Name: US Municipal Open Data Discovery
Creator: Socrata US Open Data Catalog and participating municipal portals

API access

Your AI client reaches US Municipal Open Data Discovery through one ParcelOps MCP endpoint, so there is no separate key to hold for it and no per-source client to write. Reaching it takes no credentials of your own.

Set up US Municipal Open Data Discovery in Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor Get every fact on this page as JSON

Where it came from

PublisherSocrata US Open Data Catalog and participating municipal portals

Sourcehttps://api.us.socrata.com/api/catalog/v1

API basehttps://api.us.socrata.com/api/catalog/v1

Docshttps://dev.socrata.com/consumers/getting-started

Freshness and coverage

FreshnessScheduled · Each portal and dataset publishes on its own cadence.

Places coveredUnited States, where a participating publisher exposes a Socrata dataset

Time coveredNot declared

CredentialsNo credentials required

What this source cannot tell you

⚠ Anything outside United States, where a participating publisher exposes a Socrata dataset. A request past that edge comes back empty rather than approximated.
⚠ Which years it spans, because the covered period is not declared.
⚠ Anything Socrata US Open Data Catalog and participating municipal portals does not publish. ParcelOps returns this source as it stands and never fills a blank field from a different one.
⚠ Schemas, publishers, update practices, licenses, and attribution requirements vary by dataset.
⚠ A catalog record may describe a viewer or download rather than a stable tabular API.
⚠ Municipal free text is treated as untrusted data and passes through ParcelOps response scanning.
⚠ Curated building-operations workflows normalize a small fixed set of city feeds; they are not a complete national permit, inspection, or violation history.

Methods (8)

A method is one call your agent can make against this source.

searchDatasets

read

Find municipal real-estate datasets in the US Socrata catalog.

What you must provideq

Records returnedopen-data-dataset

How to get more resultsnone (limitField: limit)

FreshnessScheduled (source-level)

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "q": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 200
    },
    "portal": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 253,
      "description": "Optional exact portal hostname without scheme, path, or port."
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 100
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "q"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

⚠ Catalog resultSetSize is discovery metadata, not a claim that every record is queryable.

getDatasetSchema

read

Inspect one catalog-verified Socrata dataset’s portal-specific columns and published license.

What you must provideportaldatasetId

FreshnessScheduled (source-level)

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "portal": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 3,
      "maxLength": 253
    },
    "datasetId": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[A-Za-z0-9]{4}-[A-Za-z0-9]{4}$"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "portal",
    "datasetId"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

queryDataset

read

Query one catalog-verified dataset with structured fields and filters; raw SoQL is not accepted.

What you must provideportaldatasetId

Records returnedportal-specific-open-data-row

How to get more resultsoffset (offsetField: offset, limitField: limit)

FreshnessScheduled (source-level)

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "portal": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 3,
      "maxLength": 253
    },
    "datasetId": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[A-Za-z0-9]{4}-[A-Za-z0-9]{4}$"
    },
    "fields": {
      "type": "array",
      "minItems": 1,
      "maxItems": 100,
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "pattern": "^:?[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*$"
      }
    },
    "filters": {
      "type": "array",
      "maxItems": 10,
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "field": {
            "type": "string",
            "pattern": "^:?[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*$"
          },
          "operator": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": [
              "eq",
              "neq",
              "gt",
              "gte",
              "lt",
              "lte",
              "contains",
              "startsWith"
            ]
          },
          "value": {
            "oneOf": [
              {
                "type": "string",
                "maxLength": 500
              },
              {
                "type": "number"
              },
              {
                "type": "boolean"
              },
              {
                "type": "null"
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "field",
          "operator",
          "value"
        ],
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "orderBy": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "field": {
          "type": "string",
          "pattern": "^:?[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*$"
        },
        "direction": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": [
            "asc",
            "desc"
          ]
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "field"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "fullText": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 200
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 1000
    },
    "offset": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 100000
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "portal",
    "datasetId"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

⚠ Rows retain the upstream portal schema; no cross-city field normalization is implied.

listMunicipalBuildingOperationsSources
read
List curated city permit, inspection, and violation feeds for the normalized workflow.
Records returnedmunicipal-building-operations-source
How to get more resultsnone
FreshnessScheduled (source-level)
Input schema
```
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "required": [],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
```
- ⚠ Coverage, history, update cadence, and reuse terms differ by city and source feed.

queryMunicipalBuildingOperations

read

Search normalized permits, inspections, or violations for one curated city and property phrase.

What you must providemarketpropertySearch

Records returnedbuilding-permit, building-inspection, property-violation

How to get more resultsoffset (offsetField: offset, limitField: limit)

FreshnessScheduled (source-level)

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "market": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "chicago",
        "seattle",
        "austin",
        "san-francisco",
        "los-angeles"
      ]
    },
    "propertySearch": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 2,
      "maxLength": 200,
      "description": "Address, parcel identifier, or other property phrase supported by the selected municipal feed."
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 200
    },
    "offset": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 100000
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "market",
    "propertySearch"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

⚠ Normalized public events are screening context, not proof of present permit, inspection, or code status.
⚠ ParcelOps excludes personal and contractor contact fields.

listNewConstructionPermitSources
read
List curated new-construction permit sources with live-verified compound filter recipes.
Records returnednew-construction-permit-source
How to get more resultsnone
FreshnessScheduled (source-level)
Input schema
```
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "required": [],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
```
- ⚠ Recipes were verified live on the listed date; portals can rename fields or freeze datasets afterward.
- ⚠ Sources cover the listed jurisdictions only and record different construction-timeline stages.

queryNewConstructionPermits

read

Query one curated source with its verified new-residential-construction recipe applied server-side.

What you must providesourceId

Records returnedbuilding-permit

How to get more resultsoffset (offsetField: offset, limitField: limit)

FreshnessScheduled (source-level)

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "sourceId": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "chicago-new-construction",
        "seattle-new-residential",
        "marin-county-new-residential",
        "baton-rouge-new-residential",
        "cincinnati-new-single-family",
        "cincinnati-new-multifamily",
        "mesa-new-residential",
        "austin-new-residential-construction",
        "austin-new-residential-building",
        "los-angeles-new-residential-applications",
        "los-angeles-new-residential-completions",
        "cambridge-new-residential",
        "honolulu-new-residential-historical",
        "norfolk-new-residential",
        "pierce-county-new-residential",
        "new-jersey-new-residential",
        "san-francisco-new-residential",
        "nyc-new-building-permits",
        "nyc-new-building-completions",
        "philadelphia-new-residential",
        "san-antonio-new-residential",
        "san-jose-new-residential",
        "boston-new-residential",
        "milwaukee-new-residential",
        "columbus-new-residential",
        "charlotte-new-residential",
        "nashville-new-residential",
        "el-paso-new-residential",
        "louisville-new-residential",
        "detroit-new-residential",
        "sacramento-new-residential",
        "raleigh-new-residential",
        "virginia-beach-new-residential",
        "minneapolis-new-residential",
        "memphis-new-residential",
        "new-orleans-new-residential",
        "plano-new-residential",
        "orlando-new-residential",
        "cleveland-new-residential",
        "greensboro-new-residential",
        "pittsburgh-new-residential",
        "durham-new-residential",
        "scottsdale-new-residential",
        "gilbert-new-residential",
        "winston-salem-new-residential",
        "buffalo-new-residential",
        "kansas-city-new-residential",
        "portland-new-residential",
        "chesapeake-new-residential-projects",
        "dfw-nctcog-new-residential-projects",
        "california-hcd-apr-new-residential"
      ]
    },
    "issuedAfter": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$",
      "description": "ISO date lower bound; only accepted for sources whose listing reports supportsIssuedAfter."
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 1000
    },
    "offset": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 100000
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "sourceId"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

⚠ Rows retain the upstream portal schema; no cross-city normalization is implied.
⚠ A permit or certificate record is screening context, not proof construction started or finished.

getServiceInfo
read
Return the discovery workflow, security controls, limits, auth option, and license caveats.
FreshnessScheduled (source-level)
Input schema
```
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "required": [],
  "additionalProperties": false
}
```

Where this source is used

Land research
Parcel records, ground conditions, and what reaches the property line, for raw and rural land.
Data center siting
Power, water, transport, airspace, and hazard screening for a site before anyone signs anything.
Commercial real estate
Parcel and assessment records, building programs, and the entity on the other side of the deal.
Residential real estate
The parcel record, the housing programs that touch an address, and the conditions a buyer asks about.
Real estate law
Federal rule text, rulemaking dockets, party records, and the property facts a filing has to state.
Realtors and brokerages
The facts behind a listing, the programs a buyer may qualify for, and your own files in the same place.
What building permits have been pulled near this property?

US Municipal Open Data Discovery API and MCP server

API access

Where it came from

Freshness and coverage

What this source cannot tell you

Methods (8)

searchDatasets

getDatasetSchema

queryDataset

listMunicipalBuildingOperationsSources

queryMunicipalBuildingOperations

listNewConstructionPermitSources

queryNewConstructionPermits

getServiceInfo

Where this source is used