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:

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

For more information on how to use PIA's MCP resources in platforms like Claude and ChatGPT, see PIA Connect.

✨ 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

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

Installing using Docker MCP Toolkit (Recommended)

1. Download and run the latest version of Docker Desktop
2. Navigate to 'MCP Toolkit'
3. Search for 'Program Integrity Alliance'
4. Add as a server by clicking '+'
5. Under 'Configuration' enter your key
6. In 'MCP Toolkit' navigate to 'Clients'
7. Choose one, eg 'Claude Desktop'
8. Start your Client
9. 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

Refreshing Tool Specs (No API Key Needed for Listing)

Tool listing in this local server is served from a local snapshot, so tools are discoverable even without an API key. To refresh the snapshot from the remote server, run:

PIA_API_KEY=your_key python utils/refresh_tools.py

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 14 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 (202k+ docs), Congress.gov (31k+ docs), Oversight.gov (24k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs), Federal Register (1k+ executive orders). Use pia_search_content_executive_orders to search only executive orders. 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: 5)
• search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
• limit (optional): Maximum results limit
• include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)

2. pia_oversight_recommendations

Purpose: Search oversight recommendations (Open Recommendations dataset) with facets enabled by default.

Description: Returns comprehensive recommendation results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution. Use this when the user asks specifically about oversight recommendations or open recommendations.

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: 100)
• search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
• limit (optional): Maximum results limit
• include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: true)

3. pia_search_content_wide

Purpose: Search across multiple datasets and data sources with result deduplication by document ID.

Description: Combines results across datasets and sources with a default small page size because the results are broader. Supports optional dataset and data source filters for targeted wide searches.

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: 5)
• search_mode (optional): Search mode (default: content)
• limit (optional): Maximum results limit
• include_facets (optional): Include facets in results (default: false)
• data_sets (optional): List of SourceDocumentDataSet values to search
• data_sources (optional): List of SourceDocumentDataSource values to search
• data_sets_by_source (optional): Mapping of data source to dataset list

4. 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 (202k+ docs), Congress.gov (31k+ docs), Oversight.gov (24k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs), Federal Register (1k+ executive orders). Use pia_search_content_executive_orders to search only executive orders.

Parameters:

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

5. 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 (202k+ docs), Congress.gov (31k+ docs), Oversight.gov (24k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs), Federal Register (1k+ executive orders). Use pia_search_content_executive_orders to search only executive orders.

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)

6. 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 (202k+ docs), Congress.gov (31k+ docs), Oversight.gov (24k+ docs), CRS (22k+ docs), GAO (10k+ docs), Federal Register (1k+ executive orders). Use pia_search_content_executive_orders to search only executive orders.

Parameters:

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

Agency-Specific Search Tools

7. 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)

8. 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 'Oversight.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)

9. 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)

10. 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)

11. 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)

Executive Orders Search Tool

12. pia_search_content_executive_orders

Purpose: Search for Executive Orders document content from the Federal Register.

Description: This tool automatically filters results to only include Executive Orders from the Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/). Returns comprehensive results with full citation information and clickable links for proper attribution. Each result includes corresponding citations with data source attribution. Supports complex OData filtering with boolean logic, operators, and grouping.

Parameters:

• query (required): Search query text
• filter (optional): OData filter expression (SourceDocumentDataSource is automatically set to 'Federal Register' and SourceDocumentDataSet is set to 'executive orders')
• 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)

Executive Orders Coverage:

• Time Period: Last 7 presidencies
• Source: Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders)
• Volume: 1k+ executive orders
• Update Frequency: Weekly updates

Example Searches:

• Search for cybersecurity executive orders: {"query": "cybersecurity"}
• Search for recent executive orders: {"query": "artificial intelligence", "filter": "SourceDocumentPublishDate ge '2023-01-01'"}
• Search by specific topics: {"query": "climate change OR environmental"}

ChatGPT Connector Tools

13. 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

14. 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
• Wide Content Search (pia_search_content_wide): Searches across datasets and sources with deduped 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 'Oversight.gov'"
• 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 'Oversight.gov') 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": ["Oversight.gov", "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 'Oversight.gov' 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.

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