🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

📊 zh-education-mcp

MCP server for education statistics of the Canton and City of Zurich (BISTA)

Overview

zh-education-mcp connects AI assistants to the Bildungsstatistik Kanton Zürich (BISTA) — the official education statistics of the Canton of Zurich. It provides structured access to pupil numbers, school district trends, secondary school profiles, nationality breakdowns, and gymnasium graduation rates.

Source	Data	API
BISTA Kanton Zürich	Learner statistics (Volksschule, Mittelschulen, Maturität)	REST/CSV

All data is fetched from the BISTA public API (bista.zh.ch/basicapi/ogd/) — no API key required. Data is updated annually on 15 September (reference date).

Anchor demo query: "How has the number of pupils in school district Letzi developed over the last 5 years?"

Demo

zh-education-mcp demo: Claude queries BISTA data

Features

📊 8 tools for education data across all school levels
🔍 School district trends — pupil numbers for all Schulkreise (Letzi, Glattal, Schwamendingen, Oerlikon, Uto, Waidberg, Zürichberg) from 2000 to present
🏫 Secondary school profiles — breakdown by requirement type (Sek A/B/C, Mittelschule, special classes)
🌐 Nationality structure — top nationalities of pupils per school community
🎓 Gymnasium graduation rates — Maturitätsquote by municipality, district, and canton
📈 Canton-wide overview — all learners by school level, type, gender, and nationality
🏠 Residence-based trends — pupil counts by place of residence (Bezirk / Gemeinde)
🏛️ Mittelschulen — Gymnasium, FMS, HMS statistics
🔓 No API key required — all data under CC BY 4.0
☁️ Dual transport — stdio (Claude Desktop) + Streamable HTTP (cloud)

Prerequisites

Python 3.11+
uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/zh-education-mcp.git
cd zh-education-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .
# or with uv:
uv pip install -e .

Or with uvx (no permanent installation):

uvx zh-education-mcp

Quickstart

# stdio (for Claude Desktop)
python -m zh_education_mcp.server

# Streamable HTTP (port 8000)
python -m zh_education_mcp.server --http --port 8000

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Wie hat sich die Lernendenzahl im Schulkreis Letzi entwickelt?" "Zeige die Maturitätsquote der Stadt Zürich" "Welche Nationalitäten sind in Adliswil am häufigsten?"

→ More use cases by audience →

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zh-education": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "zh_education_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Or with uvx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zh-education": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["zh-education-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Cloud Deployment (Streamable HTTP for browser access)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

Render.com (recommended):

Push/fork the repository to GitHub
On render.com: New Web Service → runtime Docker (uses the provided Dockerfile)
Set env vars: MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http, MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0, MCP_PORT=8000, and MCP_CORS_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai
In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp

💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, Streamable HTTP for the browser."

Health probe: GET /health. Full deployment guide (container, load balancing, CORS, resource limits): docs/deployment.md.

Available Tools

Tool	Description
`zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden`	List all school communities / Schulkreise in Canton Zurich
`zh_edu_schulkreis_trend`	Pupil trend by Schulkreis (2000–present)
`zh_edu_overview`	Canton-wide learner overview by school level
`zh_edu_sek1_profil`	Secondary I profile (Sek A/B/C breakdown)
`zh_edu_staatsangehoerigkeiten`	Nationality structure of pupils per school community
`zh_edu_maturitaetsquote`	Gymnasium graduation rates by municipality / district
`zh_edu_wohnort_trend`	Residence-based learner trend (Bezirk / Gemeinde)
`zh_edu_mittelschulen`	Secondary school statistics (Gymnasium, FMS, HMS)

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"List all Schulkreise in Zurich"	`zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden`
"Pupil trend in Letzi over 5 years"	`zh_edu_schulkreis_trend`
"How many Sek A vs Sek B in Winterthur?"	`zh_edu_sek1_profil`
"Top nationalities in Zürich-Letzi"	`zh_edu_staatsangehoerigkeiten`
"Maturitätsquote of Stadt Zürich"	`zh_edu_maturitaetsquote`

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│  zh-education-mcp            │────▶│  BISTA Kanton Zürich     │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│  (MCP Server)                │◀────│  REST/CSV (Public API)   │
└─────────────────┘     │                              │     └──────────────────────────┘
                        │  8 Tools                     │
                        │  Stdio | Streamable HTTP     │
                        │  24h Cache                   │
                        │  No authentication required  │
                        └──────────────────────────────┘

Data Source Characteristics

Source	Protocol	Coverage	Auth	Update
BISTA Kanton ZH	REST/CSV	Learner statistics 2000–present	None	Annual (15 Sep)

Project Structure

zh-education-mcp/
├── src/zh_education_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Package
│   ├── config.py               # ENV settings (MCP_*)
│   ├── constants.py            # API base, endpoints, timeouts
│   ├── logging_setup.py        # structured stderr logging
│   ├── provenance.py           # response envelope, license attribution
│   ├── http_client.py          # egress guard, connection pool, lifespan
│   ├── data.py                 # cache, CSV fetch, filters, error handling
│   ├── models.py               # Pydantic input models
│   ├── tools.py                # FastMCP instance, 8 tools, 2 resources
│   └── server.py               # thin composition layer + entrypoint
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py           # Unit tests (mocked HTTP with respx)
├── docs/                        # deployment, security, egress, roadmap, …
├── Dockerfile                   # multi-stage, non-root, healthcheck
├── docker-compose.yml           # resource limits, read-only rootfs
├── .github/workflows/ci.yml     # GitHub Actions (Python 3.11/3.12/3.13)
├── .github/dependabot.yml       # monthly dependency updates
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md              # + CONTRIBUTING.de.md
├── SECURITY.md                  # + SECURITY.de.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                    # This file (English)
└── README.de.md                 # German version

Known Limitations

Annual updates only: BISTA data is updated once per year (reference date: 15 September). The 24h in-memory cache matches this cycle.
CSV-based API: The BISTA API returns CSV data; large datasets may take a moment to parse.
School community names: Names must match exactly (use zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden to find valid names).

Safety & Limits

Topic	Details
No personal data	BISTA statistics are aggregated — no individual pupil data is exposed or accessible. All figures are anonymized at the school community level.
Read-only	All tools are read-only (`readOnlyHint: true`). The server cannot modify, delete, or write any data.
No authentication	The BISTA API is fully public. No API keys, tokens, or credentials are stored or transmitted.
Rate limits	The BISTA API has no documented rate limit, but the server uses a 24h in-memory cache to minimize requests. Please use responsibly.
Data license	All data is published under CC BY 4.0 by the Canton of Zurich. Attribution: Bildungsstatistik Kanton Zürich (BISTA).
Terms of Service	Usage is subject to the BISTA terms of use. The MCP server is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with the Canton of Zurich.
AI output disclaimer	Statistics are passed through as-is from the BISTA API. AI-generated interpretations or summaries should be verified against the official BISTA portal.

Testing

# Unit tests (no API calls)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (live API calls)
pytest tests/ -m "live"

MCP Protocol Version

This server targets the MCP specification as implemented by the pinned mcp[cli] SDK (see pyproject.toml). Protocol/spec-version bumps are recorded in CHANGELOG.md. Dependencies (incl. the MCP SDK) receive monthly update PRs via Dependabot (.github/dependabot.yml).

Project phase: Phase 1 — read-only (all tools readOnlyHint: true). See docs/roadmap.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md · 🇩🇪 Beitragen

Security

See SECURITY.md · 🇩🇪 Sicherheit

License

MIT License — see LICENSE

Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

Credits & Related Projects

BISTA: pub.bista.zh.ch — Bildungsstatistik Kanton Zürich (CC BY 4.0)
Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
Related: zurich-opendata-mcp — Zurich city open data (parking, weather, parliament)
Related: swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp — Swiss cultural heritage data
Related: fedlex-mcp — Swiss federal law
Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

Installation

Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zh-education-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "zh-education-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}