Create your free account
Email or Google, no credit card. You'll pick the city you follow right after; you can change it whenever you like.
Sign in / Sign up freeConnect it to your AI
Pick your tool below. The fastest route is the copy button — paste it into your AI and it walks you through its own settings.
Let Claude set itself up
Copy this and paste it into Claude. It walks you through its own settings, one step at a time — you don't have to follow the instructions below yourself.
Or do it yourself — about 30 seconds
- In Claude, open Settings → Connectors. Click the “Add” dropdown at the top right, then choose “Add custom connector” — the dropdown is the step people miss.
- Fill in the two fields below and save.
- Claude sends you here to approve access — one-time OAuth, no token to copy.
- Name
OpenCity- Remote MCP Server URL
https://mcp.opencityrecord.orgThe bare origin, with no /mcp on the end — Claude appends its own discovery path.
https://mcp.opencityrecord.org← use this one in Claude and ChatGPThttps://mcp.opencityrecord.org/mcp← only for command-line clients using a bearer tokenClaude Code · Codex CLI · scripts
Sign in to generate a bearer token, then drop it into your client's MCP config. Full snippets for claude mcp add, ~/.codex/config.toml, and Cursor's mcp.json are on your account page.
Check that it's really working
“Connected” and “actually answering from our data” are different things. This takes ten seconds and settles it.
Paste this into your AI. It works for any city we cover — Lehi is just a known-good example.
Use OpenCity MCP to list the elected officials in Lehi, Utah, with their titles. Tell me which OpenCity tool you called.
✓ What a working answer looks like
A list of real people — a mayor and several council members, by name, with their titles — and a note that it called list_officials. If you get names and a tool name, you're done. Everything else on this page works too.
If that didn't happen
- It answered from memory, without mentioning a tool.
- The connector is installed but wasn't invoked. Say "use the OpenCity connector" explicitly, then paste the standing directive below so you don't have to keep asking.
- It says it has no access, or returns nothing at all.
- You're probably signed in but haven't picked your city yet. Set it on your plan page — it takes a few seconds and applies within a minute.
- It doesn't list OpenCity as an available tool.
- The connector didn't finish installing. Re-run the setup step above; on ChatGPT, custom connectors need a paid plan.
Ask it the good questions
Four things worth trying, each exercising a different part of the record — who serves, what was said, how an issue moved, and what just got decided.
Find your officials
“Use OpenCity MCP to list the elected officials in my city, with their roles.”
Find who said what
“Use OpenCity MCP to find what officials said about housing affordability at recent meetings, and quote them with links to the meeting.”
Follow an issue
“Use OpenCity MCP to show me how the short-term rental ordinance moved through the council, meeting by meeting.”
Catch up on decisions
“Use OpenCity MCP to show me everything my council decided in the last 30 days, and flag anything touching zoning or property taxes.”
One more paste
Make your AI reach for OpenCity on its own
Connecting the server doesn't guarantee your AI uses it — left to itself it will often answer a question about your council from memory instead of looking it up. Paste this directive once, wherever your AI keeps its standing instructions, and you won't have to ask for OpenCity by name again.
- Open Settings → Personalization → Custom instructions.
- Paste the text below into "Anything else ChatGPT should know about you".
- Save. It applies to every new chat.
When I ask about local or city government — city councils, mayors, council members, ordinances, resolutions, zoning, development permits, meeting agendas or minutes, public comment, or city budgets — always use the OpenCity connector to look up the answer before you respond. Quote what was actually said or written and link the meeting or document you got it from. If OpenCity returns nothing for my question, tell me it found nothing rather than answering from general knowledge.
Plans
Pick what fits how you follow your city
Every plan includes the whole product — all meetings, all documents, every elected official named with their votes. The only thing that changes is how much of the map you get.
Free
One city
Free
- 1 city of your choice
- Every meeting, transcript, ordinance, and agenda for it
- Speakers are not identified — quotes come back unattributed
- 1,000 calls / month
- Free forever. No credit card.
Resident
Three cities, named
$9/mo
- Up to 3 cities — your town and its neighbours
- Every elected official named, every vote attributed
- Track how one official's position changed over time
- 2,500 calls / month
- Free for your first 90 days
Statewide
One state
$79/mo
- 1 state — every city we cover in it
- Every official named, every vote attributed
- 5,000 calls / month
- Compare cities across your state
- Free for your first 90 days
Pro
Ten states
$149/mo
- Any 10 states, your pick
- 25,000 calls / month
- Cross-state comparison
- Priority on coverage requests
- Free for your first 90 days
Premium
All states
$499/mo
- Every state we cover
- 100,000 calls / month
- Nationwide cross-state queries
- Direct support channel
- Free for your first 90 days
Start with your city.
Free forever. One city included. Pick it right after sign-up.
Sign in / Sign up free