wsdot-mcp-server

Search Highway Cameras

wsdot_search_cameras

Read-only

Returns WSDOT highway camera locations, descriptions, and image URLs. Camera images are copyright WSDOT — only metadata and image URLs are returned, not image bytes. Filter by state route ("I-90", "90", "SR 520", or "520" all work), WSDOT region, milepost range, or words in the camera title ("Snoqualmie"). Results are ordered by cameraId and paged — pass offset/limit to page through the full set. A page ends at limit or at a 24,000-byte response budget, whichever comes first; the notice reports the next offset.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`limit`	No	Maximum cameras to return in this page (1–500). Defaults to 50. A large page ends sooner, at the 24,000-byte response budget.
`offset`	No	Zero-based index of the first camera to return, for paging. Defaults to 0.
`region`	No	WSDOT region code: NW (Northwest), SW (Southwest), OL (Olympic), ER (Eastern), SC (South Central), NC (North Central), OS (Oregon — the TripCheck cameras around Portland), or WA (airport cameras plus a few ferry-terminal cameras — most ferry-terminal cameras sit in NW and OL). Matching is case-insensitive; any other value is rejected. These are codes, not the region names wsdot_search_alerts takes.
`stateRoute`	No	State route to filter by. Accepts natural forms — "I-90", "90", "090", "SR 520", "520" — matched case- and space-insensitively to the route number. Camera road names carry a route-type prefix, which is compared when the filter carries one too: "SR 26" excludes US 26, while a bare "26" returns both. A lettered suffix is part of the route, so "US 97" excludes US 97A. Omit to include all routes.
`endMilepost`	No	End of the milepost range to filter cameras.
`startMilepost`	No	Start of the milepost range to filter cameras. Either bound may be given alone; when both are given, startMilepost must not exceed endMilepost. Cameras reporting no milepost are always included.
`titleContains`	No	Words to find in the camera title, as WSDOT wrote it. Case-insensitive; every whitespace-separated word must appear, in any order — "Snoqualmie" returns "Snoqualmie Summit" and "East Snoqualmie Summit" but not a nearby camera titled "Hyak". Most titles lead with route and milepost ("I-90 at MP 52: …"), so filter a route with stateRoute rather than here. Combines with the other filters. Omit to include every title.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`error`	No	Present when the call failed. Absent on success.
`notice`	No	Informational note about the page window, copyright, or empty results. Absent when not applicable.
`cameras`	No	Camera metadata and image URLs. Images are copyright WSDOT.
`hasMore`	No	True when more cameras remain beyond the current page.
`nextOffset`	No	Offset to pass to retrieve the next page, or null when this is the last page.
`totalCount`	No	Total cameras matching the filters across all pages (not just this page).
`appliedFilters`	No	Active filters applied to the camera search.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed10 schema fields changedSep 24, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / endMilepost / description

Previous value: -"End of milepost range to filter cameras."New value: +"End of the milepost range to filter cameras."

changedInput schema / properties / limit / description

Previous value: -"Maximum cameras to return in this page (1–500). Defaults to 50."New value: +"Maximum cameras to return in this page (1–500). Defaults to 50. A large page ends sooner, at the 24,000-byte response budget."

changedInput schema / properties / region / description

Previous value: -"WSDOT region code: NW (Northwest), SW (Southwest), OL (Olympic), ER (Eastern), SC (South Central), OS (Olympic South), NC (North Central), or WA (statewide). Matching is case-insensitive."New value: +"WSDOT region code: NW (Northwest), SW (Southwest), OL (Olympic), ER (Eastern), SC (South Central), NC (North Central), OS (Oregon — the TripCheck cameras around Portland), or WA (airport cameras plus a few ferry-terminal cameras — most ferry-terminal cameras sit in NW and OL). Matching is case-insensitive; any other value is rejected. These are codes, not the region names wsdot_search_alerts takes."

addedInput schema / properties / region / maxLength
```
Added value: +200
```

changedInput schema / properties / startMilepost / description

Previous value: -"Start of milepost range to filter cameras."New value: +"Start of the milepost range to filter cameras. Either bound may be given alone; when both are given, startMilepost must not exceed endMilepost. Cameras reporting no milepost are always included."

addedInput schema / properties / stateRoute / maxLength
```
Added value: +200
```

addedInput schema / properties / titleContains

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Words to find in the camera title, as WSDOT wrote it. Case-insensitive; every whitespace-separated word must appear, in any order — \"Snoqualmie\" returns \"Snoqualmie Summit\" and \"East Snoqualmie Summit\" but not a nearby camera titled \"Hyak\". Most titles lead with route and milepost (\"I-90 at MP 52: …\"), so filter a route with stateRoute rather than here. Combines with the other filters. Omit to include every title.",
+  "maxLength": 200,
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / appliedFilters / properties / titleContains

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Title words filter applied.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

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

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `api_unavailable`: WSDOT Traffic API is unreachable or returns a non-2xx response after retries. `invalid_access_code`: WSDOT rejected the request because WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE is missing, invalid, or not registered. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `api_unavailable`: WSDOT Traffic API is unreachable or returns a non-2xx response after retries. `invalid_access_code`: WSDOT rejected the request because WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE is missing, invalid, or not registered. `invalid_region`: The region is not one of the region codes the camera feed carries. `invalid_milepost_range`: startMilepost is greater than endMilepost. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

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

Previous value: -[
-  "api_unavailable",
-  "invalid_access_code"
-]New value: +[
+  "api_unavailable",
+  "invalid_access_code",
+  "invalid_region",
+  "invalid_milepost_range"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedSep 20, 2026
- removedOutput schema / properties / nextOffset / anyOf
```
Removed value: -[
-  {
-    "type": "number"
-  },
-  {
-    "type": "null"
-  }
-]
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / nextOffset / type
```
Added value: +[
+  "number",
+  "null"
+]
```

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": [
+      "cameras",
+      "totalCount",
+      "nextOffset",
+      "hasMore",
+      "appliedFilters"
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "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: `api_unavailable`: WSDOT Traffic API is unreachable or returns a non-2xx response after retries. `invalid_access_code`: WSDOT rejected the request because WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE is missing, invalid, or not registered. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
+          "examples": [
+            "api_unavailable",
+            "invalid_access_code"
+          ],
+          "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: -[
-  "cameras",
-  "totalCount",
-  "nextOffset",
-  "hasMore",
-  "appliedFilters"
-]

Changed1 schema field changedJul 31, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / stateRoute / description

Previous value: -"State route to filter by. Accepts natural forms — \"I-90\", \"90\", \"090\", \"SR 520\", \"520\" — matched case- and space-insensitively to the canonical WSDOT route number. Omit to include all routes."New value: +"State route to filter by. Accepts natural forms — \"I-90\", \"90\", \"090\", \"SR 520\", \"520\" — matched case- and space-insensitively to the route number. Camera road names carry a route-type prefix, which is compared when the filter carries one too: \"SR 26\" excludes US 26, while a bare \"26\" returns both. A lettered suffix is part of the route, so \"US 97\" excludes US 97A. Omit to include all routes."

Changed8 schema fields changedJul 12, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / limit

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Maximum cameras to return in this page (1–500). Defaults to 50.",
+  "maximum": 500,
+  "minimum": 1,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / offset

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Zero-based index of the first camera to return, for paging. Defaults to 0.",
+  "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+  "minimum": 0,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

changedInput schema / properties / stateRoute / description

Previous value: -"Zero-padded 3-digit state route number (e.g. \"005\" for I-5, \"090\" for I-90)."New value: +"State route to filter by. Accepts natural forms — \"I-90\", \"90\", \"090\", \"SR 520\", \"520\" — matched case- and space-insensitively to the canonical WSDOT route number. Omit to include all routes."

addedOutput schema / properties / hasMore

Added value: +{
+  "description": "True when more cameras remain beyond the current page.",
+  "type": "boolean"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / nextOffset

Added value: +{
+  "anyOf": [
+    {
+      "type": "number"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "null"
+    }
+  ],
+  "description": "Offset to pass to retrieve the next page, or null when this is the last page."
+}

changedOutput schema / properties / notice / description

Previous value: -"Informational note about result truncation, copyright, or empty results. Absent when not applicable."New value: +"Informational note about the page window, copyright, or empty results. Absent when not applicable."

changedOutput schema / properties / totalCount / description

Previous value: -"Total number of cameras returned."New value: +"Total cameras matching the filters across all pages (not just this page)."

changedOutput schema / required

Previous value: -[
-  "cameras",
-  "totalCount",
-  "appliedFilters"
-]New value: +[
+  "cameras",
+  "totalCount",
+  "nextOffset",
+  "hasMore",
+  "appliedFilters"
+]

Changed1 schema field changedJun 9, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / cameras / items / properties / direction / description

Previous value: -"Traffic direction monitored."New value: +"Traffic-direction code monitored: N/S/E/W, B (both), NB/SB/EB/WB. Some sites use other location-specific markers."

Changed1 schema field changedJun 8, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / region / description

Previous value: -"WSDOT region name: Northwest, Olympic, Southwest, South Central, North Central, or Eastern."New value: +"WSDOT region code: NW (Northwest), SW (Southwest), OL (Olympic), ER (Eastern), SC (South Central), OS (Olympic South), NC (North Central), or WA (statewide). Matching is case-insensitive."

Changed4 schema fields changedMay 30, 2026

addedOutput schema / properties / appliedFilters

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": false,
+  "description": "Active filters applied to the camera search.",
+  "properties": {
+    "endMilepost": {
+      "description": "End milepost filter applied.",
+      "type": "number"
+    },
+    "region": {
+      "description": "Region filter applied.",
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "startMilepost": {
+      "description": "Start milepost filter applied.",
+      "type": "number"
+    },
+    "stateRoute": {
+      "description": "State route filter applied.",
+      "type": "string"
+    }
+  },
+  "type": "object"
+}

removedOutput schema / properties / note

Removed value: -{
-  "description": "Informational note about result truncation or copyright.",
-  "type": "string"
-}

addedOutput schema / properties / notice

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Informational note about result truncation, copyright, or empty results. Absent when not applicable.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

changedOutput schema / required

Previous value: -[
-  "cameras",
-  "totalCount"
-]New value: +[
+  "cameras",
+  "totalCount",
+  "appliedFilters"
+]

First observedMay 25, 2026

TDQS

A4.5/5.0

Behavior5/5

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

Beyond the readOnlyHint annotation, the description discloses key behaviors: image bytes are not returned due to copyright, results are ordered by cameraId, paging uses offset/limit, and pages can end early at a 24,000-byte response budget. This is substantial behavioral context that an agent cannot infer from the schema alone.

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?

The description is compact and front-loaded: purpose first, then the critical constraint about image bytes, then filters, then paging behavior. Every sentence carries meaningful information with no filler or repetition of the title.

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?

Given that all parameters are optional, an output schema exists, and the readOnly annotation is present, the description covers everything needed for correct invocation: filter semantics, paging mechanics, response budget, and ordering. There are no obvious gaps that would cause an agent to misuse the tool.

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 each parameter already has a detailed description, so the baseline is 3. The tool description only summarizes the filter dimensions at a high level and adds no parameter semantics beyond what the schema provides. It does not need to compensate, but it also does not elevate the score.

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?

The description opens with a specific verb and resource: 'Returns WSDOT highway camera locations, descriptions, and image URLs.' It further clarifies the exact scope (metadata and URLs, not image bytes), making the tool's purpose unmistakable and distinct from sibling tools like wsdot_search_alerts.

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

Usage Guidelines4/5

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

The description gives clear context on when to use the tool: it is for camera metadata, with filtering options by route, region, milepost, and title. It also provides a practical within-tool guideline in the titleContains parameter ('filter a route with stateRoute rather than here') and notes that region codes differ from the names wsdot_search_alerts takes. It does not explicitly state when not to use this tool versus alternatives, but the context is strong.

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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