What Do They Know?

whatdotheyknow-mcp

A Model Context Protocol server for UK Freedom of Information research. Connects AI assistants to WhatDoTheyKnow — the UK's largest FOI request platform — to search requests, read responses, look up public authorities, and draft new requests.

Tools

Tool	Description
search_request_events	Full-text search of FOI requests and responses via WhatDoTheyKnow's Atom feed. Supports structured expressions (status:successful, body:"Liverpool City Council").
search_authorities	Search UK public authorities by name. Returns slug for use with other tools.
get_request_feed_items	Fetch the event timeline (sent, response, clarification) for a specific FOI request.
get_request_detail	Fetch full public request JSON, including status, authority, requester, correspondence events, and attachment metadata where exposed.
get_user_requests	List a user's visible requests with title, slug, status, authority, dates, and snippets.
get_user_feed_items	Fetch a user's activity Atom feed as structured entries with readable content text.
get_authority_detail	Fetch full public authority JSON, including contact/profile fields and request statistics.
build_request_url	Build a prefilled WhatDoTheyKnow request URL for a given authority and topic.
create_request_record	Create a request via the write API (requires WDTK_API_KEY).
update_request_state	Update user-assessed state of a request (requires WDTK_API_KEY).

Resources

URI template	Returns
wdtk://authorities/{authority_slug}	Authority profile JSON
wdtk://requests/{request_slug}	FOI request detail JSON
wdtk://users/{user_slug}	User profile JSON
wdtk://requests/{request_slug}/feed	Request event Atom feed
wdtk://users/{user_slug}/feed	User activity Atom feed
wdtk://authorities/all.csv	Full CSV of all UK public authorities

Prompts

Prompt	Description
draft_foi_request	Draft a narrow, specific FOI request for a given authority and topic.

Connect

Hosted (no install)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatdotheyknow": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://whatdotheyknow-mcp.fly.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local (uvx)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatdotheyknow": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["whatdotheyknow-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
WDTK_API_KEY	Optional	Enables create_request_record and update_request_state write tools

Upstream API and Licence

Source	API	Licence	Auth
WhatDoTheyKnow	www.whatdotheyknow.com	OGL v3	None (read) / API key (write)

Data is sourced directly from the WhatDoTheyKnow public API. The platform is operated by mySociety.