ποΈ parlament-mcp
Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio β connecting AI models to Swiss public data sources.
An MCP server that connects AI models to the Swiss Federal Parliament via the
Curia Vista OData API (ws.parlament.ch).
Access motions, interpellations, votes, members, sessions, and debate transcripts β
with no API key required (Phase 1 β No-Auth-First).
π― Anchor Demo Query
"Welche VorstΓΆsse zu KI in der Schule sind hΓ€ngig?" β
parlament_search_business(keyword="KI", keyword2="Schule", status="Eingereicht")
Perfect for the KI-Fachgruppe Stadtverwaltung ZΓΌrich: find pending motions on AI in education, digitisation initiatives, or any policy topic β instantly.
π§ Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
parlament_search_business | Search VorstΓΆsse by keyword, type, status, council, date |
parlament_get_business | Full details of a single business (texts, FC response) |
parlament_search_members | Find councillors by canton (e.g. ZH), party, council |
parlament_get_votes | Parliamentary votes with Ja/Nein meaning |
parlament_get_sessions | List recent sessions with IDs for follow-up queries |
parlament_get_transcripts | Debate excerpts by keyword or speaker (Amtliches Bulletin) |
ποΈ Architecture
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β MCP Host (Claude Desktop / β
β Claude API / IDE) β
βββββββββββββββ¬βββββββββββββββββββββ
β MCP Protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0)
β Transport: stdio (local) / SSE (cloud)
βββββββββββββββΌβββββββββββββββββββββ
β parlament-mcp β
β FastMCP Β· Python Β· Pydantic v2 β
βββββββββββββββ¬βββββββββββββββββββββ
β HTTPS / OData v3
βββββββββββββββΌβββββββββββββββββββββ
β ws.parlament.ch / odata.svc β
β Curia Vista β No Auth Required β
β β
β Business Β· Vote Β· MemberCouncil β
β Session Β· Transcript Β· ParlGroupβ
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
π Installation
Claude Desktop (stdio)
Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"parlament": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["parlament-mcp"]
}
}
}
Local development
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/parlament-mcp
cd parlament-mcp
pip install -e .
python -m parlament_mcp.server
Cloud / Railway (SSE)
MCP_TRANSPORT=sse MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 PORT=8080 python -m parlament_mcp.server
# SSE endpoint: http://your-host:8080/sse
Network binding
By default the server binds to 127.0.0.1 (localhost only). Set
MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 only inside a container/cloud context (Docker, Railway,
Render, Kubernetes). Never bind to 0.0.0.0 on a local dev machine β it exposes
the server to your local network (NeighborJack risk); the server logs a warning
if you do so outside a detected container.
Transport is selected via MCP_TRANSPORT (stdio default, or sse /
streamable-http); --http is kept as an alias for streamable-http.
Authentication (optional)
The HTTP transport is open by default (public read-only data). To require a
bearer token, serve via the CORS/auth app factory and set MCP_BEARER_TOKENS:
MCP_BEARER_TOKENS="alice:tok_abc,bob:tok_def" MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS="https://claude.ai" \
uvicorn parlament_mcp.server:create_http_app --factory --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080
Each request then needs Authorization: Bearer <token>; identity comes from the
validated token, not a session header (see docs/security.md).
Docker
docker compose up --build # binds 127.0.0.1:8080 only
# or build the hardened image directly (non-root, read-only FS):
docker build -t parlament-mcp .
Kubernetes manifests (hardened securityContext, resource limits, egress
NetworkPolicy, Mcp-Session-Id sticky routing) live in deploy/k8s/;
an HAProxy stick-table example is in deploy/haproxy.cfg.
π Synergies
| Partner Server | Combination |
|---|---|
fedlex-mcp | Law text β parliamentary debate that created it |
zurich-opendata-mcp | City policy β cantonal/federal motions |
swiss-statistics-mcp | Data backing β motions citing statistics |
Power query example:
"Zeige mir alle ZΓΌrcher Motionen zu KI in der Bildung
und verlinke die relevanten Bundesgesetze aus fedlex-mcp."
π Data Source
- API: ws.parlament.ch/odata.svc
- Authentication: None (Phase 1 β No-Auth-First)
- Protocol: OData v3 / JSON
- Coverage: All parliamentary businesses since 1978; votes and transcripts
- Update cycle: Real-time (official government data)
π Data sources & licenses
| Source | License | Attribution |
|---|---|---|
| Curia Vista (ws.parlament.ch) | CC BY 4.0 | Β© Schweizer Parlament, CC BY 4.0 |
Every tool returns a typed structured response (FastMCP exposes the output
schema) carrying source, license, provenance, match_type and count
alongside typed results. Data is passed through unmodified.
π§ Phase
This server is in Phase 1 β Read-only Wrapper (all tools readOnlyHint: true,
no writes). The full phase model and transition criteria are in
docs/roadmap.md.
π MCP Protocol Version
Tested/targeted against MCP spec 2025-06-18 (pinned as PROTOCOL_VERSION
in src/parlament_mcp/config.py). SDK updates are proposed monthly via
Dependabot; spec-version bumps are recorded in CHANGELOG.md.
π§± MCP primitives
Phase 1 uses Tools only β rationale and the Phase-2 Resources plan are in
docs/adr/ADR-003-mcp-primitives.md.
π·οΈ Tool annotations
All tools declare explicit annotations consistent with their behaviour:
| Tool | readOnly | destructive | idempotent | openWorld |
|---|---|---|---|---|
parlament_search_business | β | β | β | β |
parlament_get_business | β | β | β | β |
parlament_search_members | β | β | β | β |
parlament_get_votes | β | β | β | β |
parlament_get_sessions | β | β | β | β |
parlament_get_transcripts | β | β | β | β |
π Observability
Structured JSON logs go to stderr (stdout stays reserved for the stdio
protocol). OpenTelemetry tracing wraps each tool call and auto-instruments
outgoing HTTP; set OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT (with the otel-export extra)
to ship spans. See docs/security.md for the full security
posture (Lethal-Trifecta assessment, egress allow-list, gateway hardening).
π‘οΈ Safety & Limits
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Access | Read-only (readOnlyHint: true) β the server cannot modify or delete any data |
| Personal data | Parliamentary businesses are public record by law (BGΓ). No private data is accessed or stored. |
| Rate limits | Built-in per-query caps: max. 100 results (businesses/members), 50 (votes/transcripts), 10 (sessions) |
| Timeout | 20 seconds per API call |
| Authentication | No API keys required β Curia Vista is publicly accessible |
| Data source | Official Swiss federal government data (Schweizerische Parlamentsdienste) |
| Terms of Service | Subject to ToS of ws.parlament.ch β Schweizerische Parlamentsdienste |
Known Limitations
- OData
substringof()filter is case-sensitive for some fields - Transcript text search can be slow for very broad queries (use
limitto control) - Session names may be
nullin the API for very recent sessions β use session ID - Language filter is mandatory; currently only
DEis fully tested (FR,ITavailable)
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
Security
See SECURITY.md for the security policy and posture (vulnerability reporting, Lethal-Trifecta assessment, accepted risks).
License
MIT Β© Hayal Oezkan β see LICENSE
Installation
Run via uv's uvx β 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": {
"parlament-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"parlament-mcp"
]
}
}
}