Regulations.gov MCP

Regulations.gov MCP

A Model Context Protocol server that wraps the Regulations.gov REST API as deterministic tool calls. Built for federal acquisition policy teams, regulatory affairs analysts, advocacy groups, FAR/DFARS Council watchers, and anyone who tracks rulemaking dockets, public comments, or FAR cases.

8 tools covering federal rulemaking activity. Hardened across multiple live audit rounds. MIT licensed. Free api.data.gov key required.

What it does

Docket Search and Detail

• search_dockets: search dockets by agency, document type, or keyword
• get_docket_detail: pull docket detail including all associated documents and comment periods
• Filter by FAR Council, DARS, SBA, OFPP, or any agency supplement
• Returns docket title, abstract, agency, dates, all associated documents

Document Search and Detail

• search_documents: search across rulemaking documents (proposed rules, final rules, notices, supporting materials)
• get_document_detail: pull full document detail with attachments, CFR parts affected, and effective dates
• Filter by docket, agency, document type, posting date

Public Comments

• search_comments: search by docket, commenter type, keyword, or submission date
• get_comment_detail: pull individual comment detail with full text and attachments
• Filter by submission date, organization vs individual, duplicate flagging
• Returns comment text, attachments, submitter info (where public)

Open Comment Periods

• open_comment_periods: list all currently open comment periods
• Filter by agency, FAR/DFARS part, or topic
• Sorted by closing date

FAR Case History

• far_case_history: specialized tool pulling the full history of a FAR case across all related dockets and documents
• ANPRM → NPRM → Final Rule lifecycle tracking
• Cross-references Regulations.gov dockets with their Federal Register publications

Use cases

• Track active FAR/DFARS rulemaking dockets and the comments coming in
• Aggregate and summarize public comments on a proposed rule (industry vs government vs individual stakeholder positions)
• Monitor open comment periods affecting your agency's acquisition policy
• Build regulatory tracking dashboards for policy teams
• Pull comment text for inclusion in agency rulemaking summaries
• Identify dockets where industry pushback may slow or reshape a final rule
• Pre-publication research: who's commenting on this proposed rule and what are they saying

Compatibility

• Claude Desktop (one-click .mcpb install or Copy JSON)
• Codex (ChatGPT) via TOML config or codex mcp add
• Gemini CLI via ~/.gemini/settings.json
• Copilot via .vscode/mcp.json in VS Code
• Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Zed, Continue, and any other MCP-compatible client

Install

Requires a free api.data.gov key from https://api.data.gov/signup/ (1,000 requests/hour). The same key works for the gsa-perdiem MCP.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "regulations-gov": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--refresh-package", "regulationsgov-mcp", "--from", "regulationsgov-mcp", "regulationsgov-mcp"],
      "env": { "REGULATIONS_GOV_API_KEY": "your-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

TOML config (Codex):

[mcp_servers.regulations-gov]
command = "uvx"
args = ["--refresh-package", "regulationsgov-mcp", "--from", "regulationsgov-mcp", "regulationsgov-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.regulations-gov.env]
REGULATIONS_GOV_API_KEY = "your-key-here"

PyPI: pip install regulationsgov-mcp or uvx regulationsgov-mcp

Example prompts

• "Show me all open FAR Council comment periods and how many days are left to comment."
• "Pull the full FAR Case 2024-005 history: every docket, every document, every comment period."
• "Search Regulations.gov for comments on the recent CMMC final rule."
• "What dockets has the SBA opened in the last 60 days?"
• "Pull the comment count and top commenter types for docket FAR-2024-0042."
• "List all open comment periods affecting DFARS subpart 252.204."
• "Aggregate the substantive industry comments on FAR Case 2023-007 and group them by theme."
• "Pull the latest 10 comments submitted on docket DARS-2024-0001 and summarize the positions."

Hardening

Live-audited against the production Regulations.gov API across multiple rounds. Handles api.data.gov key forwarding, docket type variants, comment attachment metadata, pagination for large dockets (some FAR cases attract thousands of comments), and rate-limit backoff. Pydantic models use extra="forbid" to surface schema drift. FAR case history tool tested against active and closed cases.

Source

• GitHub: https://github.com/1102tools/federal-contracting-mcps/tree/main/servers/regulations-gov-mcp
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/regulationsgov-mcp/
• Docs: https://1102tools.com/install
• Part of the 1102tools suite: 8 federal contracting MCPs + 6 Claude Skills
• License: MIT