eia-energy-mcp-server

Browse EIA Routes

eia_browse_routes

Read-only

Lists child routes under a given path in the EIA dataset taxonomy. Start with no path to get the 14 top-level categories (electricity, petroleum, natural-gas, steo, aeo, ieo, seds, etc.), then drill into subcategories. Each result includes an isLeaf flag — leaf routes are queryable endpoints; non-leaf routes have children to browse. When isLeaf is true on the browsed path itself, switch to eia_describe_route. The first call after server start waits up to 20s for the route tree to warm, then answers from EIA directly.

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`path`	No	Route path to browse (e.g. "electricity", "petroleum/pri"). Omit for root. Whitespace and slashes are normalized, then one complete leading v2 segment is removed: "/v2/electricity/retail-sales/" resolves to "electricity/retail-sales", and "/v2/" to root. Full URLs and /data suffixes are not normalized.

Output Schema

Name	Required	Description
`path`	No	The path that was browsed (empty string for root).
`error`	No	Present when the call failed. Absent on success.
`isLeaf`	No	True when the browsed path itself is a leaf route — no children to drill into; use eia_describe_route instead.
`children`	No	Child entries under the browsed path.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed2 schema fields changedOct 23, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `upstream_invalid_response`: EIA returned an unusable response body or a missing route or data envelope. `upstream_unavailable`: EIA answered with a retryable HTTP service failure. `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. `rate_limited`: EIA rate limit hit (OVER_RATE_LIMIT) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. `upstream_unreachable`: EIA could not be reached (connection refused or reset, DNS failure) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `upstream_invalid_response`: EIA returned an unusable response body or a missing route or data envelope. `upstream_unavailable`: EIA answered with a retryable HTTP service failure. `upstream_timeout`: EIA did not answer in time: one attempt passed 45 s, or the call passed its 56 s deadline across retries. `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. `rate_limited`: EIA rate limit hit (OVER_RATE_LIMIT) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to, or while re-fetching a path the warm could not fetch. `upstream_unreachable`: EIA could not be reached (connection refused or reset, DNS failure) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to, or while re-fetching a path the warm could not fetch. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples

Previous value: -[
-  "upstream_invalid_response",
-  "upstream_unavailable",
-  "route_not_found",
-  "rate_limited",
-  "upstream_unreachable"
-]New value: +[
+  "upstream_invalid_response",
+  "upstream_unavailable",
+  "upstream_timeout",
+  "route_not_found",
+  "rate_limited",
+  "upstream_unreachable"
+]

Changed3 schema fields changedOct 22, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / path / description

Previous value: -"Route path to browse (e.g. \"electricity\", \"petroleum/pri\"). Omit for root. Leading, trailing, and doubled slashes are stripped, so an EIA-doc spelling like \"/electricity/retail-sales/\" resolves to the same route."New value: +"Route path to browse (e.g. \"electricity\", \"petroleum/pri\"). Omit for root. Whitespace and slashes are normalized, then one complete leading v2 segment is removed: \"/v2/electricity/retail-sales/\" resolves to \"electricity/retail-sales\", and \"/v2/\" to root. Full URLs and /data suffixes are not normalized."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. `rate_limited`: EIA rate limit hit (OVER_RATE_LIMIT) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. `upstream_unreachable`: EIA could not be reached (connection refused or reset, DNS failure) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `upstream_invalid_response`: EIA returned an unusable response body or a missing route or data envelope. `upstream_unavailable`: EIA answered with a retryable HTTP service failure. `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. `rate_limited`: EIA rate limit hit (OVER_RATE_LIMIT) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. `upstream_unreachable`: EIA could not be reached (connection refused or reset, DNS failure) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples

Previous value: -[
-  "route_not_found",
-  "rate_limited",
-  "upstream_unreachable"
-]New value: +[
+  "upstream_invalid_response",
+  "upstream_unavailable",
+  "route_not_found",
+  "rate_limited",
+  "upstream_unreachable"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedOct 12, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. `rate_limited`: EIA rate limit hit (OVER_RATE_LIMIT) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. `upstream_unreachable`: EIA could not be reached (connection refused or reset, DNS failure) while building the route tree on the first call after server start, or on the live fetch of the browsed path a cold call falls back to. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples

Previous value: -[
-  "route_not_found"
-]New value: +[
+  "route_not_found",
+  "rate_limited",
+  "upstream_unreachable"
+]

Changed6 schema fields changedAug 25, 2026

changedInput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```

changedOutput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedOutput schema / anyOf

Added value: +[
+  {
+    "not": {
+      "required": [
+        "error"
+      ]
+    },
+    "required": [
+      "path",
+      "children",
+      "isLeaf"
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "required": [
+      "error"
+    ]
+  }
+]

addedOutput schema / properties / error

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {},
+  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
+  "properties": {
+    "code": {
+      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
+      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
+      "type": "integer"
+    },
+    "data": {
+      "additionalProperties": {},
+      "properties": {
+        "reason": {
+          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `route_not_found`: Path does not exist in the EIA taxonomy. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
+          "examples": [
+            "route_not_found"
+          ],
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "recovery": {
+          "additionalProperties": {},
+          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
+          "properties": {
+            "hint": {
+              "type": "string"
+            }
+          },
+          "required": [
+            "hint"
+          ],
+          "type": "object"
+        },
+        "retryable": {
+          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
+          "type": "boolean"
+        }
+      },
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    "message": {
+      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
+      "type": "string"
+    }
+  },
+  "required": [
+    "code",
+    "message"
+  ],
+  "type": "object"
+}

removedOutput schema / required

Removed value: -[
-  "path",
-  "children",
-  "isLeaf"
-]

Changed1 schema field changedAug 6, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / path / description

Previous value: -"Route path to browse (e.g. \"electricity\", \"petroleum/pri\"). Omit for root."New value: +"Route path to browse (e.g. \"electricity\", \"petroleum/pri\"). Omit for root. Leading, trailing, and doubled slashes are stripped, so an EIA-doc spelling like \"/electricity/retail-sales/\" resolves to the same route."

First observedMay 25, 2026

TDQS

A4.7/5.0

Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint and openWorldHint=false, so the safety profile is covered; the description adds context the annotations cannot: a 20s cold-start wait on the first call after server start, and the isLeaf flag semantics that determine what the results mean. This latency disclosure is operationally important and would otherwise be a surprise to an agent.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Four sentences, each with a distinct job: what it lists, how to start, how to interpret isLeaf, and what to do when at a leaf. The warm-up caveat is placed last so it does not bury the core workflow.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

With an output schema present, the description need not enumerate return fields, and it still calls out the one interpretive field (isLeaf) that governs next actions. Annotations cover safety, the schema covers path syntax, and the description covers workflow plus latency — nothing an agent needs is missing.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100% and the schema already documents the path format, normalization rules, and URL edge cases. The description's only parameter-adjacent statement is 'start with no path', which is usage guidance rather than added semantic depth. Baseline 3 is correct since the schema carries the parsing details.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource ('Lists child routes under a given path in the EIA dataset taxonomy') and immediately scopes it with a concrete example (the 14 top-level categories). It is clearly distinguishable from eia_query_route or eia_describe_route, which are named for different operations.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Gives an explicit entry procedure ('start with no path'), a drill-down procedure ('then drill into subcategories'), and a hand-off rule ('When isLeaf is true on the browsed path itself, switch to eia_describe_route'). The alternative tool and the exact condition for switching to it are both stated.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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Browse EIA Routes

Input Schema

Output Schema

Schema Changelog

TDQS

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