests (no network)
pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Live integration tests (against live APIs — opt-in)
pytest tests/ -m live

# Linting
ruff check src/ tests/

🌐 HTTP transport

By default the server speaks MCP over stdio. --http serves Streamable HTTP instead:

zurich-opendata-mcp --http --port 8000              # binds 127.0.0.1 (default)
zurich-opendata-mcp --http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Option	Meaning	Default
--http	Serve Streamable HTTP instead of stdio	(off → stdio)
--host	Bind address	127.0.0.1
--port	Bind port (1–65535)	8000
MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS	Comma-separated names this server is reachable under, port included (e.g. zurich.example.ch:8000). Requests under any other Host get 421; loopback stays allowed so container health checks keep working.	(unset)

The loopback default is deliberate. Binding 0.0.0.0 exposes the server on every interface, to everyone who can reach the machine — there is no authentication in front of it.

Set MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS whenever you bind beyond loopback. It guards against DNS rebinding: a page on your network resolves its own hostname to this server's address and then talks to it from the browser. From the browser's point of view that request is same-origin, so no origin rule stops it — only the Host check does.

Left unset on a non-loopback bind, the check stays off and a warning is logged. That is the right default only when something in front of the server validates Host. It is deliberately not guessed: on 0.0.0.0 the reachable name is unknowable inside the process, and a wrong guess would answer the very deployment it is meant to protect with 421 on every request.

MCP Protocol Version

This server speaks two protocol eras over the same endpoint. The client's first request on a connection decides which one applies; a later claim from the other era is refused.

Era	Revision	Who reaches it
initialize handshake	2024-11-05 … 2025-11-25	What today's clients speak. The server answers with the revision asked for, or with the 2025-11-25 ceiling when the request asks for something newer.
Per-request envelope	2026-07-28	A request carrying the 2026-07-28 _meta envelope opens a modern connection.

Both revisions are pinned in tests/test_protocol_version.py, and the gate checks them twice over: it measures the revision an in-process mcp.Client actually negotiates against this server (both eras, over a memory transport — no ASGI, no network), and it reads the SDK constants so a Dependabot bump of mcp cannot move either one silently. The measured half is the load-bearing one: it fails even when an era stops being served while its constant stays put.

Note that the SDK's LATEST_PROTOCOL_VERSION is an alias for the modern era, not for the handshake era — pinning against it alone would leave the era that current clients actually negotiate free to drift.

What this server does natively on 2026-07-28

The revision is not just a number the SDK reaches. Three of its changes ask something of the server itself, and this one answers all three:

Spec change	What this server does
SEP-2549 — ttlMs / cacheScope on the listing methods	tools/list, resources/list, resources/templates/list and server/discover carry ttlMs 300000, cacheScope public. Without them the SDK answers "already stale, never share" for directories that are fixed at import. resources/read deliberately carries no hint: that would be a promise about content, not about a directory.
SEP-2575 — no initialize, so identity travels per result	Every result's _meta carries io.modelcontextprotocol/serverInfo with name, title, version, description and websiteUrl. An MCPServer built without version= stamps an empty string on every single answer, and the SDK never substitutes its own.
SEP-2575 — server/discover is the only place left for instructions	The server ships instructions; a stateless caller that never sends initialize still learns the catalog → resource-UUID → DataStore order and how long a real-time reading is good for.

Minor change #3 (tools/list SHOULD be deterministically ordered) is met by the tool manager's insertion order, which follows the import order fixed in server.py; a test compares the wire order against it.

One property is the SDK's, not this server's: because subscriptions/listen is served, the capability block advertises listChanged and resources.subscribe. This server's directories are fixed at import and it never emits a change notification. That is measured and left as is — the capability says the method is served, which is true.

Update policy. When the gate fails, do not edit the constant blindly: read the spec changelog between the two revisions, verify the server still behaves, then move the constant, this section, README.de.md and CHANGELOG.md together.

Safety & Limits

• Read-only: All tools perform HTTP GET requests only — no data is written, modified, or deleted.
• No personal data: The APIs return open civic datasets (parking occupancy, weather readings, parliamentary proceedings). No personally identifiable information (PII) is processed or stored by this server.
• Rate limits: CKAN Solr search and ParkenDD are public APIs without documented rate limits; use rows and limit parameters conservatively. The server enforces a 30s timeout per request; transient upstream errors (connect failures, HTTP 502/503/504) are retried once with a short backoff.
• Data freshness: Real-time tools (parking, weather, air quality) reflect the upstream source at query time. Measurement data is never cached; only the lookup of the current per-year UGZ resource ID (weather/air quality) is cached in-process for 24h.
• Terms of service: Data is subject to the ToS of each source — data.stadt-zuerich.ch, ParkenDD, gemeinderat-zuerich.ch. All City of Zurich data is published under CC0 (Open by Default since 2021).
• No guarantees: This server is a community project, not affiliated with the City of Zurich or any of the API providers. Availability depends on upstream APIs.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md (Deutsch).

🔒 Security

Read-only, no PII, no authentication, a fixed set of public-data endpoints. See SECURITY.md (Deutsch) for the full security posture and accepted-risk decisions.

📜 License

MIT License — see LICENSE. All data used is published under open licenses (CC0 / Open by Default since 2021).

👤 Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Powered by Model Context Protocol • 6 APIs • 23 Tools • 5 Resources

Installation

Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zurich-opendata-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "zurich-opendata-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}