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Nearby Permits MCP Server

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Nearby Permits is listed as active in the registry but did not answer our last check. It exposes 6 tools.

Building permits by address for a growing list of US cities and counties, from city open data.

The linked repository no longer exists on GitHub — it was deleted or made private.

Uptime history 40 days of history · worst day 0%
40 days agonow
1.1%
Uptime 24h
1 of 92 checks
6
Tools
read from the server
240 ms
Response time
average over 24h
open, no key
Access
streamable-http

What changed 17

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 1 October 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

23 Oct 2 tool descriptions were rewritten permits_at_address, permits_near
7 Oct 2 tool descriptions were rewritten3 times that day permits_at_address, permits_near
7 Oct a tool appeared zoning_requests_near
6 Oct a tool description was rewritten2 times that day permits_at_address
3 Oct 3 tool descriptions were rewritten list_cities, permits_at_address, recent_permits
3 Oct a tool appeared permits_near
1 Oct 3 tool descriptions were rewritten4 times that day get_permit, permits_at_address, recent_permits
1 Oct a tool changed the parameters it asks for recent_permits
and 3 more, back to 1 October 2026

Nearby Permits does not always answer

Over the last week it answered 6.7% of our checks. We check every 15 minutes, so you hear about the next outage within the hour — not from your users.

Three servers free · no card

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 0 min ago.

run in your terminal
claude mcp add permits --transport http https://nearbypermits.com/mcp
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://nearbypermits.com/mcp
~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.permits]
url = "https://nearbypermits.com/mcp"
.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "permits": {
      "url": "https://nearbypermits.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "permits": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://nearbypermits.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 6

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

permits
permits_at_address
Use this tool when someone asks which building, remodeling or demolition permits exist at an address, whether a house had permitted work, or what is permitted next door. It returns the building permits on record at that street address in a supported city or county (Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Cincinnati, Mesa, New Orleans, Fort Worth, Columbus, San Diego, Detroit, Nashville, Raleigh, Phoenix, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Montgomery County, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, Denver, Los Angeles County, Wake County, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Hillsborough County, Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie, Alachua County, Kansas City, Baltimore, Sacramento County, Memphis, Las Vegas, Tacoma, Boulder, Cambridge, Somerville, Marin County, Pierce County, Cary, Cleveland, Arlington, Naperville, Tempe, Anaheim, Riverside), newest first and at most 200: type of work, description, date, status and reported cost, from city and county open data checked around the clock. count is how many are listed; when capped is true there are more, and total gives the city's full count when it was read (else null). history_limited means the city's full history didn't load, so the list is our copy only. The address can be typed loosely (a missing N or S, "Drive" for "Dr", a trailing city, state or ZIP, a unit): it is matched to the spelling the city files. When more than one address matches (N and S Holly Dr), the answer lists them in did_you_mean; ask which one is meant and call again with it.
permits_near
Use this tool when someone asks what is being built near an address or a place: new buildings next door, construction on the block, what's permitted around a home they might buy or rent. Give a city and street address, or a latitude and longitude. The tool returns building permits within a radius (default 400 meters, about a quarter mile) issued since a date (default about six months back), newest first, each with distance in meters and compass direction from the point. It covers the last 24 months of city open data. counts.total is exact even when the list is capped (null if the count failed). It matches a loosely typed address the same way permits_at_address does. If more than one address matches, the answer has found set to false and lists the addresses in did_you_mean.
cities
list_cities
List the US cities and counties with building permit data, with each one's slug for the other tools.
permit
get_permit
Look up one building permit by its city permit number: work, date, status, cost and address.
recent
recent_permits
Use when someone asks what is being built in their neighborhood or ZIP code. Returns the newest building permits in a supported city or county, optionally within one ZIP code.
zoning
zoning_requests_near
Use when someone asks about variances, conditional uses, rezonings or zoning appeals near an address: what a neighbor asked the city for, or whether a hearing is coming up. Covers Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco and Seattle. Give a city and street address, or a latitude and longitude. Each case has the city's own status words, our plain status label (Filed, In review, Hearing scheduled, Approved, Approved with conditions, Denied, Withdrawn or Other), the hearing date when the city publishes one, and a link to the city's case record. We never infer an outcome the city's record doesn't state. Owner and applicant names are left out.

Endpoints

URLTransportStateLatencyChecked
https://nearbypermits.com/mcp streamable-http answering 74 ms 0 min ago

Alternatives to Nearby Permits

same job, measured the same way
PermitStack
by permit-stack

U.S. building permits, permit histories by address and contractors from city and county records.

6 tools answering
New Building Permit Leads
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New building permits from 7 US cities scored as leads by trade, job value and contractor

answering
Permitame
by permitame

Building permit answers for Kitsap County, WA and its cities, quoted from official sources.

answering
US Building Permit Aggregator
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Pull recent building permits from 9 US cities in a unified schema from official open-data portals.

answering
PermitInfoBroker
by permitinfobroker

Daily US building permits for 30 cities and counties. Free counts; records paid per call via x402.

9 tools answering
Us Building Permits
by prometheusagency

Fresh US building permits with contacts from official city APIs. Construction lead generation.

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Building Permits API
by gaelasao

Building permits from 18 US cities (NYC, LA, Chicago, Philadelphia...), Canada, Ireland, France.

answering
P
parcelapi.net
by parcelapi

US parcels and building permits from public sources. No owner data. Pay per record or monthly plan.

13 tools answering

Nearby Permits — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Nearby Permits do?
It exposes 6 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: get_permit, list_cities, permits_at_address, permits_near, recent_permits, zoning_requests_near. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
Is Nearby Permits working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 1 of 92 checks got a reply (1.1%), average response time 240 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
Is Nearby Permits still maintained?
The linked repository no longer exists on GitHub — it was deleted or made private. We show this because it changes what you can expect: an unmaintained server may keep answering for months and then stop without warning.
The registry lists Nearby Permits as active — why does it not respond?
The official MCP registry stores what the author submitted; it does not verify that the server still runs. We check the endpoint ourselves, and this one does not answer. Catalogues that copy the registry without checking will show it as working.
How do I connect Nearby Permits?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.
Does Nearby Permits need an API key?
No. Nearby Permits completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 6 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.
How fast is Nearby Permits?
It answers our handshake in 240 ms on average, which is faster than 56% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.