pads-mcp

Model Context Protocol server for PADS — King County (WA) property fair-value verdicts and parcel address lookup, free, no auth.

Plug it into Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, or any other MCP-aware client and ask grounded questions about King County property tax assessments without the LLM hallucinating from training-time recall.

What it does

Wraps the publicly documented PADS API as three MCP tools:

| Tool | Purpose | |---|---| | analyze_property(address) | One-shot: take a free-text address, return the fair-value verdict. Most common entry point. | | lookup_address(query) | Resolve a partial address or parcel ID to canonical King County parcels. Returns up to 10 matches. | | get_verdict(parcel_id) | Fair-value verdict for a single parcel — King County's assessed value, the comp-implied market value, the dollar gap, and a recommendation tier. |

Every successful response includes:

• Pre-formatted dollar figures (kc_assessed_value_fmt, over_appraised_by_fmt, etc.) so the LLM doesn't have to format numbers itself
• A summary field with a one-line human-readable answer
• A full_report_url deep link to the full PADS report in the user's browser
• data_source attribution (the data is computed from King County's published bulk records)

Installation

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):

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

Restart Claude Desktop. The PADS tools will be available in any conversation.

Claude Code

claude mcp add pads npx -y pads-mcp

Cursor / Cline / other MCP clients

Use the same npx -y pads-mcp command in whatever JSON config the client uses for MCP servers.

Local development install

git clone https://github.com/peter-products/pads-mcp
cd pads-mcp
npm install
npm start    # runs the server on stdio

Point your client at node /absolute/path/to/pads-mcp/src/index.js instead of npx.

Example conversation

User: "Is my home at 3437 61st Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116 over-appraised?"

Claude (calls analyze_property): Based on PADS data, 3437 61ST AVE SW, SEATTLE 98116 is over-appraised. King County's 2026 assessed value of $1,329,000 is roughly $234,683 above what comparable arms-length sales near the home support (~$1,094,317). PADS rates this a "Great" argument for appeal — homes in this tier win 33% more often than the typical King County appeal. Estimated annual property-tax savings if you appeal and win: ~$2,464.

Full report: https://pads.tax/?parcel_id=0148000654

Data source and limitations

Every figure returned by the tools is computed from King County's published bulk property data: parcel attributes, every arms-length sale on file, recorded building characteristics. It's the same source data the County itself uses for its mass-appraisal valuations.

Coverage:

• King County, Washington, USA
• Single-family homes only (multi-family / condos / commercial are out of scope)
• Assessment year reflects the most recently published King County valuations

PADS is not affiliated with King County, the King County Assessor's office, or the King County Board of Equalization. Estimates are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice.

Rate limits

The underlying PADS API is rate-limited per source IP:

• lookup_address: 120 requests / minute / IP
• get_verdict: 60 requests / minute / IP
• analyze_property: counts as one of each (lookup + verdict)

Responses include X-RateLimit-Limit and X-RateLimit-Remaining headers. When a call would exceed the limit, the MCP server returns an isError: true response with retry guidance. Wait 60 seconds and retry.

If your integration needs higher quotas, email [email protected] with the use case.

Configuration

Environment variables:

| Variable | Default | Purpose | |---|---|---| | PADS_API_BASE | https://pads.tax | Override the API base URL. Useful for local testing against a self-hosted PADS deployment. |

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Contact

Issues, feature requests, or higher rate-limit asks: [email protected].