US gov dataset search

Search 300,000+ US government datasets on catalog.data.gov (Catalog API): titles, publishing org, formats, and direct resource URLs - the index agents need before fetching public data. ?q=electric+vehicles&rows=5. Send GET /api/gov-data with the required field q and pay $0.002 per call over x402 or MPP (there is no free tier). It returns a JSON object with query, totalFound and results.

Category: Live public data · Tags: data.gov datasets open-data government catalog · Also found as: us-gov-dataset-search dataset-search data-gov

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Parameters

Example request

curl -i "https://agent402.tools/api/gov-data?q=electric+vehicle+charging+stations&rows=5"

Without payment this returns HTTP 402 Payment Required with the exact price for gov-data; any x402 v2 or MPP client pays it and retries.

Example response

{
  "query": "electric vehicle charging stations",
  "totalFound": 5,
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Electric Vehicle Charging Stations",
      "organization": "Town of Cary, North Carolina",
      "datasetUrl": "https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/…",
      "formats": [
        "json",
        "csv"
      ],
      "resources": [
        {
          "format": "csv",
          "url": "https://…"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

From an MCP client

catalog.call {
  "slug": "gov-data",
  "params": {
    "q": "electric vehicle charging stations",
    "rows": 5
  }
}

The hosted connector at https://agent402.tools/mcp needs a payment for gov-data; the stdio package pays it from a wallet or from AGENT402_CREDITS_KEY. Local install: npx -y agent402-mcp.

Errors and behavior

• q is required. An input the tool rejects returns an HTTP 4xx whose body carries error, tool, expected, required and example, so the caller can correct it.
• A paid call that ends in any status of 400 or above is not charged over x402, MPP or a prepaid credits key: settlement is cancelled when the tool fails. The exception is a Tempo push credential, a transfer the buyer sent before the call: it settles before the tool runs, so if the tool then fails the payment is recorded as a refund owed to the paying wallet.
• Wallet-only: this tool reaches the network or stored state, so it has no proof-of-work tier. A prepaid card-credits key issued earlier (Authorization: Bearer a402_...) also pays it.
• Cached: an identical request within 1h is answered from cache with X-Cache: hit.
• A POST with a JSON body to /api/gov-data is served as this GET, with the body as the input.
• An Idempotency-Key header makes a retried paid call replay the first 200 instead of charging again (an answer larger than 1 MB is not replayed).

Paid call (JavaScript agent)

import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from "@x402/fetch";
import { x402Client } from "@x402/core/client";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

const client = new x402Client();
client.setSpendControls?.(false); // keep your own spending ceiling in code
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(KEY) });
const payFetch = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await payFetch("https://agent402.tools/api/gov-data?q=electric+vehicle+charging+stations&rows=5");

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