Nlrb MCP Server

@pipeworx/nlrb

US National Labor Relations Board case search — unfair labor practice charges and union representation/election petitions (~516,000 cases), read live from the NLRB's public case search on nlrb.gov.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1867+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

• nlrb_search(query, case_type?, status?, filed_since?, filed_before?, region?, sort?, limit?, page?) — finds cases by employer name, union name, or case number. Returns case number, case name, date filed, open/closed status, city and NLRB region, plus the total number of matching cases. Answers "is Starbucks facing an NLRB charge", "union election petitions at Trader Joe's".
• nlrb_case(case_number) — the full docket for one case: allegations charged under the National Labor Relations Act, status, location, region, participants (charged party, charging party, employer, union, and their legal representatives), the docket activity log, and — for representation cases that reached a count — the election tally (eligible voters, ballots counted, votes for and against the union).
• nlrb_recent_filings(days?, case_type?, status?, region?, limit?) — newest filings nationally over a recent window, newest first, with the total filed in that window.

Auth

Keyless. No account, no registration, no key.

Data sources

• https://www.nlrb.gov/get-search-data/{term}/cases?sort=&rows=&page= — the case search. A Drupal AJAX endpoint: it returns a command array whose data fields carry the rendered result HTML and whose trailing invoke command carries the total match count in args[4].
• https://www.nlrb.gov/case/{case-number} — the server-rendered case docket.

Things worth knowing before you touch this pack

• The tab segment must be cases, plural. /get-search-data/{term}/case is refused by the site's WAF with an HTTP 200 carrying a "Request Rejected" HTML page — a rejection that reads as a success unless you inspect the body. The pack checks for that page and returns { found: false, reason: 'blocked' }.
• The search term is a path segment, so a / in it silently changes which endpoint you hit. Slashes are stripped and the term is URL-encoded.
• Query parameters on /search/case are ignored. The visible search form POSTs; ?search_term=Starbucks returns the unfiltered 516k listing with the header still reading "for all". Only /get-search-data/... honours a term.
• Filters ride as bracketed params: f[0]=case_type:C (or case_type:R, or (case_type:C OR case_type:R)), s[n]=Open|Closed|Open - Blocked, r[n]=<region>, state[n]=<XX>, and date_start/date_end in MM/DD/YYYY — ISO dates are ignored rather than rejected, so the pack converts.
• Sort accepts desc (newest), asc (oldest) and relevance; rows and a zero-based page both work, confirmed to rows=50.
• Case numbers are region-type-serial (10-CB-393760): 2-digit region, case type (CA/CB against an employer/union, RC/RD/RM for representation), serial. The pack uppercases and zero-pads a single-digit region.
• Election tallies exist only on R cases that reached a count, and render as a second label/value block on the case page, so a generic label scrape mixes them into the case header unless they are separated by label name.
• The docket activity table on a case page shows only the most recent entries and, per NLRB's own footnote, does not reflect all actions in the case.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nlrb": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nlrb/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nlrb/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1867+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/nlrb_search \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query":"Starbucks Corporation","limit":3}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/nlrb_search. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-nlrb is a local stdio bridge to the Pipeworx gateway: your MCP client starts it with npx, and it forwards every call to the same https://gateway.pipeworx.io/nlrb/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nlrb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-nlrb"]
    }
  }
}

Without a key it calls anonymously, capped at 50 calls a day. A free account raises that to 200 a day: get a key at https://pipeworx.io/signup and add "env": { "PIPEWORX_API_KEY": "<your key>" } to the server entry. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a hosted connection sends it, so calls are metered and billed exactly as they are there.

It lists only this pack's tools by default. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to also list ask_pipeworx and the other gateway-wide tools.

Behind an HTTPS proxy: Node's built-in fetch does not read HTTPS_PROXY by default. Newer Node releases honour it when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is set; check your Node version's documentation.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Nlrb data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT