GOV.UK Search MCP Server

MCP server for searching GOV.UK. Exposes three tools:

• search_gov_uk — keyword search ranked by relevance

• latest_gov_uk — most recent publications, newest first

• fetch_gov_uk_page — fetches the content and attachments on a specific gov UK page

Uses the GOV.UK Search API.
The server runs over streamable-http.

Usage (Deployed)

Installation

Install with pip:

pip install govuk-search-mcp

or with uv:

uv add govuk-search-mcp

or skip installation and use uvx (see below).

Run Server

The server runs over streamable-http.

If installed via pip/uv:

govuk-search-mcp

Or if using uvx:

uvx govuk-search-mcp

By default the server listens on http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp. Override with env vars:

Related MCP server: mcp-the-guardian

Usage (Local)

If running locally, use just commands to run local code version (not release version).

# Start server using local code
just run_server
# Start inspector to manually test
just run_inspector
# Attach to claude code
just attach_claude
# Detach from calude code
just detach_claude

Tools

search_gov_uk

Search GOV.UK by keyword.

latest_gov_uk

Get most recently updated GOV.UK publications.

Development

uv sync
just test        # unit tests
just test_int    # integration tests (hits live GOV.UK API)
just lint        # ruff + mypy