Resources · Claude connector

Claude CKAN connectorWhat Claude can do in your CKAN account.

The Claude CKAN connector exposes 20 tools: 20 read, 0 write, 0 undescribed. They explore open data portals built on CKAN, such as dati.gov.it: dataset search, metadata, organizations, groups, tabular queries and quality scores. It installs as a Claude Desktop extension.

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Overview

What changes when Claude can browse CKAN portals

Every open data portal built on CKAN expects you to know its structure, its search syntax and its API. This connector, published by ondata, removes that barrier: you ask in plain English, Claude picks the right portal, finds the datasets, reads their metadata and queries the tables that can be queried.

Find the right dataset fast. A journalist wants air quality data for Milan; ckan_find_relevant_datasets ranks the candidates by relevance on dati.gov.it, and ckan_package_show opens the full metadata of the best one.

Answer a question straight from a table. A city analyst asks how many bike-sharing trips were logged last year; ckan_analyze_datasets shows which resources can be queried and their columns, and ckan_datastore_search_sql runs the SQL that returns the figure.

Start from the country, not the portal. A researcher has no idea which portals cover Portugal; ckan_find_portals searches a live registry of CKAN portals worldwide.

What it will not do: the connector does not publish or edit datasets on any portal, and nothing runs by itself when a portal adds new data. Claude only searches while it answers you, on the desktop app where the extension is installed. The Integrations hub lists the platforms we document.

Vocabulary

Five words before you install

The vocabulary Claude uses around this connector, in one minute.

Connector
The link you set up once between Claude and a service, so Claude can call it while it answers you.
Tool
One named thing a connector lets Claude do. Claude picks the ones it needs by itself; the directory sheet lists them by name.
Authorization
The access you grant Claude to a service. Public CKAN portals are open to everyone, so here it comes down to letting Claude use the tools.
Approval
The confirmation Claude waits for before it does something on your behalf, shown in the conversation when it matters.
MCP
The shared standard connectors are built on: it is what lets an assistant such as Claude talk to an outside service like a CKAN portal.
Connect

Connect CKAN to Claude in three steps

  1. 01

    Find CKAN in your settings

    Open Claude Desktop's settings, go to Customize, then Connectors, and look for the CKAN extension. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner has to enable it for the organization before members can install it individually.

  2. 02

    Start the installation

    Launch it from its row and follow the prompts. If it stops responding later, Disconnect it and set it up again: that usually repairs a broken connection without anything else to do.

  3. 03

    Check what you allow

    Read any permission screen before you validate: it belongs to the service, not to Claude, and it is what sets the scope of the access. The portals themselves are public, so there is no personal account to hand over.

Tools

The 20 tools, grouped by what they do

CKAN MCP Server gives Claude 20 tools: 20 that read your account, 0 that change something in it.

One group only: the publisher marks all twenty as read-only, and each one consults public portal data. Names stay exactly as Claude shows them.

  • 20 read

What Claude reads (20)

20 tools

Twenty tools that search portals, read metadata and query open tables without touching anything.

ckan_find_relevant_datasets

Ranks datasets by relevance to your question, scoring several fields with weights instead of returning raw matches, so the most fitting candidates come first.

When it helps
a student asks for anything about school canteens and does not know the portal's vocabulary.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_package_show

Opens the complete metadata of one dataset: resources, publishing organization, tags and every metadata field the portal holds.

When it helps
before citing a dataset in a report, you check its licence and its publisher, so the citation names the right source and terms of reuse.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_list_resources

Summarises every resource inside a dataset in a compact table: format, size, whether the DataStore is enabled for it, and the download link.

When it helps
a dataset holds a dozen files and you want to know which one is a queryable CSV, without downloading each file to find out.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_organization_list

Lists every organization on a CKAN portal, meaning the bodies that publish and manage its datasets.

When it helps
you discover a new portal and want to see who publishes on it before searching anything specific, and to spot which bodies are the most active there.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_organization_show

Shows the details of one specific organization on a portal, once you know which publisher you are after.

When it helps
a consultant wants the profile of the national statistics office on a portal before digging into what it publishes there.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_datastore_search_sql

Runs SQL queries on a DataStore resource, which lets Claude aggregate, filter and sort a public table to answer a numeric question directly.

When it helps
an analyst asks for total spending per department in a published budget file.
Watch out
it only works on portals that expose SQL access to the DataStore.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_status_show

Checks whether a CKAN portal is reachable and reports the version it runs.

When it helps
searches keep failing and you want to know whether the portal itself is down before blaming the query, and before rewriting a query that was probably fine.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_tag_list

Lists the tags used on a portal with their counts, which reveals the vocabulary the publishers actually use.

When it helps
you want to know whether a portal says mobility, transport or traffic before searching, so the next query uses the words the portal really knows.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_group_list

Lists the groups of a portal, the thematic collections that bring datasets together.

When it helps
you want a feel for the themes a portal covers without reading through its catalogue page by page, and to decide where a deeper search is worth the time.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_group_show

Opens the details of one thematic group, for a focused view of a single theme on the portal.

When it helps
a teacher preparing a lesson wants every dataset filed under the education theme, and starts from that theme rather than from a blank search box.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_get_mqa_quality

Fetches the Metadata Quality Assessment score of a dati.gov.it dataset from data.europa.eu.

When it helps
a public data officer wants to know quickly how a published dataset rates, before deciding whether its metadata deserve a closer look.
Watch out
it only covers datasets on dati.gov.it.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_get_mqa_quality_details

Lists every failing metadata quality metric of a dati.gov.it dataset, grouped by FAIR dimension, so the weak points show up one by one.

When it helps
an open data team prioritises which metadata fixes bring the biggest gain.
Watch out
same scope as the score tool, dati.gov.it only.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_analyze_datasets

Combines a dataset search with an inspection of the DataStore schema of each queryable resource it finds, in a single call.

When it helps
you want to know which of several crime datasets has the columns you need, before running a single query on the wrong table.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_catalog_stats

Gives a statistical overview of a portal: total number of datasets and the breakdown by category, format and organization, with no query needed, in a single call.

When it helps
a researcher compares how much two national portals publish, and in which formats.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

sparql_query

Runs a SPARQL SELECT query against any public SPARQL endpoint served over HTTPS, outside CKAN itself.

When it helps
you need linked data that sits outside CKAN, for example official EU vocabularies, and want them in the same conversation as the CKAN results.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

ckan_find_portals

Searches the live datashades.info registry of about 950 CKAN portals worldwide, so you know where to look before searching any dataset.

When it helps
you need open data on Portugal and have no idea which portals exist, and want a starting list before searching anything.

Sourceckan-mcp-server.andy-pr.workers.dev · October 1, 2026 ↗

Approvals

What Claude asks before acting

By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before each action it takes on your behalf. The publisher's guide shows the prompt you get on Claude Desktop the first time a CKAN tool is used.

On Team and Enterprise workspaces, owners decide whether members may let some actions through without being asked each time. They can also limit what a connector may do for the whole organization, for example keeping reading and closing writing, and nobody overrides that from their own account. Claude works with the rights of the person who installed it and nothing beyond; here the portals are public, so it sees what any visitor sees.

Plans

Which plans include it

None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows availability by plan. Connector by connector, that answer is published nowhere: it is a real gap in the catalogue.

What is published is the general rule: desktop extensions such as this one install on Claude Desktop, while remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner turns a connector on for the organization first. For the current state of this one, check its sheet in the official directory.

Limits

Where this connector stops

A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you; nothing fires when a portal publishes a new dataset.

The tool list is an observed floor, not a promise: an administrator can open actions that no public sheet shows. The verification badge is not a security audit, and Anthropic states on every sheet that it does not control which tools a publisher exposes. Only the ondata repository documents this connector; no Claude help article covers it. To compare with a connector tied to a private account, see the Claude agility-cms connector.

Need help

Need help connecting CKAN MCP Server to Claude?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

Questions about the Claude CKAN connector

01What can Claude do with the CKAN connector?
Claude can explore public open data portals built on CKAN from Claude Desktop. Its twenty tools search and rank datasets, open their metadata and resource lists, browse organizations, groups and tags, query tabular resources directly or in SQL, report a portal's status and statistics, score metadata quality on dati.gov.it, run SPARQL queries on public endpoints and find CKAN portals by country, language or topic. The publisher documents every tool. Nothing here is guessed.
02Can Claude publish or edit datasets on a CKAN portal?
No tool on the directory sheet writes. All twenty consult public portal data, and the publisher marks each one as read-only: none publishes a dataset, edits metadata or uploads a file. That is the floor observed on the public sheet rather than a promise for the future, since an administrator can open actions that no public page shows. Today, the connector is a research tool for open data, and every tool carries the read-only marker in the list the publisher's own server returns.
03Does Claude ask before it uses a CKAN tool?
Claude's default rule is to ask for confirmation before any action it takes on your behalf. For this extension, the publisher's guide adds that Claude asks the first time it wants to use a tool, and that you answer with Allow or Always allow. No source describes a confirmation tied to one specific tool. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, owners also decide whether members may skip some prompts, and they can limit what the connector may do for the whole organization.
04Which Claude plans include the CKAN connector?
No official source publishes plan availability connector by connector, and none of the 819 directory sheets shows it. The general rule is that desktop extensions install on Claude Desktop, while remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile, with an Owner or Primary Owner enabling them first on Team and Enterprise. The publisher's repository names no Claude plan. Check the connector's sheet in the directory.
05Does Claude see private datasets on our CKAN portal?
Nothing in the documentation suggests so. The connector is built to explore public open data portals, the kind anyone can browse, and the tools read what those portals publish. Claude never works beyond the rights of the person who installed it. If your organization runs a CKAN instance with restricted datasets, do not assume Claude reaches them; check with your portal administrators and test on a public dataset first. The publisher's documentation says nothing about private datasets.
06Why does Claude return only part of a large table?
Because the connector caps what it sends back. A DataStore query returns 100 rows by default, up to 32,000 when asked, and any single tool answer stops at 50,000 characters. On a big table, the better approach is to let Claude aggregate in SQL, filter by year or area, or ask only for the columns you need. You get a precise answer instead of a truncated dump. The character cap is fixed for the whole server, so no setting raises it.
07Claude or an automation tool for open data monitoring?
They answer different needs, so the choice depends on the task rather than on a ranking. Claude suits questions asked on the spot, such as finding the right dataset or computing a total from a public table, and it only acts while you are talking to it. An automation tool suits repeated jobs that run without you, such as checking a portal every morning for a new release. Data teams often keep both.