Zoning Code MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for semantic search over zoning code PDFs, designed for ChatGPT integration.

Features

• PDF Ingestion: Upload zoning code PDFs via multipart form-data
• Semantic Search: OpenAI-powered search with file_search tool
• Structured Citations: Returns filename, section, and text snippets
• ChatGPT Compatible: SSE endpoints for connector integration
• Docker Ready: Containerized for easy deployment
• Render Deployment: One-click deployment with render.yaml

Quick Start

Local Development

npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Add your OPENAI_API_KEY to .env
npm start

Docker

docker build -t zoning-mcp-server .
docker run -p 3030:3030 -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key zoning-mcp-server

Render Deployment

1. In the Render dashboard select New > Blueprint Deploy and point it at this repository. Render will read render.yaml and create the Docker-based web service.
2. In the Render UI, set the following environment variables before the first deploy:
   • OPENAI_API_KEY – required; the key must have access to the Responses + File Search APIs.
   • (Optional) MCP_AUTH_TOKEN – set a Bearer token if you want to keep authentication enabled.
   • (Optional) ALLOW_NO_AUTH=1 – keep this if you want unauthenticated access from ChatGPT. Remove it when using a custom token.
3. Click Deploy. Render will build the Docker image and start the service, binding to the port supplied in the PORT env var (managed automatically by Render).
4. After it goes live, verify the deployment with curl https://<your-render-domain>/health – it should return { "ok": true }.
5. Use the public URL https://<your-render-domain>/sse as the MCP endpoint inside ChatGPT. Supply the MCP_AUTH_TOKEN you configured if auth is enabled.

API Endpoints

• GET /health - Health check
• POST /ingest - Upload PDF files
• POST /mcp - MCP JSON-RPC endpoint
• GET /sse - Server-Sent Events for ChatGPT
• POST /sse - Alternative MCP endpoint

ChatGPT Integration

Use as MCP Server URL: https://your-domain.com/sse Authentication: No authentication (ALLOW_NO_AUTH=1)

Environment Variables

• OPENAI_API_KEY - Required: Your OpenAI API key
• PORT - Server port (default: 3030)
• HOST - Interface to bind (default: 0.0.0.0; use 127.0.0.1 for local testing if needed)
• ALLOW_NO_AUTH - Disable authentication (default: false)
• DEBUG_MCP - Enable debug logging (default: false)
• MCP_AUTH_TOKEN - Bearer token for auth (default: mcp-zoning-token)
• VECTOR_STORE_NAME - OpenAI vector store name (default: zoning-codes-store)