EIA Energy Data MCP Server

An MCP server that wraps the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Open Data API (v2), so an MCP-aware assistant can pull live energy data through natural conversation instead of you writing API calls by hand.

It exposes four tools:

This was verified against EIA's current API documentation (https://www.eia.gov/opendata/documentation.php) and tested against the current official MCP Python SDK (mcp v2.0.0) before being published.

1. Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+ installed on your computer.

• An MCP-aware client that supports local (stdio) servers. This includes Claude Desktop, VS Code (1.101+), Cursor, and Windsurf, among others. It runs as a local process on your machine — it does not run inside claude.ai's browser-based chat, which can't launch local subprocesses.

• Your own EIA API key — free at https://www.eia.gov/opendata/register.php.

Related MCP server: mcp-server-eia

2. Set up the project

Open a terminal, then:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/eia-energy-data-mcp.git
cd eia-energy-data-mcp
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env
# then edit .env and add your own EIA_API_KEY

Note: one important thing worth knowing — the official MCP Python SDK renamed its main server class from FastMCP to MCPServer in the 2.x line. If you see older tutorials online using from mcp.server.fastmcp import FastMCP, that import path no longer exists in the current SDK. This project already uses the current, correct import (from mcp.server.mcpserver import MCPServer), so you don't need to do anything — just worth knowing if you go looking at other examples.

3. Test it runs

EIA_API_KEY=your_real_key_here python server.py

If it starts without errors and just sits there waiting, that's correct — an MCP server communicates over stdio and expects a client to talk to it, not a human. Press Ctrl+C to stop it.

4. Connect it to a client

Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop's config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add an entry like this (create the file if it doesn't exist), replacing the path and key with your own:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eia-energy-data": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/eia-energy-data-mcp/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "EIA_API_KEY": "your_real_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see "eia-energy-data" listed as a connected tool (usually via a small hammer/plug icon in the chat box).

VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP hosts

Most hosts use the same mcpServers JSON shape shown above, added to their own settings file or MCP config panel. Consult your client's docs for the exact file location — the command, args, and env fields are typically identical to the Claude Desktop example.

5. Try it

Once connected, just ask things like:

• "What's the daily Brent crude oil price trend for the last month?" → calls get_series("PET.RBRTE.D").

• "Show me residential electricity prices in Colorado, monthly, for 2023." → calls browse_routes to confirm the route/facets, then get_data(route="electricity/retail-sales", data_columns=["price"], facets={"stateid": ["CO"], "sectorid": ["RES"]}, frequency="monthly", start="2023-01", end="2023-12").

• "What energy datasets does EIA have on natural gas?" → calls browse_routes("natural-gas").

Notes on the EIA API itself

• Max 5,000 rows per request (300 for XML — we always request JSON).

• Legacy v1 series IDs (like PET.RBRTE.D) still work via the /v2/seriesid/{id} compatibility route — that's what get_series uses.

• Everything else in v2 is organized as a browsable hierarchy of routes, each with its own facets (filters), data columns, and frequency options — that's what browse_routes and get_data are for.

• Rate limits apply per API key; if you hammer it with rapid recursive calls your key can be temporarily throttled (it recovers on its own).

Security

This server reads your API key from the EIA_API_KEY environment variable — it is never hardcoded or logged. .env is gitignored; .env.example is a template only and contains no real key. Use your own key, and don't commit a .env file to a public fork.

Extending this

Ideas if you want to keep building:

• Add a search_series tool once you find data columns you query often, hardcoding common routes as shortcuts.

• Add caching (e.g. a simple dict with a TTL) since energy series update at most daily.

• Add a resource (not just tools) that exposes a curated list of interesting series ids as a static reference the model can read.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.