Federal Register MCP

federal-register-mcp

Free, open-source MCP server for the Federal Register API. Proposed rules, final rules, notices, executive orders, comment periods, and regulatory tracking since 1994.

Overview, demo video and hosted setup: https://1102tools.com/mcp/federal-register

No API key required, locally or hosted. See Local or hosted.

Regression tests, including live checks against the Federal Register API. The October 2026 releases were also checked with realistic contracting questions (comment deadlines, FAR case histories, FAR Council co-filings). See testing.md.

Local or hosted

Local (desktop)	Claude (hosted)	ChatGPT (hosted)
Local setup	Install	Install

• Local runs it on your computer, inside the Claude or ChatGPT desktop app or another AI app. You get your own full rate limits, and it relies only on the government service. It doesn't update itself, so ask your AI to update it. You don't have to set it up by hand: give your AI this page's link and ask it to set it up or walk you through it.
• Hosted is always up to date, needs no setup or keys, and works in Claude or ChatGPT anywhere.

Compare local and hosted · Matching prompts

What it does

Exposes the Federal Register API as 8 MCP tools:

Core

• search_documents - Search with flexible filters (agency, type, term, docket, dates, RIN, CFR title/part)
• get_document - Full details for a single document by number
• get_documents_batch - Fetch up to 20 documents in one call
• get_facet_counts - Document counts by type, agency, topic, or time bucket (daily through yearly)
• get_public_inspection - Pre-publication documents with client-side filtering
• list_agencies - All ~470 agencies with slugs

Workflow

• open_comment_periods - Currently open comment periods (sorted by deadline)
• far_case_history - Full rulemaking history for a FAR/DFARS case

No authentication required

The Federal Register API is fully public. No key, no registration.

Installation

uvx --refresh-package federal-register-mcp --from federal-register-mcp federal-register-mcp

Configuration

Use the configuration below as the server definition and adapt its placement to your compatible MCP client. For practical requests using this source, see the prompt library.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "federal-register": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--refresh-package", "federal-register-mcp", "--from", "federal-register-mcp", "federal-register-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The --refresh-package flag tells uv to check PyPI for a newer release each time your client launches the server, so fixes arrive automatically; without it, uv keeps serving whatever version it first cached. It adds a moment of network time at startup, so raise your platform's MCP startup timeout if it enforces a short one.

Restart the client and the tools appear.

Example prompts

• "What FAR cases have open comment periods right now?"
• "Show me the full rulemaking history for FAR Case 2023-008."
• "Find all proposed rules from DoD published in the last 6 months."
• "What significant rules has GSA published this fiscal year?"
• "Are there any pre-publication documents related to procurement today?"
• "How many proposed rules vs final rules has the SBA published since January?"
• "Find executive orders related to federal acquisition from the last year."

Companion tools

• ecfr-mcp: what the regulation currently says (the book)
• federal-register-mcp: what is changing (the newspaper)

Together they cover the full regulatory pipeline. Use far_case_history to trace a rulemaking from proposal through final rule, then ecfr-mcp to read the codified result.

License

MIT

Open-comment completeness

open_comment_periods sorts the documents it scans by deadline. complete says whether every matching document was scanned; truncated also flags a result shortened by limit. An incomplete scan can omit a deadline earlier than one returned. Narrow with agencies or keywords, or use search_documents with comment_date_gte/comment_date_lte to verify a deadline window. FAR Council answers preserve the underlying scan metadata and flag lower-bound totals.