swedish-jobs-mcp

An MCP server that lets AI assistants (Claude, Codex, Cursor, …) search all current job ads in Sweden — the ads in Arbetsförmedlingen's Platsbanken.

It talks to Arbetsförmedlingen's open JobTech APIs. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Arbetsförmedlingen.

mcp-name: io.github.kizouker/swedish-jobs-mcp

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_jobs	Free-text search ("python malmö"), remote filter, last N days, sorting, paging
get_job	One ad in full: description, salary, skills, apply link
suggest_search_terms	Autocomplete ("utve" → "utvecklare")
changes_since	Ads added/removed in all of Sweden in the last N hours

How it works

The MCP client starts the server as a local process and talks to it over stdio. The server then calls Arbetsförmedlingen's JobTech APIs over HTTPS. No port is opened on your machine.

flowchart LR
    User([User]) --> Client["MCP client<br/>(Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex)"]

    subgraph Local machine
        Client <-->|"stdio: JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout"| Server["swedish-jobs-mcp process<br/>(started by uvx)"]
    end

    Server -->|"HTTPS: /search, /ad/{id}, /complete"| JobSearch["JobSearch API<br/>jobsearch.api.jobtechdev.se"]
    Server -->|"HTTPS: /stream"| JobStream["JobStream API<br/>jobstream.api.jobtechdev.se"]

Install

Needs uv.

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swedish-jobs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["swedish-jobs-mcp"],

    }
  }
}

Claude Code: claude mcp add swedish-jobs -- uvx swedish-jobs-mcp

Codex — add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.swedish-jobs]
command = "uvx"
args = ["swedish-jobs-mcp"]

Paging

search_jobs and changes_since return at most 25 ads per call, so one answer never floods the AI's context. Each result has a next_offset: call the tool again with offset=next_offset to get the next page. When next_offset is null, there are no more ads.

Configuration

Everything is optional. Set these as environment variables (in the env block of your MCP client config) to change the defaults:

Variable	Default	What it does
SWEDISH_JOBS_MAX_PAGE_SIZE	25	Most ads returned per call
SWEDISH_JOBS_DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE	25	Ads returned when no limit is given
SWEDISH_JOBS_TIMEOUT	30	Seconds to wait for JobSearch
SWEDISH_JOBS_STREAM_TIMEOUT	120	Seconds to wait for JobStream
JOBTECH_SEARCH_URL / JOBTECH_STREAM_URL	JobTech's public URLs	Point at another host, e.g. a test server

Fair use

JobSearch is meant for searching, not bulk downloading. For a full copy of all ads, JobTech points to the JobStream API instead. Job ad texts may contain contact people's names and emails; don't store them longer than you need.

Data

Job ads come from Arbetsförmedlingen's open JobSearch and JobStream APIs, originally published under the name JobTech Development (JobTech). This repository's MIT license covers only the code, not the data.

• Licence: Arbetsförmedlingen publishes the job ads under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain). No attribution is required, but we credit Arbetsförmedlingen / JobTech as the source. See the dataset page: https://data.arbetsformedlingen.se/dataset/job-ads/
• Status: The JobTech Development brand is being retired. Open data and APIs are moving to Arbetsförmedlingen's own site and to the data catalogue at https://data.arbetsformedlingen.se/. Read more in Vad händer nu med Arbetsförmedlingens JobTech? (Swedish JobTech, 18 Oct 2024). The old jobtechdev.se pages may no longer work.
• API key: The old JobTech pages asked developers to apply for an API key. We looked for one and could not find it: the page that should issue it (apirequest.jobtechdev.se) was not working when we checked. The new catalogue says no key or registration is needed, and the server works without one today.
• As-is: We use the APIs as they are, for as long as they keep working. If the API addresses or terms change, set JOBTECH_SEARCH_URL and JOBTECH_STREAM_URL (see Configuration) and check the catalogue above.
• Questions about the data: opendata@arbetsformedlingen.se

Development

uv run --extra dev pytest          # offline tests: unit tests + end-to-end over MCP (API is faked)
uv run --extra dev pytest -m live  # live tests against the real JobTech API

The end-to-end tests (tests/test_e2e.py) start the server as a real process and call its tools over MCP, against a small fake JobTech server on localhost.

GitHub Actions runs the lint and the offline tests (Python 3.10-3.13) on every push and pull request. The live tests run every Monday and can be started by hand (Actions tab -> CI -> Run workflow), so a change in the JobTech API shows up as a failed run without blocking pull requests.

Try it locally with MCP Inspector

MCP Inspector is a web page where you can call the tools yourself. Needs Node.js.

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run swedish-jobs-mcp

Open the address printed in the terminal, click Connect, then Tools → List Tools.

Debug in VS Code

Start the server through Inspector with debugpy listening on port 5678:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run --with debugpy python -X frozen_modules=off -m debugpy --listen 127.0.0.1:5678 -m swedish_jobs_mcp.server

.vscode/launch.json already has an attach configuration:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Attach to MCP server",
      "type": "debugpy",
      "request": "attach",
      "connect": { "host": "127.0.0.1", "port": 5678 },
      "justMyCode": false
    }
  ]
}

1. Set a breakpoint in src/swedish_jobs_mcp/server.py.
2. In Inspector, click Connect.
3. In VS Code, open Run and Debug, pick Attach to MCP server and press play.
4. In Inspector, run a tool (for example search_jobs). VS Code stops at the breakpoint.

Tips:

• Don't use print() in the server. It writes to stdout, which is the MCP channel, and breaks the connection. Use logging or write to stderr.
• Address already in use means an old process still holds port 5678. Find it with lsof -i :5678 and stop it with kill <PID>.
• -X frozen_modules=off stops the debugger from missing breakpoints.

License

MIT