Uk Planning Data MCP Server

@pipeworx/uk-planning-data

UK planning designations from planning.data.gov.uk, the MHCLG national planning data platform — look up any point in England and get the conservation areas, listed buildings, article 4 directions, green belt, brownfield land, flood risk zones and tree preservation zones that cover it.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1866+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

• ukplanning_datasets(query?, typology?, headline_only?) — the dataset catalogue: the slug you pass to every other tool, plus row counts and licence.
• ukplanning_entities_at_point(latitude, longitude, dataset?, limit?, include_geometry?) — every designation whose boundary covers one lat/lon. The site due-diligence call: "is this address in a conservation area / green belt / flood zone".
• ukplanning_search(dataset?, typology?, reference?, curie?, organisation_entity?, entry_date_year?, limit?, offset?, include_geometry?) — filter entities. Deliberately takes NO free-text query; see below.
• ukplanning_entity(entity, include_geometry?) — one entity by numeric id.

Auth

Keyless.

Data sources

• https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/dataset.json — the dataset catalogue.
• https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/entity.json — entity search and point lookup.
• https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/entity/{entity}.json — one entity.
• https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/openapi.json — the parameter list.

Things worth knowing:

• q is documented and does nothing. ?q=Trafalgar%20Square&limit=3 returns count: 25355431 — the whole platform — and the same three rows as the unfiltered call. There is no free-text search on this API. This pack does not accept or forward one, because forwarding it returns 25 million rows wearing the shape of a result set. Use ukplanning_entities_at_point to search by place, and dataset/curie/reference/organisation_entity to filter. Those four genuinely filter (verified: reference=CA18 → 31 rows).
• Geometry is enormous. Each row carries a WKT MULTIPOLYGON; one conservation area can be 60 KB. Every list call here sends exclude_field=geometry&exclude_field=point unless the caller asks for it.
• Point lookup needs no relation parameter — ?longitude=&latitude= defaults to intersects. Omit dataset to get every layer at once.
• reference is not unique. It is the publisher's own id, so "CA18" matches 31 councils. Pair it with organisation_entity, or use the prefix:reference curie.
• Response fields are hyphenated, query parameters are underscored (entry-date in the body, entry_date_year in the query). Both are upstream's.

Quick Start

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uk-planning-data": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/uk-planning-data/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/uk-planning-data/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 1866+ 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/ukplanning_datasets \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query":"conservation"}'

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

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-uk-planning-data 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-planning-data/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

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

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 Planning Data data" })

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

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT