ontario-data-mcp — An MCP server for Ontario's open data

How it works

Each question triggers a pipeline of tool calls.

Finds relevant datasets across Ontario, Toronto, and Ottawa open data portals. Keyword, topic, or related-dataset lookup.

Retrieve

Downloads CSVs, XLSX, shapefiles, GeoJSON. Parses and caches locally in DuckDB.

Analyze

Runs SQL against cached data. Aggregations, joins, window functions — results come back as insight.

Get started

Works with any MCP-compatible client.

Add to claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ontario-data": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ontario-data-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or clone from source: git clone https://github.com/sprine/ontario-data-mcp && cd ontario-data-mcp && uv sync

23 tools under the hood

Expand any category to see the individual tools.

Discovery 5 tools

Search by keyword, topic, ministry, or geographic area.

search_datasets, list_portals, list_organizations, list_topics, find_related_datasets

Metadata 4 tools

Inspect schemas, resources, and compare datasets side by side.

get_dataset_info, list_resources, get_resource_schema, compare_datasets

Retrieval 4 tools

Download and cache datasets locally in DuckDB for fast, offline access.

download_resource, cache_info, cache_manage, refresh_cache

Querying 4 tools

Run SQL against remote or cached data. Preview rows or run custom queries.

query_resource, sql_query, query_cached, preview_data

Data Quality 3 tools

Freshness checks, completeness analysis, and statistical profiles.

check_freshness, profile_data, validate_result

Geospatial 3 tools

Load shapefiles, KML, and GeoJSON into DuckDB. Run spatial queries.

load_geodata, spatial_query, list_geo_datasets

Prompts 3 prompts

Context-aware guided workflows with live catalogue data.

explore_topic — guided exploration of any topic
data_investigation — deep dive: schema, quality, stats
compare_data — side-by-side dataset analysis

Resources 5 resources

Read-only context for the LLM: cache status, metadata, SQL tips.

ontario://cache/index — cached datasets with freshness
ontario://dataset/{id} — full dataset metadata
ontario://portal/stats — catalogue overview
ontario://schema/{table_name} — column schema and type warnings
ontario://guides/duckdb-sql — SQL tips for Ontario data

An MCP server for Ontario's open data.

How it works

See it in action

Get started

23 tools under the hood