Local Austin MCP Server

Local Austin MCP

Everything Austin. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives Claude (and any MCP client) plain-English access to the official Austin and Travis County data sources that matter most — plus active real estate listings, neighborhood pages, and posts from independent Austin writers, all provided by Neuhaus Realty Group.

License: Free for personal and non-commercial use. You may install, run, and modify this MCP for your own use. You may not sell it, rebrand it, or include it in a commercial product. Licensed under PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 (see LICENSE), with two binding additional conditions: ATTRIBUTION.md (keep the credit) and TRADEMARK.md (don't use the Neuhaus marks). Owner: Ed Neuhaus / Neuhaus Realty Group LLC, Austin, Texas. Source: https://github.com/mindwear-capitian/local-austin-mcp Powered by: Neuhaus Realty Group — https://neuhausre.com (active real estate listings, neighborhood pages, and blog content surfaced by this MCP come from neuhausre.com).

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Install

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

// claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-austin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:mindwear-capitian/local-austin-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. That's the whole setup. No API keys required for any tool.

Claude Code

claude mcp add local-austin npx -y github:mindwear-capitian/local-austin-mcp

Configuration

Optional environment variables:

Var	Default	Purpose
AUSTIN_SODA_APP_TOKEN	unset	Socrata app token. Raises rate limit on data.austintexas.gov + datahub.austintexas.gov. Free signup.
LOCAL_AUSTIN_MCP_TIER	all	Set to core to register only the 14 most-used tools (saves ~20 tool slots if your client has a soft cap).
VOW_PUBLIC_BASE	https://vow-api.re-workflow.com/public	Override the Neuhaus VOW base URL. Used for testing / staging.
AUSTIN_CACHE_DISABLED	unset	Set to 1 to bypass the in-memory geocoder / FEMA cache.
AUSTIN_LIMIT_<SOURCE>	varies	Override per-source concurrency cap. Sources: SODA, ARCGIS, FEMA, CENSUS, TRAVIS_TAX, VOW_PUBLIC, NWS, RSS. Example: AUSTIN_LIMIT_SODA=8.

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Try It

Once installed, ask Claude things like:

• "Show me 3-bedroom homes in 78704 under $700k with a pool."
• "Tell me everything about 9501 San Lucas Dr in Austin — value, taxes, permits, flood zone, schools."
• "What's Lake Travis at right now?"
• "Who's the city council rep for 1100 Congress Ave?"
• "Pull up Austin AFD incidents from the last 24 hours near my address."
• "What did Austin City Council vote on short-term rental ordinances?"
• "Find me condos in Tarrytown — what's the active inventory?"
• "What did Ed Neuhaus write about the Austin market in 2026?"
• "Is there an active flood-zone alert for 78731 right now?"
• "Pull TCAD on 1234 Main St in Round Rock."
• "What library branch is closest to 78704? Hours and amenities?"
• "How many APD use-of-force incidents were reported in the last month?"
• "Where's the nearest fire station to my property?"
• "What's the latest health inspection score for Franklin Barbecue?"
• "Any tree-removal permits ever issued at this address?"
• "What TxDOT projects are scheduled on I-35 in Travis County?"
• "Has Austin Animal Center received any lost calicos near 78704 this month?"

Claude figures out which tool to call, queries the authoritative source live, and returns a source_url so you can verify.

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Tools (36 live)

All tools are read-only, idempotent, and hit external providers (readOnlyHint: true, idempotentHint: true, openWorldHint: true in MCP annotations). The composed austin_property_360 is the preferred entry point for any address-centric question.

Real Estate (provided by Neuhaus Realty Group — free, no login)

Tool	What it does
austin_active_listings	Search active for-sale MLS listings by city / ZIP / school district / subdivision + price / beds / features. Active + under-contract only.
austin_listing_detail	Pull a single listing by MLS ID — price, beds, sqft, features, photos, neuhausre.com permalink.
austin_listing_by_address	Find an active listing by street address.
austin_neighborhood_lookup	Search or look up Austin-area neighborhoods, with sample active listings.
austin_search_blog	Search Ed Neuhaus's Austin real-estate blog on neuhausre.com.

Property (county appraisal + tax + zoning + permits)

Tool	What it does
austin_travis_cad	Travis CAD property lookup (owner, value, deeds) via True Prodigy API.
austin_williamson_cad	Williamson CAD lookup via ArcGIS.
austin_hays_cad	Hays CAD lookup via ArcGIS.
austin_travis_tax	Travis County Tax Office — current bill, exemptions, delinquencies.
austin_mud_pid	MUD / PID special-district overlay (Texas Comptroller).
austin_fema_flood	FEMA NFHL flood zone lookup.
austin_permits	Full permit history for any City of Austin address.
austin_code_cases	Active and historical code-compliance cases.
austin_zoning	Austin zoning + lot dimensions + plat lookup.
austin_tree_permits	City of Austin issued tree permits — removal / heritage / root-zone work. Useful for pre-listing prep and buyer due-diligence.
austin_property_360	Composed: one address → CAD + tax + flood + permits + code + 311 + zoning in one shot.

Civic + Public Safety

Tool	What it does
austin_311	City of Austin 311 service requests.
austin_crime	APD crime reports.
austin_afd_incidents	Real-time Austin Fire Department dispatches.
austin_council_votes	City Council voting records — search by topic, member, district, or date.
austin_city_budget	City of Austin Open Budget — expense data by department, fund, fiscal year.
austin_district_lookup	Given an address: returns council district, school district, ESD, voter precinct, neighborhood plan.
austin_tea_schools	TEA school + AISD attendance assignment.
austin_libraries	Austin Public Library branch directory — find a branch by name, address, or council district. Includes amenity flags (wifi, computers, training rooms).
austin_parks	City of Austin parks — search by council district, address, or park type. Returns parcel address, park type (Neighborhood / Greenbelt / Pool / Preserve), and development status.
austin_fire_stations	AFD + Travis County ESD fire station directory — find the nearest station to a property. Useful for ISO rating + insurance underwriting context.
austin_police_data	Unified APD reporting tool: type=arrests (charges/dates/demographics), type=use_of_force (force level/weapons/injury), or type=dispatch (911 CAD incidents with priority + problem category).
austin_restaurant_inspections	Austin / Travis County food establishment inspection scores (0-100). Filter by name, address, zip, score range, date.
austin_roadway_work_zones	Active construction / closures from City of Austin Transportation & Public Works.
austin_animal_center	Austin Animal Center intakes + outcomes — lost-pet search by found-address + breed, adoption availability.
austin_txdot_projects	TxDOT highway construction / maintenance projects in the Austin district. Filter by highway, county, work type.

Environment

Tool	What it does
austin_nws_alerts	Active National Weather Service alerts for an Austin location.
austin_lake_travis_level	Lake Travis (and other Highland Lakes) reservoir level + 30-day trend.

Community

Tool	What it does
austin_local_voices	Search recent posts across a curated set of independent Austin writers and community newsletters (Eric Webb, Jason Stanford, ATX Writing Club, 365 Things Austin, Camille Styles, Scott Francis, Austin Is Burning). Filter by keyword, source, and recency.

Meta

Tool	What it does
about	Version + capability summary.
austin_health	Pings every upstream provider in parallel and reports per-source {status, http, latency_ms, last_error}. Use when many tools are erroring and you need to know which provider is down vs which tool is broken.

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MCP Resources

In addition to tools, the server publishes static reference documents via the MCP resources/* API:

URI	What it is
austin://datasets/index	Every upstream provider, coverage notes, update cadence, authoritative URLs.
austin://coverage/map	Which counties / cities each tool covers.
austin://faq	Common gotchas (WCAD redacted values, free vs gated MLS data, etc.).

MCP Prompts

Server-published templates that chain tools. Clients surface them as slash commands or one-click flows:

Name	Arguments	What it does
investigate_property	address	Runs austin_property_360 and writes a buyer-facing brief with risks + bottom line.
compare_addresses	address_a, address_b	Parallel austin_property_360 on two addresses, side-by-side table.
neighborhood_brief	zip	Active inventory + neighborhood metadata for a ZIP.
school_lookup	campus_name, district?	TEA accountability rating + 1-line summary.
health_check	(none)	Wraps austin_health with narration.

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Sources of Truth

Every tool returns data from an official, authoritative source. No third-party aggregators. No AI-generated summaries presented as fact. Every response includes a source_url field so you can verify the underlying record.

Domain	Source
Active real estate listings + neighborhoods	Neuhaus Realty Group (https://neuhausre.com) — active + under-contract only, no sold comps, no login
Property records	Travis CAD (True Prodigy API), Williamson + Hays CAD (ArcGIS REST)
Tax records	Travis County Tax Office
Special districts	Texas Comptroller Special Purpose Districts
Permits + zoning + 311 + crime + code violations + budget + council votes + AFD + libraries + parks + fire stations + APD arrests / use of force / CAD dispatch + restaurant inspections + tree permits + roadway work zones + animal shelter intakes/outcomes	data.austintexas.gov (Socrata SODA API)
TxDOT highway projects	TxDOT Open Data (ArcGIS)
Flood zones	FEMA NFHL + Austin floodplain GIS
District boundaries	City of Austin + Travis County ArcGIS open-data services
Schools	Texas Education Agency + AISD
Lake levels	Texas Water Development Board (Water Data for Texas)
Weather	National Weather Service (api.weather.gov)
Blog content	neuhausre.com WordPress REST API
Austin local voices	RSS feeds from 8 independent Austin writers / community newsletters (Substack + WordPress)
Geocoding	U.S. Census geocoder

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Architecture

• Node.js (ES modules), @modelcontextprotocol/sdk over stdio
• Tool handlers are stateless per call; each hits the authoritative source live. An optional in-memory LRU+TTL cache fronts a few stable lookups (geocoder, FEMA NFHL by lat/lng) for 24h to avoid duplicate calls within a session
• Real-estate tools call a free public endpoint hosted by Neuhaus Realty Group (rate-limited per IP, active + under-contract only)
• No databases, no auth servers, no shared keys baked into the binary
• All upstream API calls are client-side direct HTTPS (Socrata, ArcGIS, NWS, etc.) or a thin pass-through to the public Neuhaus endpoint
• Per-source concurrency caps (lib/semaphore.js) prevent the composed austin_property_360 fan-out from saturating any single provider
• AsyncLocalStorage carries the MCP request's AbortSignal into every upstream fetch so client-side cancellation cancels in-flight calls

Resilience (v0.6.0+)

Every upstream call goes through lib/retry.js, which:

• Adds a per-attempt AbortController timeout (8-25s depending on profile)
• Retries transient failures (5xx, 429, timeout, network) with jittered exponential backoff
• Returns 4xx as-is (those are real query problems, not transient)
• Throws a structured UpstreamError on final failure, naming the source, kind, status, attempts, and last error

When a tool surfaces an UpstreamError to Claude, the message clearly states the MCP is working correctly, names which third-party data provider is having a problem, and suggests what to do next (retry in N seconds, try an alternate tool). Users + LLMs never see a raw stack trace or a confusing "tool errored" message.

Six retry profiles tuned to upstream behavior: fast (NWS, Census), soda (data.austintexas.gov), arcgis (ArcGIS REST, FEMA, county CADs), tcad (Travis CAD via True Prodigy — also has bespoke concurrency cap), rss (per-source graceful degradation across local voices), scraper (Travis Tax HTML).

v0.10.0 additions

• structuredContent + per-tool outputSchema — 23 of 36 tools publish a Zod-based output schema (search-style envelopes) so MCP clients can validate, render, and generate typed SDK code; the remaining composite / single-entity tools return open structured content.
• AbortSignal plumbing — MCP request cancellation propagates via AsyncLocalStorage into every upstream fetch.
• Per-source concurrency caps (lib/semaphore.js) — named buckets prevent the composed austin_property_360 fan-out from hammering any single provider.
• LRU + TTL cache (lib/cache.js) — 24h cache on the Census geocoder + FEMA NFHL point lookups.
• MCP Resources + Prompts — see sections above.
• GitHub Actions CI — Node 20 + 22 matrix, runs unit tests + MCP handshake on every push.

See CHANGELOG.md for the full v0.10.0 release notes, including the BREAKING tool-name rename to the austin_* prefix.

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Contact

For partnership, licensing, sponsorship, or press inquiries:

Neuhaus Realty Group LLC Austin, Texas https://neuhausre.com