Bring Legislation
to Claude Desktop
Create your Vinkius account to connect OpenStates to Claude Desktop and start using all 7 AI tools in minutes. Fully managed, enterprise secure, and ready to use without writing a single line of code. No hosting, no server setup — just connect and start using.
GDPR Free for SubscribersCompatible with every major AI agent and IDE
Gemini
What is the OpenStates MCP Server?
Equip your AI agent with the most comprehensive US state-level legislative intelligence via OpenStates. This unified server provides your agent with instant access to bills, legislators, and committee metadata across all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. Your agent can instantly search for specific legislation, audit legislator profiles, and retrieve committee memberships without you ever manually checking a government site. Whether you are tracking policy trends or verifying legislative actions, your agent acts as a dedicated political analyst through natural conversation.
What you can do
- Bill Discovery — Search for thousands of legislative bills by keyword, jurisdiction, and session.
- Legislator Auditing — Fetch complete profiles, contact information, and current roles for state legislators.
- Committee Intelligence — List all legislative committees in a jurisdiction and retrieve their detailed membership lists.
- Jurisdiction Lookup — List and inspect all supported states and jurisdictions to understand current legislative coverage.
- Deep Metadata — Retrieve detailed actions and versions for specific bills to analyze the legislative process.
How it works
- Subscribe to this server
- Enter your OpenStates API Key
- Start managing your legislative intelligence from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client
Who is this for?
- Advocacy & Policy Teams — instantly monitor relevant bills and track legislator stances across different states.
- Journalists & Researchers — retrieve historical legislative data and committee memberships for reporting and analysis.
- IT & Civic Tech Developers — integrate clean legislative data into transparency tools and public dashboards.
- Citizens & Constituents — stay updated on local legislative actions and find contact info for their representatives.
- Legal Professionals — verify the current status and versions of state-level legislation.
Built-in capabilities (7)
Get bill details
Get committee details
Get legislator details
List committees in a jurisdiction
List all jurisdictions
Search for legislative bills
Search for legislators
Why Claude Desktop?
Claude Desktop is the definitive way to connect OpenStates to your AI workflow. Add Vinkius Edge URL to your config, restart the app, and Claude immediately exposes all 7 tools in the chat interface. ask a question, Claude calls the right tool, and you see the answer. Zero code, zero context switching.
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Claude Desktop is the reference MCP client. it was designed alongside the protocol itself, ensuring the most complete and stable MCP implementation available
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Zero-code configuration: add a server URL to a JSON file and Claude instantly discovers and exposes all available tools in the chat interface
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Claude's extended thinking capability lets it reason through multi-step tool usage, chaining multiple API calls to answer complex questions
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Enterprise-grade security with local config storage. your tokens never leave your machine, and connections go directly to Vinkius Edge network
OpenStates in Claude Desktop
Why run OpenStates with Vinkius?
The OpenStates connection runs on our fully managed, secure cloud infrastructure. We handle the hosting, maintenance, and security so you don't have to deal with servers or code. All 7 tools are ready to work instantly without any complex setup.
You stay in complete control of your data. Your AI only accesses the information you approve, keeping your sensitive passwords and private details completely safe. Plus, with automatic optimizations, your AI works faster and more efficiently.
* Every connection is hosted and maintained by Vinkius. We handle the security, updates, and infrastructure so you don't have to write code or manage servers. See our infrastructure
Over 4,000 integrations ready for AI agents
Explore a vast library of pre-built integrations, optimized and ready to deploy.
Connect securely in under 30 seconds
Generate tokens to authenticate and link external services in a single step.
Complete visibility into every agent action
Audit live requests, latency, success rates, and active security compliance policies.
Optimize spending and track token ROI
Analyze real-time token consumption and cost metrics detailed by connection.
Explore our live AI Agents Analytics dashboard to see it all working
This dashboard is included when you connect OpenStates using Vinkius. You will never be left in the dark about what your AI agents are doing with your tools.
OpenStates and 4,000+ other AI tools. No hosting, no code, ready to use.
Professionals who connect OpenStates to Claude Desktop through Vinkius don't need to write code, manage servers, or worry about security. Everything is pre-configured, secure, and runs automatically in the background.
Raw MCP | Vinkius | |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-to-use MCPs | Find and configure each manually | 4,000+ MCPs ready to use |
| Connection Setup | Manual coding & server setup | 1-click instant connection |
| Server Hosting | You host it yourself (needs 24/7 uptime) | 100% hosted & managed by Vinkius |
| Security & Privacy | Stored in plaintext config files | Bank-grade encrypted vault |
| Activity Visibility | Blind execution (no logs or tracking) | Live dashboard with real-time logs |
| Cost Control | Runaway AI token spend risk | Automatic budget limits |
| Revoking Access | Must delete files or code to stop | 1-click disconnect button |
How Vinkius secures
OpenStates for Claude Desktop
Every request between Claude Desktop and OpenStates is protected by our secure gateway. We automatically keep your sensitive data private, prevent unauthorized access, and let you disconnect instantly at any time.
Frequently asked questions
Which US states are covered by this integration?
OpenStates covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. You can use the list_jurisdictions tool to see the full list of currently active jurisdictions.
Can I search for bills by specific keywords like 'environment' or 'education'?
Yes! Use the search_bills tool, provide the state name in the jurisdiction parameter, and your keywords in the q parameter. Your agent will return all matching legislation.
How do I get the contact information for my state representative?
First, find the legislator using search_legislators with their name or district. Then, use the get_legislator_details tool with their ID to retrieve their official email, office address, and phone number.
How does Claude Desktop discover MCP tools?
When Claude Desktop starts, it reads the claude_desktop_config.json file and connects to each configured MCP server. It calls the tools/list endpoint to fetch the schema for every available tool, then surfaces them as clickable options in the chat interface via the 🔌 icon.
What happens if the MCP server is temporarily unavailable?
Claude Desktop handles disconnections gracefully. if the server is unreachable at startup, the tools simply won't appear. Once the server becomes available again, restarting Claude Desktop will re-establish the connection. There is no timeout penalty or error loop.
Can I connect multiple MCP servers simultaneously?
Yes. You can add as many servers as you need in the mcpServers section of the config file. Each server appears as a separate tool provider, and Claude can use tools from multiple servers in a single conversation turn.
Is there a limit on the number of tools per server?
Claude Desktop can handle hundreds of tools per server. However, for optimal LLM performance, Vinkius servers are designed to expose focused, well-documented tool sets rather than overwhelming the model with too many options.
Does Claude Desktop support Streamable HTTP transport?
Yes. Claude Desktop supports both SSE (Server-Sent Events) and the newer Streamable HTTP transport that Vinkius uses. Simply provide the server URL. Claude auto-negotiates the transport protocol.
Server not appearing after restart
Ensure the JSON is valid (no trailing commas). Check the file path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\\Claude\\ (Windows).
Authentication error
Verify your Vinkius token is correct. Go to cloud.vinkius.com to regenerate it if needed.
Tools not showing in chat
Click the 🔌 icon at the bottom of the chat input. If it shows 0 tools, the server may still be connecting. wait a few seconds.
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