@cyanheads/wsdot-mcp-server
Query WA highway conditions, ferry schedules, vessel locations, toll rates, border waits, and alerts via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.
Tools
12 tools split across two domains — traffic (WSDOT Traveler API) and ferries (WSF Ferry API):
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
wsdot_get_mountain_passes | Current conditions for all WA mountain passes: status, road condition, traction laws, temperature, elevation. |
wsdot_search_alerts | Active highway alerts — incidents, construction, closures — filterable by state route, WSDOT region, and milepost range. |
wsdot_get_travel_times | Current vs. average travel times for named WA highway corridors (I-5, I-90, SR 520, etc.) with congestion delay. |
wsdot_get_toll_rates | Dynamic toll rates for WA express lanes and tolled facilities: SR 99, SR 520, I-405, I-90 Two-Way, SR 167 HOT. |
wsdot_get_border_waits | Current vehicle wait times at all WA/Canada land border crossings. |
wsdot_search_cameras | Highway camera metadata and image URLs, filterable by state route, region, and milepost range. |
wsdot_get_ferry_terminals | All WSF ferry terminals with numeric IDs needed for schedule and space lookups. |
wsdot_get_ferry_routes | WSF routes operating on a given date with terminal ID pairs and crossing times. |
wsdot_get_ferry_schedule | Departure times for a specific WSF route — today-remaining or full-day future mode. |
wsdot_get_vessel_locations | Real-time AIS positions, speed, heading, ETA, and dock status for all active WSF vessels. |
wsdot_get_terminal_space | Drive-up and reservable vehicle space available at WSF terminals for upcoming sailings. |
wsdot_get_ferry_alerts | Active WSF service disruptions and bulletins with impacted route IDs. |
wsdot_get_mountain_passes
Current road conditions for all WA mountain passes.
- Covers all ~12 passes: Snoqualmie, Stevens, White, Blewett, Cayuse, and others
- Fields include status (Open/Closed/Caution), road surface, active traction law, temperature, and elevation
- Use for "is the pass open?", traction law checks, or winter driving planning
wsdot_search_alerts
Active WA highway alerts — incidents, construction, closures, restrictions.
- Filter by state route (zero-padded 3-digit number:
"005"for I-5,"090"for I-90,"520"for SR 520) - Filter by WSDOT region: Northwest, Olympic, Southwest, South Central, North Central, Eastern
- Filter by milepost range to scope to a corridor
- Omit all filters to return all current statewide alerts
wsdot_get_travel_times
Current vs. average travel times for named WA highway corridors.
- Covers I-5, I-90, SR 520, SR 99, I-405, SR 167, and others
- Filter by partial route name (e.g.
"I-5","SR 520") to narrow results - When current time exceeds average, the corridor is congested; the delta is the delay
wsdot_get_toll_rates
Current dynamic toll rates for WA tolled facilities.
- SR 99 (WSDOT Tunnel), SR 520 Bridge, I-405 Express Lanes, I-90 Two-Way Express Lanes, SR 167 HOT Lanes
- Rates are time-banded and change dynamically based on traffic conditions
wsdot_get_border_waits
Current vehicle wait times at WA/Canada land border crossings.
- Covers I-5 (Peace Arch & Pacific Highway, Blaine), SR 539 (Lynden), and SR 9 (Sumas), including Nexus-lane variants
crossingNameis a route code (e.g.I5,SR539);location.descriptionholds the readable name- Wait times in minutes; a crossing reporting no current data is omitted;
updateTimeis ISO 8601
wsdot_search_cameras
WSDOT highway camera metadata and image URLs.
- Filter by state route, WSDOT region, or milepost range; omit to list all cameras statewide
- Returns metadata and image URLs — camera images are copyright WSDOT, not fetched as bytes
- Potentially hundreds of results statewide; use filters to scope
wsdot_get_ferry_terminals
All WSF ferry terminals with numeric IDs.
- ~22 terminals; the list rarely changes
- Call this first to resolve human-readable names (e.g. "Bainbridge Island", "Seattle", "Kingston") to the numeric IDs required by
wsdot_get_ferry_scheduleandwsdot_get_terminal_space
wsdot_get_ferry_routes
WSF ferry routes operating on a given date.
- Returns terminal ID pairs and crossing times for each route
- Route IDs correspond to
impactedRouteIdsinwsdot_get_ferry_alerts - Use to discover which routes are running and get terminal IDs for schedule lookups
wsdot_get_ferry_schedule
Departure times for a specific WSF ferry route.
- Requires numeric terminal IDs — use
wsdot_get_ferry_terminalsfirst remainingOnly: truereturns only future departures for today (useful for "next ferry" queries)- For future dates, all sailings for that day are returned
wsdot_get_vessel_locations
Real-time AIS positions for all active WSF vessels.
- Fields include position, speed, heading, ETA, and dock status
- Use for "where is the ferry now?" or checking if a specific vessel is in service
- Position data may lag 30–60 seconds; many fields are null for vessels not currently operating
wsdot_get_terminal_space
Real-time vehicle space availability at WSF terminals for upcoming sailings.
DriveUpSpaceCountis the key field — zero means the drive-up lane is full- Filter to a specific terminal by ID (from
wsdot_get_ferry_terminals) - Use for "will I make the ferry?" or "how full is the next sailing?" queries
wsdot_get_ferry_alerts
Active WSF ferry service disruptions, delays, and bulletins.
- Each alert includes
impactedRouteIds— cross-reference withwsdot_get_ferry_routesto map route IDs to names
Features
Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:
- Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
- Unified error handling across all tools
- Pluggable auth (
none,jwt,oauth) - Swappable storage backends:
in-memory,filesystem,Supabase,Cloudflare KV/R2/D1 - Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
- STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports
WSDOT-specific:
- Dual API integration — WSDOT Traffic API and WSF Ferry API from a single access code
- Retry, timeout, and HTML-detection guards on all upstream requests
- Normalized response shapes across both APIs — sparse upstream fields surfaced as optional rather than omitted
Agent-friendly output:
- Cross-tool linking built into descriptions — ferry tools document which tool to call first for terminal and route ID resolution
DriveUpSpaceCount: 0and congestion delta fields give agents actionable signal without string parsing- Partial data preserved — sparse upstream payloads surface
null/undefinedrather than synthetic defaults
Getting started
Add the following to your MCP client configuration file. You'll need a WSDOT Traveler API access code — register at wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/api/.
{
"mcpServers": {
"wsdot-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "bunx",
"args": ["@cyanheads/wsdot-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
"WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE": "your-access-code"
}
}
}
}
Or with npx (no Bun required):
{
"mcpServers": {
"wsdot-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/wsdot-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
"WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE": "your-access-code"
}
}
}
}
Or with Docker:
{
"mcpServers": {
"wsdot-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run", "-i", "--rm",
"-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
"-e", "WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE=your-access-code",
"ghcr.io/cyanheads/wsdot-mcp-server:latest"
]
}
}
}
For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE=your-access-code bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp
Prerequisites
- Bun v1.3.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
- A WSDOT Traveler API access code. Register at wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/api/ — registration is free.
Installation
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/wsdot-mcp-server.git
- Navigate into the directory:
cd wsdot-mcp-server
- Install dependencies:
bun install
- Configure environment:
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE
Configuration
All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts. Key environment variables:
| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE | Required. WSDOT Traveler API access code. Register at wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/api/. | — |
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Transport: stdio or http. | stdio |
MCP_HTTP_PORT | HTTP server port. | 3010 |
MCP_HTTP_HOST | HTTP server hostname. | 127.0.0.1 |
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH | HTTP endpoint path. | /mcp |
MCP_PUBLIC_URL | Public origin for TLS-terminating reverse-proxy deployments. | — |
MCP_AUTH_MODE | Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth. | none |
MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Log level (debug, info, notice, warning, error). | info |
LOGS_DIR | Directory for log files (Node.js only). | <project-root>/logs |
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE | Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1. | in-memory |
OTEL_ENABLED | Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation (spans, metrics, completion logs). | false |
See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.
Running the server
Local development
-
Build and run:
# One-time build bun run rebuild # Run the built server bun run start:stdio # or bun run start:http -
Run checks and tests:
bun run devcheck # Lint, format, typecheck, security bun run test # Vitest test suite bun run lint:mcp # Validate MCP definitions against spec
Docker
docker build -t wsdot-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e WSDOT_ACCESS_CODE=your-access-code -p 3010:3010 wsdot-mcp-server
The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/wsdot-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.
Project structure
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
src/index.ts | createApp() entry point — registers all 12 tools and initializes services. |
src/config | Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. |
src/mcp-server/tools | Tool definitions (*.tool.ts) — 6 traffic tools, 6 ferry tools. |
src/services/traffic | WSDOT Traffic API service (mountain passes, alerts, travel times, toll rates, border waits, cameras). |
src/services/ferry | WSF Ferry API service (terminals, routes, schedule, vessel locations, space, alerts). |
tests/ | Unit and integration tests, mirroring the src/ structure. |
Development guide
See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:
- Handlers throw, framework catches — no
try/catchin tool logic - Use
ctx.logfor request-scoped logging,ctx.statefor tenant-scoped storage - Register new tools in the
createApp()arrays insrc/index.ts - Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:
bun run devcheck
bun run test
License
Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.