\U0001f1e8\U0001f1ed Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

\U0001f48a bag-epl-mcp

MCP Server for the Swiss BAG electronic benefits platform (ePL) \u2014 Spezialitaetenliste, GGSL, MiGeL

\U0001f1e9\U0001f1ea Deutsche Version

Demo

Overview

bag-epl-mcp enables AI models to answer questions about mandatory health insurance coverage in Switzerland \u2014 in natural language, grounded in real data.

Anchor query: "Is this medication covered by mandatory health insurance?" \u2192 epl_sl_suche: Live lookup in the Spezialitaetenliste (SL) → More use cases by audience →

Related MCP server: Swiss Health MCP Server

Features

• \U0001f48a 6 tools, 2 resources, 2 prompts for Swiss health insurance data

• \U0001f50d epl_sl_suche \u2014 search the Spezialitaetenliste for medications

• \u2696\ufe0f epl_rechtskontext \u2014 legal context with Fedlex links

• \U0001f513 No API key required \u2014 all data publicly accessible

• \u2601\ufe0f Dual transport \u2014 stdio (Claude Desktop) + Streamable HTTP (cloud)

• \U0001f4da Prompt templates for insurance coverage checks and school health queries

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+

• uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/bag-epl-mcp.git
cd bag-epl-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .
# or with uv:
uv pip install -e .

Or with uvx (no permanent installation):

uvx bag-epl-mcp

Quickstart

# stdio (for Claude Desktop) — default, opens no network ports
python -m bag_epl_mcp.server

# Streamable HTTP (cloud) — transport selected via env var
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 MCP_PORT=8000 \
  pip install -e ".[http]" && python -m bag_epl_mcp.server

Transport & host are configured exclusively via environment variables (MCP_TRANSPORT, MCP_HOST, MCP_PORT). The default is stdio bound to nothing; MCP_HOST defaults to 127.0.0.1 and should only be set to 0.0.0.0 inside a container/cloud environment.

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Is Methylphenidate (Ritalin) covered by mandatory health insurance?" "Which laws regulate admission to the Spezialitaetenliste?" "Is a wheelchair covered by mandatory insurance?"

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bag-epl": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "bag_epl_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Or with uvx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bag-epl": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["bag-epl-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cloud Deployment (Streamable HTTP for browser access)

Render.com (recommended):

1. Push/fork the repository to GitHub

2. On render.com: New Web Service \u2192 connect GitHub repo

3. Build command: pip install -e ".[http]"

4. Set the following environment variables:

   • MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http

   • MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 (required so the container accepts external traffic)

   • MCP_PORT=8000 (or Render's $PORT)

   • (optional) MCP_CORS_ORIGINS='["https://claude.ai"]' to extend the browser CORS allow-list

   • (optional) OpenTelemetry tracing is on by default but a no-op unless the tracing deps are installed — build with pip install -e ".[http,otel]" and point OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT at your collector. Set MCP_OTEL_ENABLED=0 to disable.

5. Start command: python -m bag_epl_mcp.server

6. In claude.ai under Settings \u2192 MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp

Security note: the server exposes only public, read-only data and uses no authentication. See docs/SECURITY.md for the threat model (egress allow-list, host binding, Lethal-Trifecta assessment).

Available Tools

Example Use Cases

Architecture

Data flow (Phase 1):

                         bag-epl-mcp (FastMCP)
 \u250c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2510  MCP    \u250c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2510  HTTPS GET   \u250c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2510
 \u2502 MCP Client \u2502\u25c0\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u25b6\u2502  tools (read-only)             \u2502\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u25b6\u2502 sl.bag.admin.ch  \u2502
 \u2502 (Claude    \u2502 stdio / \u2502   \u251c\u2500 epl_sl_suche              \u2502  egress      \u2502 www.bag.admin.ch \u2502
 \u2502  Desktop,  \u2502 Stream- \u2502   \u251c\u2500 epl_ggsl_abfrage          \u2502  allow-list  \u2502 www.fedlex...    \u2502
 \u2502  claude.ai)\u2502 able    \u2502   \u251c\u2500 epl_migel_suche           \u2502\u25c0\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2502 (public OGD)     \u2502
 \u2502            \u2502 HTTP    \u2502   \u251c\u2500 epl_gesuchseingaenge       \u2502  (no auth)   \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2518
 \u2502            \u2502         \u2502   \u251c\u2500 epl_rechtskontext          \u2502
 \u2502            \u2502         \u2502   \u2514\u2500 epl_server_info            \u2502   structured JSON logs \u2192 stderr
 \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2518         \u2502  resources: epl://uebersicht \u2026  \u2502
                        \u2502  prompts:   epl_kassenpflicht\u2026  \u2502
                        \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2518

Phase roadmap (details in docs/ROADMAP.md):

Phase 1 (current)  \u2192 SL website access + structured legal info
Phase 2 (planned)  \u2192 FHIR/IDMP API (BAG, ~2025/2026)
Phase 3 (vision)   \u2192 MiGeL + AL via ePL-FHIR (2026/2027)

The server is already useful today and will seamlessly upgrade when the BAG publishes its FHIR API.

MCP protocol version: 2025-06-18 (surfaced via epl_server_info). SDK updates are proposed monthly via Dependabot; the protocol version is reviewed on every mcp SDK bump \u2014 see the versioning policy in docs/ROADMAP.md.

Safety & Limits

• Read-only: All tools perform HTTP GET requests only \u2014 no data is written, modified, or deleted.

• No personal data: The server accesses public regulatory lists (SL, GGSL, MiGeL). No personally identifiable information (PII) is processed or stored.

• No medical advice: This server provides informational access to regulatory data only. For medical or legal decisions, always consult the official BAG sources and qualified professionals.

• Rate limits: The SL website (sl.bag.admin.ch) is a public Angular SPA; the server enforces a 30s timeout per request. Use limit parameters conservatively.

• Data freshness: Phase 1 tools link to live BAG sources. No caching is performed by this server.

• Data licence (OGD-CH): The underlying BAG/Fedlex data is Swiss Open Government Data, licensed CC BY 4.0. Tool outputs carry a source / provenance block (JSON) or a source-and-licence footer (Markdown) so attribution is preserved.

• Structured output: every tool returns both a human-readable Markdown/JSON block (content) and a typed structuredContent validated against a per-tool output schema, so MCP clients can consume results programmatically without parsing prose.

• Terms of service: Data is subject to the ToS of sl.bag.admin.ch, bag.admin.ch, and fedlex.admin.ch.

• No guarantees: This is a community project, not affiliated with the BAG or any government entity. Availability depends on upstream sources.

Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (live API calls)
pytest tests/ -m "live"

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md

License

MIT License \u2014 see LICENSE

Author

Hayal Oezkan \u00b7 malkreide

Credits & Related Projects

• BAG Spezialitaetenliste: sl.bag.admin.ch \u2014 Federal Office of Public Health

• KVG: SR 832.10 \u2014 Health Insurance Act

• KLV: SR 832.112.31 \u2014 Healthcare Benefits Ordinance

• Protocol: Model Context Protocol \u2014 Anthropic / Linux Foundation

• Related: fedlex-mcp \u2014 Swiss federal law

• Related: swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp \u2014 Cultural heritage data

• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

Installation

Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bag-epl-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "bag-epl-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}