readabs-mcp

An MCP (Matt Cowgill Protocol) server that gives Claude (and other LLM clients) access to Australian Bureau of Statistics data via the R readabs package.

Tools

Tool	Description
abs_list_catalogues	Search or list ABS data cube catalogues by keyword
abs_list_files	List downloadable Excel files within a catalogue
abs_list_api_dataflows	List all ABS.Stat SDMX API dataflows
abs_get_api_datastructure	Get dimension codebook for an API dataflow
abs_check_latest_date	Check the most recent observation date for a series
abs_get_catalogue	Download and tidy ABS time series spreadsheet data
abs_get_api	Query the ABS.Stat SDMX API with dimension filters
abs_get_data_cube	Download a non-standard ABS data cube (Excel) and return its first sheet
abs_get_cpi	Convenience wrapper: Australian CPI back to 1948
abs_get_awe	Convenience wrapper: Average Weekly Earnings back to 1983

Downloaded files are cached locally at ~/.readabs-mcp/cache (override with READABS_CACHE_PATH).

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18
• R with the following packages:

install.packages(c("readabs", "jsonlite", "dplyr", "readxl"))

Installation

Claude Code (recommended)

claude mcp add --scope user --transport stdio readabs-mcp -- npx tsx /path/to/readabs-mcp/src/index.ts

Or after building:

npm install
npm run build
claude mcp add --scope user --transport stdio readabs-mcp -- node /path/to/readabs-mcp/dist/index.js

Other MCP clients

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "readabs-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/readabs-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
READABS_CACHE_PATH	~/.readabs-mcp/cache	Where to cache downloaded ABS files
RSCRIPT_PATH	Rscript	Path to the Rscript executable

Architecture

TypeScript MCP server (stdio transport) → spawns Rscript r/worker.R per call → R reads stdin JSON, calls readabs, writes result JSON to stdout.

License

MIT