TownBrief MCP Server
Structured access to Massachusetts local government intelligence for AI assistants.
351 towns and cities. 14 counties. Meeting articles, transcripts, news roundups, bylaws, calendars, and 10+ years of historical archives — all from an automated journalism pipeline powered by The Wayland Post.
Quick Start
Claude Desktop / Claude Code
Add to your MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"townbrief": {
"url": "https://api.townbrief.com/sse",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
}
}
}
}
Cursor / Windsurf / any MCP client
Endpoint: https://api.townbrief.com/sse
Transport: SSE
Auth: Bearer token
ChatGPT
Use the TownBrief GPT — no setup required, OAuth handles auth.
Get an API Key
- Go to api.townbrief.com/authorize
- Enter your email
- Your key is returned via the OAuth flow
Free tier includes discovery tools (list meetings, search, browse counties). Full content access (articles, transcripts, bylaws, archives) requires a paid subscription.
Tools (22)
Free Tier — Discovery & Browse
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_recent_meetings | Newest meetings across all committees for a town |
search_meetings | Full-text search over article text |
list_counties | All 14 MA counties with their towns |
list_county_meetings | Recent meetings across a county |
search_county_meetings | Search across all towns in a county |
list_recent_roundups | Recent daily news roundup dates |
list_bylaw_towns | Towns with bylaws indexed |
list_bylaw_chapters | Table of contents for a town's bylaws |
Paid Tier — Full Content
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_article | AI-generated article + brief for a meeting |
get_transcript | Full Whisper-generated meeting transcript |
get_roundup | Daily news roundup (article + sources) |
get_committee_summary | Multi-meeting overview for a committee |
get_town_calendar | Upcoming town/arts/library events |
search_bylaws | Full-text search of town bylaws |
get_bylaw_chapter | Full chapter text |
search_waylandarchive | 6,000+ historical town documents (1985–present) |
get_archive_page | Full text of an archive document |
search_wells | Wayland private-well PFAS monitoring hub |
search_waylandpost | 1,000+ published Wayland Post articles |
get_waylandpost_post | Full text of a Wayland Post story |
search_waylandenews | 5,500+ historical eNews posts (2013–2024) |
search_wvn | Wayland Voters Network archive |
Parameters
meeting_id format
{Committee}/{YYYY-MM-DD}
Example: Select Board/2026-06-29
town parameter
Lowercase slug: wayland, sudbury, cambridge, somerville, etc.
get_article — fields parameter
Comma-separated: article, article_plus, brief, headlines, review. Default: article,brief. Use all for everything.
get_transcript — max_chars parameter
Truncate transcript to N characters. Default: 20000 (~5000 words). Pass 0 for full text.
Pricing
- Free tier: Discovery tools (list, search, browse) — unlimited
- Paid tier: $8/month or $80/year — full content access
- Usage billing: $0.02 per content API call (metered via Stripe, billed monthly)
Subscribe at wayland.ma.townbrief.com
Coverage
All 351 Massachusetts municipalities across all 14 counties:
- Select Boards, Finance Committees, Planning Boards, Conservation Commissions, School Committees, ZBAs, and dozens of other boards
- AI-generated articles and deep-read analyses from Whisper transcripts
- Daily news roundups aggregating press releases, school news, public safety
- Town bylaws (full-text search and chapter retrieval)
- Town, arts, and library event calendars
- County-level aggregation
REST API
OpenAPI spec: api.townbrief.com/actions/openapi.json
All tools are also available as REST endpoints at https://api.townbrief.com/api/{tool_name} with query parameters.
About
Built by The Wayland Post — an independent, AI-assisted local news organization covering Wayland, MA and expanding statewide.
The pipeline downloads government meeting videos, transcribes them locally with Whisper on GPU, generates AP-style articles via Claude, fetches agenda/packet/minutes PDFs, and produces daily news roundups — all automated, all available through this API.
License
API access is a paid service. The content is copyrighted by The Wayland Post. See Terms of Service.