OpenDiscourse MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers for accessing bulk data from govinfo.gov and congress.gov APIs with comprehensive AI-powered code review and data ingestion capabilities.

Overview

This project provides MCP servers that enable AI assistants to access comprehensive legislative and governmental data from:

• GovInfo API: Congressional documents, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, and more

• Congress.gov API: Bills, members, committees, nominations, and legislative activities

• Bulk Data Ingestion: Automated downloading and processing of govinfo.gov bulk data

• AI Code Review: Multi-agent AI crews for comprehensive code analysis

Related MCP server: LegiScan MCP Server

Features

GovInfo Server Tools

• govinfo_list_collections - List collections updated since a specific date

• govinfo_get_package - Get detailed package information

• govinfo_list_granules - List granules within a package

• govinfo_get_granule - Get detailed granule information

• govinfo_download_content - Download content (PDF, XML, HTML)

Congress.gov Server Tools

• congress_get_bill - Get detailed bill information

• congress_search_bills - Search for bills by text query

• congress_get_bill_actions - Get legislative actions for a bill

• congress_get_bill_text - Get full text of a bill

• congress_search_members - Search for members of Congress

• congress_get_member - Get detailed member information

• congress_get_committee_meetings - Get committee meetings

• congress_get_nominations - Get presidential nominations

Bulk Data Ingestion

• Comprehensive Download: Automated ingestion of all govinfo.gov bulk data

• Congress Coverage: 113th to 123rd Congress (2013-2024)

• Document Types: BILLS, BILLSTATUS, PLAW, STATUTE, FR, CREC

• Parallel Processing: 50 workers for high-performance downloads

• XML Validation: Schema-based validation for data integrity

• Skip-on-Existing: Resumable downloads with intelligent file skipping

• Progress Monitoring: Real-time progress tracking and comprehensive reporting

AI Code Review Suite

• Security Review: Vulnerability assessment and security analysis

• Performance Review: Bottleneck identification and optimization suggestions

• Quality Review: Code style, testing, architecture, and accessibility analysis

• Documentation Review: Documentation quality and completeness assessment

• Multi-Agent: Specialized AI agents for different review aspects

• Observability: Langfuse integration for monitoring and tracing

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Node.js and npm (for MCP server)

2. Python 3.10+ (for setup scripts)

3. PostgreSQL (for database storage)

4. Bitwarden CLI (for API key management)

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/cbwinslow/opendiscourse_mcp.git
cd opendiscourse_mcp

# Install Node.js dependencies
npm install

# Install Bitwarden CLI
npm install -g @bitwarden/cli

# Set up database
./scripts/setup_database.sh

# Set up API keys with Bitwarden
python3 scripts/setup_bitwarden.py

# Start MCP server
npm start

Detailed Setup

1. Python Environment

# Verify Python version (requires 3.10+)
python --version

# Using uv (recommended)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Or using pip
python3.10 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Database Setup

# Automated database setup
./scripts/setup_database.sh

# Manual setup (if script fails)
# Start PostgreSQL
brew services start postgresql  # macOS
sudo systemctl start postgresql  # Linux

# Create database and user
sudo -u postgres createdb opendiscourse
sudo -u postgres createuser -s opendiscourse
sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER opendiscourse PASSWORD 'opendiscourse123';"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE opendiscourse TO opendiscourse;"

3. Bitwarden Setup

# Install Bitwarden CLI
npm install -g @bitwarden/cli

# Test Bitwarden integration
python3 scripts/test_bitwarden.py

# Add API keys to Bitwarden:
# - GovInfo API Key
# - Congress.gov API Key

4. API Key Configuration

# Set environment variables (optional)
export BITWARDEN_EMAIL="your-email@example.com"
export BITWARDEN_PASSWORD="your-master-password"

# Run automated setup
python3 scripts/setup_bitwarden.py

5. MCP Server Deployment

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Start server
npm start

# Development mode
npm run dev

Bitwarden Item Setup:

Create these items in your Bitwarden vault:

• GovInfo API Key

  • Name: GovInfo API Key

  • Custom Field: api_key with your GovInfo API key

• Congress.gov API Key

  • Name: Congress.gov API Key

  • Custom Field: api_key with your Congress.gov API key

Configuration

Required API Keys

1. GovInfo API Key

   • Sign up at: https://api.data.gov/signup

   • Add to .env: GOVINFO_API_KEY=your_key_here

2. Congress.gov API Key

   • Sign up at: https://api.congress.gov/sign-up/

   • Add to .env: CONGRESS_API_KEY=your_key_here

Optional Configuration

• MCP_LOG_LEVEL - Logging level (default: info)

• GOVINFO_RATE_LIMIT - GovInfo rate limit requests/hour (default: 1000)

• CONGRESS_RATE_LIMIT - Congress.gov rate limit requests/hour (default: 4000)

Usage

Bulk Data Ingestion

The project includes comprehensive bulk data ingestion capabilities for govinfo.gov:

# Run comprehensive ingestion for all available data
python3 scripts/run_comprehensive_ingestion.py

# Run specific congress and document type
python3 -m scripts.ingest_all_govinfo --congress 118 --doc-types BILLS --workers 50

# Run with validation enabled
python3 -m scripts.ingest_all_govinfo --congress 118 --doc-types STATUTE --validate-xml --workers 50

Ingestion Features:

• Congress Coverage: 113th-123rd Congress (2013-2024)

• Document Types: BILLS, BILLSTATUS, PLAW, STATUTE, FR, CREC

• Parallel Downloads: 50 concurrent workers

• XML Validation: Schema-based validation with XSD files

• Resume Capability: Skip-on-existing functionality

• Progress Tracking: Real-time monitoring and JSON results

Configuration:

# Use enums for type-safe configuration
from scripts.ingestion.enums import DocumentType, CongressSession

# Available document types
DocumentType.BILLS.value  # "BILLS"
DocumentType.STATUTE.value  # "STATUTE"

# Available congress sessions
CongressSession.get_available_sessions()  # [113, 114, ..., 123]

AI Code Review

The project includes specialized AI crews for comprehensive code review:

# Run all review types (via GitHub Actions)
# Or manually trigger specific reviews:

# Security review
python3 scripts/security_review_crew.py

# Performance review
python3 scripts/performance_review_crew.py

# Quality review (style, testing, architecture, dependencies, accessibility)
python3 scripts/quality_review_crew.py

# Documentation review
python3 scripts/documentation_review_crew.py

# Original comprehensive review
python3 scripts/code_review_crew.py

AI Review Features:

• Security Analysis: Vulnerability assessment, security best practices

• Performance Optimization: Bottleneck identification, efficiency improvements

• Quality Assessment: Code style, testing coverage, architecture review

• Documentation Review: API docs, README, inline comments

• Multi-Agent: Specialized AI agents for different review aspects

• Observability: Langfuse integration for monitoring and tracing

GitHub Actions Integration:

• Automatic PR reviews

• Configurable review types (security, performance, quality, documentation)

• Python 3.10 enforcement

• Comprehensive reporting

As MCP Server

# Start MCP server
npm start

# Or in development mode with auto-restart
npm run dev

Integration with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "opendiscourse": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/opendiscourse_mcp/src/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GOVINFO_API_KEY": "your_govinfo_key",
        "CONGRESS_API_KEY": "your_congress_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

API Key Management

The project includes automated API key management through Bitwarden:

# Test Bitwarden integration
python3 scripts/test_bitwarden.py

# Set up API keys from Bitwarden
python3 scripts/setup_bitwarden.py

Features:

• 🔍 Automatic API key discovery from Bitwarden vault

• 🔓 Secure vault unlocking

• 📝 Environment file updates

• 🗄️ Database storage with encryption

• 🔐 Security masking in console output

Integration with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "opendiscourse": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/opendiscourse_mcp/src/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GOVINFO_API_KEY": "your_govinfo_key",
        "CONGRESS_API_KEY": "your_congress_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

API Coverage

GovInfo Collections

• BILLS - Congressional bills (all versions)

• CREC - Congressional Record

• FR - Federal Register

• CFR - Code of Federal Regulations

• USCOURTS - U.S. Courts opinions

• CHRG - Committee reports and prints

Congress.gov Data

• Bills and amendments (93rd Congress to present)

• Member information and voting records

• Committee data and meetings

• Presidential nominations

• Roll call votes

• Legislative text and summaries

Rate Limits

• GovInfo API: Follows api.data.gov limits (configurable, default 1000/hour)

• Congress.gov API: 5,000 requests/hour (configurable, default 4000/hour)

Both clients implement automatic rate limiting with delays between requests.

Development

# Run tests
npm test

# Lint code
npm run lint

# Full build process
npm run build

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in the /docs folder:

• docs/README.md - Complete reference guide

• docs/govinfo-api-summary.md - GovInfo API quick reference

• docs/congress-api-summary.md - Congress.gov API quick reference

• Downloaded official API repositories and samples

Contributing

1. Fork the repository

2. Create a feature branch

3. Make your changes

4. Add tests if applicable

5. Run npm run build

6. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Issues: https://github.com/cbwinslow/opendiscourse_mcp/issues

• GovInfo API: https://github.com/usgpo/api/issues

• Congress.gov API: https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/issues