Democracy works better when people can see what their government is doing. This community started by advocating for open government systems and data. Today, we continue to build better systems and are now adding AI tools to minimize AI hallucination while putting NYC and New York State public data within reach of any New Yorker.
Now, you can ask questions of the city and state data in plain language and get answers from the real records.
Our tools help connect AI assistants like Claude, Dume.ai, Copilot, Notion, OpenClaw, or Codex directly and safely to live civic data infrastructure: look up pending legislation, spending, contracts, city services, and the law itself.
They are open source under the MIT license and free to use.
New to this? Our AI 101 class helps New Yorkers get comfortable with AI. Find the next session on our Upcoming Events page.
What is an MCP?
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server or connector is a small piece of software that lets an AI assistant pull data from a source on demand. Some of our tools help build local data stores to enable faster information retrieval. It is like a little address book you install once, then ask questions in everyday language, and the assistant gives you directions or authoritative data.
The tools
311 City Services (opens in a new tab)
Check the services that shape a New Yorker’s day: alternate-side parking, school closings, emergency status, and the status of a filed 311 request.
Ask it: “Is alternate-side parking suspended today?” “Is sanitation collection suspended tomorrow?”
@betanyc/nyc-311-mcp · Free API key required · Data provided by NYC Government.
Read more, including how to request a key, on GitHub (opens in a new tab)
City Council Legislation (opens in a new tab)
Track what the City Council is doing: bills, committee votes, hearings, and how your council member votes.
Ask it: “How did the Council vote on Int 0948?” “When is the next hearing on technology?”
@betanyc/nyc-council-mcp · Free API key required for live data · Data provided by NYC Council.
Read more, including how to request a key, on GitHub (opens in a new tab)
City Procurement and Contracts (opens in a new tab)
Find open RFPs, recent contract awards, and public hearings published in the City Record.
Ask it: “What RFPs are open from the Department of City Planning?”
@betanyc/nyc-record-mcp · No API key needed · Data provided by NYC Government.
City Spending (opens in a new tab)
Follow the money through agency spending, contracts, budget, payroll, and revenue from the Comptroller’s Checkbook data.
Ask it: “How much did Sanitation spend on contracts last year?”
@betanyc/nyc-checkbook-mcp · No API key needed · Data provided by the NYC Comptroller.
NYC Laws and Charter (opens in a new tab)
Read and search the City Charter, the Administrative Code, and the Rules of the City of New York, section by section.
Ask it: “What does the Charter say about community boards?” “What type of hydrant can the city procure?”
@betanyc/nyc-charter-laws-rules · No API key needed · Data provided by NYC Government, made available through a third-party publisher (American Legal Publishing).
New York State Legislation (opens in a new tab)
Track actions in Albany. State house bills, votes, committee calendars, and Senate hearing transcripts. Hearing transcripts cover the Senate only; the Assembly does not currently publish its transcripts.
Ask it: “Who represents my district in the State Senate?” “What bills are developing AI literacy?”
@betanyc/nys-openlegislation-mcp · Free API key required · Data provided by the NY State Senate.
Read more, including how to request a key from the NY State Senate, on GitHub (opens in a new tab)
About these tools
All of these tools are published under an open-source MIT license and are free to use. We built them so New Yorkers, journalists, researchers, community boards, and council members can ask better questions of public data. See the code on GitHub (opens in a new tab).
Each tool is published on npm under the @betanyc organization (opens in a new tab). Set up instructions for connecting them to an AI assistant live on each project’s GitHub page.
Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on the relevant project’s GitHub repository, and we will take a look. We love pull requests. Don’t know how to do that? Ask your AI!
We want to be clear about how these tools were made. We built them with the help of AI coding assistants, and BetaNYC staff reviewed and tested the code before release. We use these tools both in our day-to-day work and in our classes. Our published AI policy commits us to transparency about when and how we use AI.