Government Grants MCP server

This MCP (Model Context Protocol) server provides a tool to search for government grants based on keywords, interacting with the Simpler Grants API to fetch and format grant data for easy access and display.

Features

• Search for government grants by keyword
• Paginate search results
• View detailed grant information including:
  • Opportunity title, number, and status
  • Funding information (award floor, ceiling, category)
  • Important dates and deadlines
  • Contact information
  • Eligibility requirements
  • Links to additional information

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16 or higher
• A Simpler Grants API key

Setup Steps

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the project directory:

   git clone [repository-url]
   cd grants-search-mcp-server
   

2. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Set up your API key as an environment variable:

   export API_KEY=your_simpler_grants_api_key
   

4. Start the MCP server:

   npm start
   

The server will start running and listen for incoming MCP client connections.

Using the Grants Search Tool

Connecting to the Server

Connect to the server using an MCP client (such as Claude Desktop). The server exposes a single tool called "search-grants" that you can use to search for government grants.

Search Parameters

When using the "search-grants" tool, you can specify the following parameters:

• query: Your search keywords (e.g., "Artificial intelligence", "Climate change")
• page: The page number for pagination (default: 1)
• grantsPerPage: The number of grants to display per page (default: 3)

Example Search Query

To search for grants related to renewable energy:

query: renewable energy
page: 1
grantsPerPage: 5

The server will respond with a formatted summary of matching grants, including detailed information about each opportunity.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues while using the Grants Search MCP Server:

• Check that your API key is correctly set as an environment variable
• Verify that the server is running and accessible from your MCP client
• Examine the server logs for any error messages or warnings
• Try simplifying your search query if you're not getting expected results

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "grants-mcp" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","grants-mcp"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "grants-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "grants-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

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

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "grants-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "grants-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect