publicdata.au — Claude Code MCP server: what it does, how to install
Give an AI agent a way to find and analyse Australian government open data. It can narrow records, count them and add up values.
claude mcp add --transport http mcp https://publicdata.au/mcpWhat publicdata.au does
publicdata.au lets an agent work with Australian government open data. Ask it to find datasets, apply filters, count matching records or calculate a sum. This suits questions that would otherwise mean browsing tables by hand.
Datasets are available in CSV, Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, GeoJSON and GeoPackage. Publisher releases are retained as dated versions, with the publisher's file, a schema and a comparison to the preceding release. Each dataset follows its publisher's licence and attribution terms, so those terms vary by dataset.
To connect it to Claude Code, run claude mcp add --transport http publicdataau https://publicdata.au/mcp. The server also supports Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Cline, Zed and Gemini CLI.
What it helps with
- find an Australian government open-data dataset
- filter records using specified conditions
- count matching rows in a dataset
- add up values in a filtered selection
- compare a dataset release with the one before it
Example prompts for the agent
- Find Australian government open data about public spending and show relevant datasets.
- Filter this dataset to the requested period and count the matching records.
- Compare the latest dataset version with its previous release and describe the changes.
How to install publicdata.au
Platform CLI: remote server
claude mcp add --transport http mcp https://publicdata.au/mcpPlatform CLI: remote server
codex mcp add publicdataau --url https://publicdata.au/mcpConfig file
{
"mcpServers": {
"publicdataau": {
"url": "https://publicdata.au/mcp"
}
}
}Config file
{
"servers": {
"publicdataau": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://publicdata.au/mcp"
}
}
}Platform CLI: remote server
gemini mcp add -t http publicdataau https://publicdata.au/mcpStep by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about publicdata.au
How do I install publicdata.au in Claude Code?
Run claude mcp add --transport http publicdataau https://publicdata.au/mcp. This registers the MCP server as publicdataau.
What does publicdata.au do?
It gives an agent access to Australian government open data for searches, filters, counts and sums. Dataset releases are retained as separate versions.
Which data formats does publicdata.au provide?
The catalogue includes CSV, Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, GeoJSON and GeoPackage. The publisher sets the licence and attribution terms for each dataset.
