@pipeworx/uk-trade-tariff

The UK Integrated Online Tariff from HMRC's trade-tariff service — commodity codes, third-country and preferential duty rates by origin, VAT and excise, import/export conditions, and live tariff-rate quota balances.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1857+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

• uktariff_search(query, limit?, declarable_only?) — find a commodity code from a plain-English product description, or resolve a numeric code.

• uktariff_commodity(code, origin?, max_measures?) — full duty detail for one 10-digit code, with measures resolved against the JSON:API included graph.

• uktariff_heading(heading, limit?) — the codes under one 4-digit heading.

• uktariff_quota(order_number?, goods_nomenclature_item_id?, geographical_area_id?, year?, critical?, limit?) — tariff-rate quotas with remaining balance and status.

Related MCP server: mcp-hts

Auth

Keyless.

Data sources

• https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/search?q= — classification search.

• https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/commodities/{code} — duties and measures.

• https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/headings/{id} — heading contents.

• https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/quotas/search — TRQ balances.

Things worth knowing:

• The host is www., not api.. api.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk 301s every /api/v2 path to the documentation site with content-length: 0, so a client that follows redirects gets a 200 and an empty body — a call that looks successful and returns nothing.

• Fuzzy search ANDs every term. q=roasted coffee beans matches nothing because "beans" is not in the nomenclature, while q=roasted coffee returns 40 commodities. Both are 200s with three empty arrays, which reads as "the UK does not tariff coffee". uktariff_search therefore drops trailing words until something matches and reports query_used and narrowed_to_match.

• /search is polymorphic. A numeric query returns {type: "exact_match", entry: {endpoint, id}} with no result arrays at all.

• A heading lists each code twice, once with producline_suffix "10" (the intermediate subheading line) and once with "80" (the declarable leaf). They carry different descriptions, so without the suffix it looks like contradictory duplicates.

• /quotas/search rejects status= with a 400 even though every row has a status. Filter on year / order_number / area / commodity and read it off.

• Only declarable: true codes may be used on a customs declaration.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uk-trade-tariff": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/uk-trade-tariff/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/uk-trade-tariff/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1857+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/uktariff_search \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query":"roasted coffee beans","limit":3}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/uktariff_search. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-uk-trade-tariff is a local stdio bridge to the Pipeworx gateway: your MCP client starts it with npx, and it forwards every call to the same https://gateway.pipeworx.io/uk-trade-tariff/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uk-trade-tariff": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-uk-trade-tariff"]
    }
  }
}

Without a key it calls anonymously, capped at 50 calls a day. A free account raises that to 200 a day: get a key at https://pipeworx.io/signup and add "env": { "PIPEWORX_API_KEY": "<your key>" } to the server entry. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a hosted connection sends it, so calls are metered and billed exactly as they are there.

It lists only this pack's tools by default. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to also list ask_pipeworx and the other gateway-wide tools.

Behind an HTTPS proxy: Node's built-in fetch does not read HTTPS_PROXY by default. Newer Node releases honour it when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is set; check your Node version's documentation.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Uk Trade Tariff data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides

• pipeworx.io

License

MIT