Quickstart

1. Get a keyCopy Anchor Link

1. Open bcmcp.ca/signup.
2. Enter your first name, last name and email, and say whether you are a B.C. resident. Both answers are fine.
3. Type the six digit code we send to that address. It lasts 10 minutes.
4. On your account page, make a key. Copy it now. It is shown once, and we keep only a hash of it.

A key looks like bcd_ followed by 40 characters. Keep it out of source control.

2. Make a callCopy Anchor Link

Put the key in an environment variable and ask which sources exist:

export BCDATA_KEY=bcd_your_key_here

curl -X POST https://api.bcmcp.ca/v1/tools/list_sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BCDATA_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain":"elections"}'

You get an envelope back: data with the answer, citations with the government sources, freshness and notes. See Citations and freshness.

3. SearchCopy Anchor Link

curl -X POST https://api.bcmcp.ca/v1/tools/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BCDATA_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"Chilliwack results","domain":"elections"}'

Each hit has a ref. Pass it to fetch_record for the stored record.

4. Check your key's allowanceCopy Anchor Link

curl https://api.bcmcp.ca/v1/usage -H "Authorization: Bearer $BCDATA_KEY"

Use it from an AI appCopy Anchor Link

Add the MCP server to your client with the same key. See Connect an MCP client.

If something failsCopy Anchor Link

A missing or wrong key gets 401. Going over your allowance gets 429 with a retry-after header. All errors are listed under Errors.