cdc-health-mcp-server

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  <h1>@cyanheads/cdc-health-mcp-server</h1>
  <p><b>Search and query CDC public health data — mortality, vaccinations, surveillance, behavioral risk (Socrata SODA API) via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.</b>
  <div>4 Tools • 2 Resources • 1 Prompt</div>
  </p>
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**Public Hosted Server:** [https://cdc.caseyjhand.com/mcp](https://cdc.caseyjhand.com/mcp)

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---

## Tools

Four tools for discovering and querying CDC public health data. Three query the CDC Open Data portal (Socrata); one queries CDC WONDER mortality statistics:

| Tool | Description |
|:---|:---|
| `cdc_discover_datasets` | Search the catalog by keyword, category, or tag. Entry point for all queries. |
| `cdc_get_dataset_schema` | Fetch column schema, row count, and metadata for a dataset. Essential before writing SoQL queries. Returns a bounded column window with a continuation offset for wide schemas. |
| `cdc_query_dataset` | Execute SoQL queries — filter, aggregate, sort, full-text search, and field selection. |
| `cdc_query_wonder` | Query CDC WONDER for national mortality statistics (deaths, population, crude/age-adjusted rates) by year, age, sex, and race, filtered by ICD-10 cause. Covers five CDC mortality databases — final and provisional, underlying-cause and multiple-cause. Large tables page with a continuation offset. |

### `cdc_discover_datasets`

Search the CDC dataset catalog to find relevant datasets.

- Full-text search across dataset names and descriptions
- Filter by domain category (e.g., "NNDSS", "Vaccinations", "Behavioral Risk Factors")
- Filter by domain tags (e.g., `["covid19", "surveillance"]`) — a dataset matches on any one tag, so each tag added widens the result set; narrow with `query` or `category`, which intersect with the tag set
- Returns dataset IDs, names, truncated descriptions, a column count with a short column sample, and update timestamps — use `cdc_get_dataset_schema` for the full column list
- Each result carries its catalog `assetType` (`dataset`, `filter`, `chart`, `map`, `story`, `file`, `href`); a `columnCount` of 0 marks an entry that is not tabular and yields no data from the other tools
- Pagination via offset for browsing large result sets — `offset` plus `limit` must not exceed 10,000, the ceiling the catalog enforces
- `domain` selects the host contacted, `data.cdc.gov` (default) or `chronicdata.cdc.gov` — both front the same catalog and return the same entries, so switching hosts neither widens nor narrows a search

---

### `cdc_get_dataset_schema`

Fetch the column schema for a specific dataset.

- Column names, data types, and full descriptions — never truncated per column
- Row count and last-updated timestamp
- Essential for understanding column types before writing `$where` clauses
- Accepts four-by-four dataset identifiers (e.g., `bi63-dtpu`)
- Returns the first 100 columns by default. Catalog schemas run from 3 to 322 columns, so every ordinary dataset arrives whole; wider ones report `totalCount`, `truncated`, and a `nextOffset` to pass back as `column_offset`. Raise `column_limit` (max 500) to pull a wide schema in one call
- A `column_offset` at or past the column count returns an empty window rather than an error
- Fails with `not_queryable` when the ID names a non-tabular catalog asset, rather than returning an empty column list
- `domain` selects the host contacted, `data.cdc.gov` (default) or `chronicdata.cdc.gov` — a four-by-four ID resolves on either

---

### `cdc_query_dataset`

Execute SoQL queries against any CDC dataset.

- Full SoQL support: `$select`, `$where`, `$group`, `$having`, `$order`
- Full-text search across all text columns via `$q`
- Up to 5,000 rows per request with pagination
- `truncated` is measured, not guessed: the request fetches one row past the limit and drops it, so a page that fills the limit exactly is reported as complete instead of sending you paginating an aggregate
- `nextOffset` names where to resume whenever rows remain. Pair it with an `order` clause — SODA does not order results implicitly, and `order=":id"` works on any dataset
- Rows are also bounded by a 200,000-character response budget, so a wide dataset at `limit: 5000` returns a usable page with a `nextOffset` rather than several megabytes
- Returns the SoQL clauses it sent as `effectiveQuery`, values in their original text rather than URL-encoded, so a clause can be copied back into the parameter it came from
- All response values are strings (per SODA v2.1) — parse based on column type metadata
- `domain` selects the host contacted, `data.cdc.gov` (default) or `chronicdata.cdc.gov` — a four-by-four ID returns the same rows from either

---

### `cdc_query_wonder`

Query CDC WONDER for national US mortality statistics — a separate CDC system from the Socrata datasets the other tools query.

`database` picks which of CDC's five mortality databases answers the query:

| Value | CDC database | Years | Race groups | `mcd_icd10` |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---|
| `underlying_1999_2020` *(default)* | D76 — Underlying Cause of Death | 1999–2020 | 4 bridged | — |
| `provisional` | D176 — Provisional Mortality Statistics | 2018 → current year | 6 single-race | yes |
| `underlying_2018_2024` | D158 — Underlying Cause of Death, Single Race | 2018–2024 | 6 single-race | — |
| `multiple_1999_2020` | D77 — Multiple Cause of Death | 1999–2020 | 4 bridged | yes |
| `multiple_2018_2024` | D157 — Multiple Cause of Death, Single Race | 2018–2024 | 6 single-race | yes |

- Group results by any of `year`, `age_group`, `sex`, `race` (1–4 dimensions)
- Filter by ICD-10 underlying cause, sex, age groups, and year range
- `age_groups` carries the whole list CDC offers: the eleven ten-year groups plus `NS`, the group for a death whose age was not recorded. Listing the eleven without `NS` returns fewer deaths than the same query unfiltered, so include it to match an all-ages total or select it alone to count those deaths
- `mcd_icd10` matches a cause recorded anywhere on the death certificate rather than only the one certified as underlying — "died with a respiratory condition listed", which no underlying-cause query can produce. Accepted only by the three databases marked above; the others reject it. A multiple-cause database queried without it returns the same figures as the underlying-cause database for the same years, and says so
- `year_range` carries the union of every database's span; a range outside the span of the one selected is rejected with that database's actual years named
- A `race` breakdown does not carry across the two race families — bridged race combines Asian and Pacific Islander into one group, single race splits them and adds a multiracial category, so the two series are not comparable
- Both cause filters also take `999--999`, CDC's marker for deaths whose cause it is still withholding under the provisional database's six-month reporting lag. Only `provisional` records them; the other databases reject the code, and the tool says which one to select
- Row dimension values are CDC's own labels with surrounding whitespace removed, so the same year keys identically across databases — CDC pads a few of them, and `"2024 "` and `"2024"` would otherwise read as two different years
- Provisional rows carry CDC's own year labels, e.g. `2025 (provisional)` and `2026 (provisional and partial)`, rather than a bare year
- Returns deaths, population, and crude death rate, plus age-adjusted rate when WONDER can standardize by age — omitted when grouping by `age_group` or filtering to a single age group
- Returns the whole table by default. A broad grouping runs long — `["year","age_group","sex","race"]` can pass a thousand rows — so `limit` (max 5,000) and `offset` take it a page at a time, alongside `totalCount`, `truncated`, and a `nextOffset` to resume from. An `offset` at or past the row total returns an empty page rather than an error
- Paging shapes the response only: WONDER's request carries no limit of its own,