Statistics Canada MCP Server

Statistics Canada MCP Server

MCP server and CLI for Statistics Canada's Web Data Service (WDS) and SDMX REST API. Gives any MCP client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Gemini — structured access to Canadian statistical data. Includes a standalone statcan CLI for direct downloads without an LLM.

Hosted on Render — no install required for most users. See [Quick Start](#quick-start).

⚠️ LLMs may fabricate data. Always verify important figures against [official Statistics Canada sources](https://www.statcan.gc.ca/).

*The statcan CLI searching, inspecting and downloading a table. See statcan CLI.*

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Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Examples
• Setup by Client
• How Claude.ai Uses This Server
• MCP Prompts
• statcan CLI
• Features & Tools
• Project Structure
• Known Issues
• Contributors

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Quick Start

Pick the option that fits you. You don't need to install anything for Option 1.

Option 1 — Use the hosted server (recommended)

Connect directly to the public server on Render. No uv, no terminal, no local setup.

Claude Desktop / Claude.ai

1. Open Settings → Connectors → Add Custom Connector
2. Name: mcp-statcan
3. URL: https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp
4. Save and restart

Claude Code

claude mcp add statcan --transport http https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp --scope global

The hosted server provides all WDS + SDMX tools. Database tools (SQLite) require local setup (Option 3) — they are intentionally excluded from the shared server.

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Option 2 — Self-host HTTP (WDS + SDMX, no DB)

Run a local server with the same tools as the hosted version.

Step 1 — Install uv:

# macOS / Linux

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Step 2 — Start the server:

uvx statcan-mcp-server --transport http

Listening at http://localhost:8000

Step 3 — Connect your client to http://localhost:8000/mcp.

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Option 3 — Full local setup (WDS + SDMX + SQLite)

Everything from Option 2, plus database tools for storing and querying data with SQL. Runs via stdio.

Step 1 — Install uv (same as above).

Step 2 — Configure your client with the stdio snippets in Setup by Client below.

uvx downloads and runs the server automatically on first use.

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Option 4 — statcan CLI (no LLM needed)

Download StatCan data directly from the terminal. See statcan CLI.

uvx statcan-mcp-server        # installs the package

statcan search "labour force" statcan metadata 14-10-0287-01 # run first to find dimension IDs statcan download 14-10-0287-01 --key "1.1.1" --last 12 --output lfs.csv # run statcan metadata first to find real dimension IDs statcan describe # machine-readable command reference for agents

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Examples

Chat examples

Dashboard examples

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Setup by Client

Hosted server (Option 1)

Claude Desktop — Settings → Connectors → Add Custom Connector

• Name: mcp-statcan
• URL: https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add statcan --transport http https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp --scope global

Cursor — .cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global):

{

"mcpServers": { "statcan": { "url": "https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp" } } }

VS Code (GitHub Copilot) — .vscode/mcp.json:

{

"servers": { "statcan": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp-statcan.com/mcp" } } }

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Self-hosted HTTP (Option 2)

Start uvx statcan-mcp-server --transport http first, then configure your client.

Most clients need mcp-proxy to bridge stdio ↔ HTTP. Claude Code connects natively.

Claude Desktop — Settings → Developer → Edit Config:

{

"mcpServers": { "statcan": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-proxy", "--transport", "streamablehttp", "http://localhost:8000/mcp"] } } }

Claude Code

claude mcp add statcan --transport http http://localhost:8000/mcp --scope global

Cursor / VS Code / Gemini — same mcp-proxy wrapper, pointing to http://localhost:8000/mcp.

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Full local / stdio (Option 3)

Claude Desktop — Settings → Developer → Edit Config:

{

"mcpServers": { "statcan": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["statcan-mcp-server", "--db-path", "/Users/ /.statcan-mcp/statcan_data.db"] } } }

> Pass `--db-path` with an absolute path. Claude Desktop overrides the subprocess `HOME` env var, which can break default path resolution.

Claude Code

claude mcp add statcan --scope global -- uvx statcan-mcp-server

Cursor / VS Code / Gemini — use uvx statcan-mcp-server as the stdio command.

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How Claude.ai Uses This Server

Claude.ai (web) has no bash, and its code sandbox can't reach StatCan, so all data comes through the connector's MCP tools.

The pattern:

1. Discovery (small payloads):

search_cubes_by_title("labour force") → productId + key_template get_sdmx_structure(productId=..., search="Ontario;Employment") → codes by label

1. Answers: get_sdmx_data(..., sql="SELECT ...") → only the result comes back
2. Files: get_sdmx_data(..., format="csv") → copy the CSV verbatim into a file

Use sql for rankings, growth and averages; use format="csv" only when the rows need to go into a file.

After a server update, disconnect and reconnect the connector in claude.ai to refresh the tool list.

Claude Code (bash sandbox) uses the statcan CLI instead:

statcan search "labour force"

statcan metadata 14-10-0287-01 # run first to find dimension IDs statcan download 14-10-0287-01 --key "1.1.1" --last 12 --output ./lfs.csv # run statcan metadata first to find real dimension IDs awk -F',' 'NR>1 && $1=="Canada"' ./lfs.csv | sort -t',' -rn -k5 | head -10

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MCP Prompts

The server ships five prompts accessible as slash commands in supported clients. Each has two sets of instructions: Claude Code (the statcan CLI in bash) and Claude.ai web (the MCP tools, with sql and format="csv" to keep rows out of context).

The tool calls in the prompts follow the active toolset.

Usage in Claude Code:

/statcan-data-lookup topic="consumer price index" analysis_goal="trend last 5 years"

/statcan-download product_id=18100004 last_n=24

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statcan CLI

A standalone CLI for downloading StatCan data without an LLM. Outputs pipe-friendly CSV/JSON to stdout; progress and errors go to stderr.

Exploring a table (search, then metadata, then download): see the recording at the top of this page.

Agent mode (--json envelopes, typed exit codes, statcan describe):

Recordings are generated from the scripts in assets/tapes/ with VHS: vhs assets/tapes/cli-agent.tape.

Install:

pip install sta