How to give an AI agent access to US government data

Last updated: May 21, 2026

The fastest way to give an AI agent access to US government data is to connect it to a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that already wraps the sources. You add one endpoint and one API key, and the agent can call tools like edgar_company_facts, sanctions_screen_entity, and fmcsa_carrier_lookup without a custom integration per agency. LiveDataLink is that server: 278 tools across 58 US public-data domains behind https://livedatalink.ai/mcp.

Why not just call the agency APIs directly

You can, and for a single source it is often the right call. The pain starts at scale. SEC EDGAR, OFAC, FMCSA, Census, FRED, USPTO, CourtListener, and the rest each have their own base URL, auth model, rate limits, pagination, and response shape. Wiring five of them into an agent means five clients to build and keep alive, and five different JSON shapes your agent has to reason about. MCP collapses that into one protocol: the agent discovers the available tools, reads their input schemas, and calls them the same way every time.

Connect the server

LiveDataLink speaks Streamable HTTP with bearer auth, so it drops into any MCP client (Claude, Cursor, n8n, or a custom client) as a remote server. Get a free key at /signup/free (1,000 queries per month, no credit card), then add this config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "livedatalink": {
      "url": "https://livedatalink.ai/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

That is the whole setup. Every one of the 278 tools loads under the same key, so there is no per-domain onboarding.

Let the agent discover what it can reach

You do not have to hard-code tool names. The agent can search the catalog at runtime and get back the exact tools that match its task:

{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "search_available_datasets",
    "arguments": { "query": "company sanctions and SEC filings" }
  }
}

To keep the agent's context window lean, load only the tool groups you need by connecting to https://livedatalink.ai/mcp?groups=sanctions,edgar or sending an X-Tool-Groups header. Call list_tool_groups to see every group.

What your agent can now do

Company research. Pull SEC EDGAR filings, financial facts, and registration status by name or ticker.
Risk and compliance. Screen names against OFAC, EU, UN, and BIS lists, and check federal court litigation.
Public safety. Look up trucking carriers in FMCSA, decode VINs, and pull NHTSA and CPSC recalls.
Economics and geography. Query Census, FRED, and USAspending for population, macro series, and federal award data.

See the full domain list at /data, or the packaged decision tools at /decisions.

FAQ

Which agent frameworks does this work with?

Any MCP client. That includes Claude, Cursor, and n8n's native MCP node, plus custom clients built on the OpenAI Agents SDK, LangChain, or your own code. If it speaks Streamable-HTTP MCP with a bearer header, it connects.

Do I need a separate key per data source?

No. One key unlocks all 278 tools across all 58 domains. There is no per-domain setup or contract.

Is the data safe to redistribute in my product?

The sources are US public-domain and openly licensed data, which is resale-safe. See /trust for the provenance and licensing detail.

Last updated: May 21, 2026 · LiveDataLink home