CKAN MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the CKAN API that enables browsing and managing CKAN data portals through MCP-compatible clients.

What is this?

This is an MCP server that provides access to CKAN (Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network) APIs through the Model Context Protocol. It can be used with MCP-compatible clients like Claude Desktop, IDEs, or other AI applications to interact with CKAN data portals.

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or higher
• pip (Python package installer)

Installation

1. Install Python dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

• CKAN_URL: The base URL of your CKAN portal (e.g. https://demo.ckan.org)
• CKAN_API_KEY: (Optional) Your CKAN API key for write operations

Example:

export CKAN_URL="https://demo.ckan.org"
export CKAN_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

You can also copy .env.example to .env and set your configuration there.

Usage

Running the server directly

python mcp_ckan_server.py

Using Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t ckan-mcp-server .

# Run with environment variables
docker run -e CKAN_URL="https://demo.ckan.org" -e CKAN_API_KEY="your-key" ckan-mcp-server

Using Docker Compose

# Copy environment file and configure
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your settings

# Run the server
docker-compose up

Available Tools

The MCP server provides the following tools:

Packages/Datasets

• ckan_package_list: List all packages
• ckan_package_show: Show details of a specific package
• ckan_package_search: Search for packages

Organizations

• ckan_organization_list: List all organizations
• ckan_organization_show: Show organization details

Groups and Tags

• ckan_group_list: List all groups
• ckan_tag_list: List all tags

Resources

• ckan_resource_show: Show resource details

System

• ckan_site_read: Site information
• ckan_status_show: Status and version information

Examples

Search packages

{
  "tool": "ckan_package_search",
  "arguments": {
    "q": "climate data",
    "rows": 5,
    "sort": "score desc"
  }
}

Show organization

{
  "tool": "ckan_organization_show",
  "arguments": {
    "id": "sample-organization",
    "include_datasets": true
  }
}

List all tags

{
  "tool": "ckan_tag_list",
  "arguments": {}
}

Resources

The server also provides the following resources:

• ckan://api/docs: API documentation
• ckan://config: Server configuration

Using with MCP Clients

Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ckan": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp_ckan_server.py"],
      "env": {
        "CKAN_URL": "https://demo.ckan.org",
        "CKAN_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other MCP Clients

The server communicates via stdio, so any MCP-compatible client can connect to it by running the Python script and communicating through standard input/output.

CKAN API Reference

This MCP server implements the main endpoints of the CKAN API v3. Complete documentation: https://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/api/

License

Mozilla Public License Version 2.0

Author

(C) 2025, Ondics GmbH, https://ondics.de