MCP Server

The Program Integrity Alliance (PIA) aims to make working with U.S. Government datasets easier and AI-friendly. We have ingested hundreds of thousands of documents and articles across a range of sources, and this list is growing. This MCP server enables AIs to search this data at a more detailed level than on most source websites, for example, searching within PDF reports to find the exact pages where text and images appear.

Full attribution is given to the amazing open federal data sources, and all links in the data provided by PIA will always direct back to the original source.

Currently, the list of datasets includes:

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) - 10k Federal Reports since 2010 and 5.5k Open Oversight Recommendations
Oversight.gov - 28k OIG Federal Reports since 2010, and 29k Open Oversight Recommendations
U.S. Congress - Bill texts for sessions 118 and 119
Department of Justice (DOJ) - 195k Press Releases since 2000
Federal Agency annual reports - Congressional Justification, Financial Report, Performance Report - 139 reports across 10 priority agencies, with best coverage in 2024.
All Congression Research Service reports - 22k reports provided by EveryCRSReport.com
U.S. Presidential Executive Orders - Order for the last 7 presidencies as provided by the Federal Register

This data is updated weekly, and we will be adding more datasets and tools soon.

If you have any questions, or requests for other datasets, we look forward to hearing from you by raising an issue here.

🤝 Contribute • 📝 Report Bugs or Questions

✨ Core Features

🔎 Document Search: Query PIA database with comprehensive OData filtering options
📊 Faceted Search: Discover available filter fields and values
📝 AI Instruction Prompts: Prompts that instruct LLMs on how to summarize search results and use search tools

🚀 Quick Start

Getting a PIA API Key

Go to https://mcp.programintegrity.org/get-api-key
If you don't have a free PIA account, click the 'No account? Create one' link, otherwise log in
Once logged in, you should automatically receive your key

Installing using Docker MCP Toolkit (Recommended)

Download and run the latest version of Docker Desktop
Navigate to 'MCP Toolkit'
Search for 'Program Integrity Alliance'
Add as a server by clicking '+'
Under 'Configuration' enter your key
In 'MCP Toolkit' navigate to 'Clients'
Choose one, eg 'Claude Desktop'
Start your Client
You should now see 'pia_search_content' and other tools

Installing via Smithery

To install PIA Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install pia-mcp-server --client claude

Installing Manually

Install using uv:

uv tool install pia-mcp-server

For development:

# Clone and set up development environment
git clone https://github.com/Program-Integrity-Alliance/pia-mcp-local.git
cd pia-mcp-local

# Create and activate virtual environment
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install with test dependencies
uv pip install -e ".[test]"

For Docker:

# Build the Docker image if you want to use a local image
git clone https://github.com/Program-Integrity-Alliance/pia-mcp-local.git
cd pia-mcp-local
docker build -t pia-mcp-server:latest .

🔌 MCP Integration

Add this configuration to your MCP client config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pia-mcp-server": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "tool",
                "run",
                "pia-mcp-server",
                "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"
            ],
            "cwd": "/path/to/your/pia-mcp-local"
        }
    }
}

For Docker:

You must build the Docker image ...

docker build -t pia-mcp-server:latest .

Then add this to your Client, eg Claude ...

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pia-mcp-server": {
            "command": "docker",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "--rm",
                "-i",
                "pia-mcp-server:latest",
                "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"
            ]
        }
    }
}

💡 Available Tools

The server provides 11 tools for searching the Program Integrity Alliance (PIA) database:

Core Search Tools

1. `pia_search_content`

Purpose: Comprehensive search tool for querying document content and recommendations in the PIA database.

Description: Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution. Each result includes corresponding citations with data source attribution. Major data sources include: Department of Justice (198k+ docs), Congress.gov (29k+ docs), Oversight.gov (22k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs). Supports complex OData filtering with boolean logic, operators, and grouping.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression supporting complex boolean logic
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

2. `pia_search_content_facets`

Purpose: Get available facets (filter values) for the PIA database content search.

Description: This can help understand what filter values are available before performing content searches. Major data sources include: Department of Justice (198k+ docs), Congress.gov (29k+ docs), Oversight.gov (22k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs).

Parameters:

query (optional): Optional query to get facets for (default: "")
filter (optional): Optional OData filter expression

3. `pia_search_titles`

Purpose: Search the Program Integrity Alliance (PIA) database for document titles only.

Description: Returns document titles and metadata without searching the full content. Useful for finding specific documents by title or discovering available documents. Major data sources include: Department of Justice (198k+ docs), Congress.gov (29k+ docs), Oversight.gov (22k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs).

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text (searches document titles only)
filter (optional): OData filter expression supporting complex boolean logic
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

4. `pia_search_titles_facets`

Purpose: Get available facets (filter values) for the PIA database title search.

Description: This can help understand what filter values are available before performing title searches. Major data sources include: Department of Justice (198k+ docs), Congress.gov (29k+ docs), Oversight.gov (22k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs).

Parameters:

query (optional): Optional query to get facets for (default: "")
filter (optional): Optional OData filter expression

Agency-Specific Search Tools

5. `pia_search_content_gao`

Purpose: Search for GAO document content and recommendations.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include documents from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'GAO')
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

6. `pia_search_content_oig`

Purpose: Search for OIG document content and recommendations.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include documents from Office of Inspector General (OIG) sources. Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'OIG')
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

7. `pia_search_content_crs`

Purpose: Search for CRS document content and recommendations.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include documents from Congressional Research Service (CRS). Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'CRS')
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

8. `pia_search_content_doj`

Purpose: Search for Department of Justice document content and recommendations.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include documents from the Department of Justice. Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'Department of Justice')
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

9. `pia_search_content_congress`

Purpose: Search for Congress.gov document content and recommendations.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include documents from Congress.gov. Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution.

Parameters:

query (required): Search query text
filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'Congress.gov')
page (optional): Page number (default: 1)
page_size (optional): Results per page (default: 10)
search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
limit (optional): Maximum results limit
include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

ChatGPT Connector Tools

10. `search`

Purpose: Simple search interface for ChatGPT Connectors.

Description: Search the Program Integrity Alliance (PIA) database and return a list of potentially relevant search results with titles, snippets, and URLs for citation. This endpoint is one of the supported for OpenAI's MCP spec when integrating ChatGPT Connectors.

Parameters:

query (required): A search query string to find relevant documents in the PIA database

11. `fetch`

Purpose: Document retrieval by ID for ChatGPT Connectors.

Description: Retrieve the full contents of a specific document from the PIA database using its unique identifier. This endpoint is one of the supported for OpenAI's MCP spec when integrating ChatGPT Connectors.

Parameters:

id (required): A unique identifier for the document to retrieve

Search Modes

Comprehensive search with OData filtering and faceting. The filter parameter uses standard OData query syntax.

Content Search (pia_search_content): Searches within document content and recommendations for comprehensive results
Title Search (pia_search_titles): Searches document titles only - faster and useful for document discovery

Example Filter Expressions:

Basic filter: "SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'GAO'"
Multiple conditions: "SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'GAO' or SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'OIG'"
Complex grouping: "SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'GAO' and RecStatus ne 'Closed'"
Negation: "SourceDocumentDataSource ne 'Department of Justice' and not (RecStatus eq 'Closed')"
List membership: "IsIntegrityRelated eq 'Yes' and RecPriorityFlag in ('High', 'Critical')"
Date ranges: "SourceDocumentPublishDate ge '2020-01-01' and SourceDocumentPublishDate le '2024-12-31'"
Boolean grouping: "(SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'GAO' or SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'OIG') and RecStatus eq 'Open'"

OData Filter Operators:

eq - equals: field eq 'value'
ne - not equals: field ne 'value'
gt - greater than: amount gt 1000
ge - greater than or equal: date ge '2023-01-01'
lt - less than: amount lt 5000
le - less than or equal: date le '2023-12-31'
in - value in list: status in ('Active', 'Pending')

OData Logical Operators:

and - logical AND: field1 eq 'value' and field2 gt 100
or - logical OR: status eq 'Active' or status eq 'Pending'
not - logical NOT: not (status eq 'Inactive')
() - grouping: (field1 eq 'A' or field1 eq 'B') and field2 gt 0

OData String Functions:

contains(field, 'text') - field contains text
startswith(field, 'prefix') - field starts with prefix
endswith(field, 'suffix') - field ends with suffix

2. PIA Search Facets

Discover available field names and values for filtering.

Tool Name: pia_search_facets

Parameters:

query (optional): Optional query to get facets for (default: "")

Purpose:

Discover available field names (e.g., data_source, document_type, agency)
Find possible field values (e.g., "OIG", "GAO", "audit_report")
Understand data types for each field (string, date, number)

This information helps you construct proper filter expressions for the search tools.

🔍 Filter Discovery Workflow

To effectively use OData filters, follow this workflow:

Step 1: Discover Available Fields

Use the pia_search_facets tool to explore what fields are available for filtering. You can provide a query to get facets relevant to your search topic, or omit the query to see all available fields.

Step 2: Examine Field Values

The facets response will show available fields and their possible values:

{
  "SourceDocumentDataSource": ["OIG", "GAO", "CMS", "FBI"],
  "RecStatus": ["Open", "Closed", "In Progress"],
  "RecPriorityFlag": ["High", "Medium", "Low", "Critical"],
  "IsIntegrityRelated": ["Yes", "No"],
  "SourceDocumentPublishDate": "2020-01-01 to 2024-12-31"
}

Step 3: Build Targeted Search

Use the pia_search tool with discovered fields to create precise OData filters:

Basic Example:

Query: "Medicare fraud"
Filter: "SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'GAO' and SourceDocumentPublishDate ge '2023-01-01' and IsIntegrityRelated eq 'Yes'"

Complex Example:

Query: "healthcare violations"
Filter: "(SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'OIG' or SourceDocumentDataSource eq 'CMS') and RecPriorityFlag in ('High', 'Critical') and SourceDocumentPublishDate ge '2023-01-01'"

📝 AI Instruction Prompts

The server provides prompts that instruct the calling LLM on how to effectively use PIA tools and format responses:

1. Summarization Guidance

Provides guidance on how to summarize information from PIA search results with proper citations.

Prompt Name: summarization_guidance

Purpose: Ensures LLM creates fact-based summaries with inline citations and proper reference formatting

Arguments: None (reusable guidance)

Returns: Comprehensive instructions that guide the LLM to:

Only include facts that appear in the provided search results (no prior knowledge)
Use proper inline citation format [n] for every factual statement
Create a References section with format: [n] Document Title — Page X — Source Name — URL
Follow objective, factual style guidelines without speculation or filler
Include all necessary attribution elements exactly as provided in search results
Organize information logically and ensure every fact has supporting citations

2. Search Guidance

Provides guidance on how to perform PIA searches with or without filters.

Prompt Name: search_guidance

Purpose: Guides LLM through proper search workflow including filter discovery and OData syntax for all four search tools

Arguments: None (reusable guidance)

Returns: Comprehensive instructions that guide the LLM to:

Run unfiltered searches by default unless filter criteria are mentioned
Choose between content search (comprehensive) and title search (fast discovery)
Use pia_search_content_facets or pia_search_titles_facets to discover available filter fields and values
Build valid OData filter expressions with correct syntax and actual field names
Apply proper OData operators: eq, ne, gt, ge, lt, le, and, or
Fall back to unfiltered search when filtered search returns no results
Validate all filter fields against available facets before use

⚙️ Configuration

The API key is always provided via the MCP server configuration. Additional settings can be configured through environment variables:

Variable	Purpose	Default
`PIA_API_URL`	PIA API endpoint	https://mcp.programintegrity.org/
`REQUEST_TIMEOUT`	API request timeout (seconds)	60
`MAX_RESULTS`	Maximum results per query	50

MCP Configuration

The API key must be provided in your MCP client configuration using the --api-key argument. Contact the Program Integrity Alliance to obtain your API key.

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pia-mcp-server": {
            "command": "pia-mcp-server",
            "args": ["--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
        }
    }
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual PIA API key.

🧪 Testing

Run the test suite:

python -m pytest

Run with coverage:

python -m pytest --cov=pia_mcp_server

📄 License

Released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ for Government Transparency and Accountability

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 53 Commits
.github		.github
src/pia_mcp_server		src/pia_mcp_server
tests		tests
utils		utils
.gitignore		.gitignore
.pre-commit-config.yaml		.pre-commit-config.yaml
.python-version		.python-version
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
_build-test.sh		_build-test.sh
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
smithery.yaml		smithery.yaml
uv.lock		uv.lock

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Program-Integrity-Alliance/pia-mcp-local

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MCP Server

✨ Core Features

🚀 Quick Start

Getting a PIA API Key

Installing using Docker MCP Toolkit (Recommended)

Installing via Smithery

Installing Manually

🔌 MCP Integration

💡 Available Tools

Core Search Tools

1. pia_search_content

2. pia_search_content_facets

3. pia_search_titles

4. pia_search_titles_facets

Agency-Specific Search Tools

5. pia_search_content_gao

6. pia_search_content_oig

7. pia_search_content_crs

8. pia_search_content_doj

9. pia_search_content_congress

ChatGPT Connector Tools

10. search

11. fetch

Search Modes

2. PIA Search Facets

🔍 Filter Discovery Workflow

Step 1: Discover Available Fields

Step 2: Examine Field Values

Step 3: Build Targeted Search

📝 AI Instruction Prompts

1. Summarization Guidance

2. Search Guidance

⚙️ Configuration

MCP Configuration

🧪 Testing

📄 License

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1. `pia_search_content`

2. `pia_search_content_facets`

3. `pia_search_titles`

4. `pia_search_titles_facets`

5. `pia_search_content_gao`

6. `pia_search_content_oig`

7. `pia_search_content_crs`

8. `pia_search_content_doj`

9. `pia_search_content_congress`

10. `search`

11. `fetch`

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