MCP integration

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard for AI assistants to interact with external tools and data sources. The PolicyEngine API exposes all endpoints as MCP tools at /mcp, allowing AI assistants to calculate taxes and benefits, run economic impact analyses, and query policy data.

Add to Claude Code

Run this command:

claude mcp add --transport http policyengine https://v2.api.policyengine.org/mcp/

Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "policyengine": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://v2.api.policyengine.org/mcp/"
    }
  }
}

Available tools

All API endpoints are exposed as MCP tools. Key capabilities include:

• household_calculate — calculate taxes and benefits for a household
• household_impact — compare baseline vs reform policy impact
• analysis_economic_impact — run population-wide economic analysis
• policies_list / policies_create — manage policy reforms
• variables_list / parameters_list — query tax-benefit system metadata
• datasets_list — list available population datasets

Example prompts

Once connected, you can ask Claude things like: