The City of Boston tested an AI agent system called OpenContext, which connects large language models to Boston's public open data portal using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing employees and residents to query city datasets in plain language. As of early 2026, this was in beta and publicly available via Boston's open data showcase.

Boston's Chief Information Officer Santi Garces built OpenContext as a beta MCP server tied to the city's Analyze Boston open data portal. The system receives plain-language questions, automatically identifies the relevant dataset, generates a SQL query, retrieves live data, and returns a formatted answer. Garces launched the MCP server in October 2025 and has made the underlying 'agent skills' open-source, with plans to make the server publicly accessible so any resident can connect their own AI tools to Boston's data.