About Ukhsa
Ukhsa provides access to UKHSA surveillance metrics for analysts and applications. It supports browsing the data hierarchy, listing metrics for a location, and retrieving paginated time series.
Key features
- 01Browse surveillance categories
- 02List location-specific metrics
- 03Retrieve metric time series
- 04Filter by year and page
Use cases
- 01Explore available infectious disease topics
- 02Retrieve COVID-19 or influenza trends
- 03Compare surveillance data by geography
MCP support
Exposes UKHSA hierarchy navigation, metric discovery, and time-series retrieval as MCP tools. Available as a gateway endpoint or a standalone stdio server.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http pipeworx-io-ukhsa https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-ukhsa":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"pipeworx-io-ukhsa":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-ukhsa":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-ukhsa":{"serverUrl":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
Details
From the project READMEmcp-ukhsa
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data dashboard MCP — keyless.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1684+ live data sources.
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
navigate | Walk the UKHSA surveillance hierarchy one level at a time to discover valid values. Pass the levels you already know (in order: theme, sub_theme, topic, geography_type, geography) and you get back the list of options for the NEXT level. With no args it lists themes (e.g. infectious_disease, immunisation, climate_and_environment, medicines). With theme="infectious_disease" it lists sub_themes (respiratory, gastrointestinal, vaccine_preventable, ...). Continue down to topics (COVID-19, Influenza, Measles, ...), geography_types (Nation, NHS Region, ...), geographies (England, ...), and finally metrics. Each item has {name, link}. Feed the chosen name into the next-level arg, then call get_metric_data once you have all six. |
list_metrics | Shortcut to list all available metric names for a fully-specified location — supply all five levels (theme, sub_theme, topic, geography_type, geography) at once rather than calling navigate iteratively. Returns metric names like "COVID-19_cases_casesByDay" ready to pass to get_metric_data.(theme, sub_theme, topic, geography_type, geography), without walking each level. Returns metric names like "COVID-19_cases_casesByDay" or "COVID-19_deaths_ONSByDay" ready to pass to get_metric_data. |
get_metric_data | Pull the time series for one fully-specified UKHSA metric. Requires all six levels (theme, sub_theme, topic, geography_type, geography, metric). Returns paginated observations {count, next, previous, results[]} where each result has date, metric_value, year, month, epiweek, sex, age, stratum, geography_code, etc. Optionally filter by year and control page_size / page. Example: infectious_disease / respiratory / COVID-19 / Nation / England / COVID-19_cases_casesByDay. |
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"ukhsa": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp"
}
}
}
What this endpoint actually serves
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ukhsa/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1684+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
No MCP client? Call it over HTTP
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/navigate \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{}'
No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/navigate. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.
Standalone (no gateway account)
This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ukhsa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-ukhsa"]
}
}
}
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-ukhsa
It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call
for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway
connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.
Using with ask_pipeworx
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Ukhsa data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT
Comments
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