What Do They Know?

UK Freedom of Information research, the UK's largest FOI request platform — search requests, read responses, look up public authorities, and draft new requests.

GitHub

whatdotheyknow-mcp

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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

ToolDescription
search_request_eventsFull-text search of FOI requests and responses via WhatDoTheyKnow's Atom feed. Supports structured expressions (status:successful, body:"Liverpool City Council").
search_authoritiesSearch UK public authorities by name. Returns slug for use with other tools.
get_request_feed_itemsFetch the event timeline (sent, response, clarification) for a specific FOI request.
build_request_urlBuild a prefilled WhatDoTheyKnow request URL for a given authority and topic.
create_request_recordCreate a request via the write API (requires WDTK_API_KEY).
update_request_stateUpdate user-assessed state of a request (requires WDTK_API_KEY).

Resources

URI templateReturns
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}/feedRequest event Atom feed
wdtk://users/{user_slug}/feedUser activity Atom feed
wdtk://authorities/all.csvFull CSV of all UK public authorities

Prompts

PromptDescription
draft_foi_requestDraft 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

VariableRequiredDescription
WDTK_API_KEYOptionalEnables create_request_record and update_request_state write tools

Upstream API and Licence

SourceAPILicenceAuth
WhatDoTheyKnowwww.whatdotheyknow.comOGL v3None (read) / API key (write)

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

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