# ZipExplore Muse connector

From musedirectory.ai, the independent directory of Meta Muse connectors. Not affiliated with Meta.

## ZipExplore

Research US ZIP codes: demographics, crime, housing costs, schools, taxes, weather, and disaster risk.

- Record: https://musedirectory.ai/connector/zipexplore
- Category: Research & Data
- Developer: Andrew Sondgeroth
- Muse status: Extra setup. Not in Muse's Connectors list yet. Muse can still use it: its page gives you a request to paste into Muse.
- Health: Working, 934ms, checked 2026-09-28T07:16:12Z
- Endpoint: https://mcp.zipexplore.com/mcp
- Auth: Needs an access key; Pricing: unknown
- Screening: Screened, no issues found (2026-09-24T03:15:57Z)
- Source: Found in the official MCP Registry (io.github.andrew-sondgeroth/zipexplore-mcp) https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=io.github.andrew-sondgeroth%2Fzipexplore-mcp

Provides detailed profiles of US ZIP codes covering 12 domains: demographics, climate, taxes, crime, cost of living, voting, education, healthcare, business, air quality, disaster risk, and transit. Includes search by criteria, side-by-side comparisons, and published research on housing affordability and economic trends.

Example request: "Find low-crime suburbs near Denver with good schools and affordable housing."

How to connect: Not in Muse's Connectors list yet, but Muse can still use it. Paste this into Muse: "Use ZipExplore to help me. It is a free service with an MCP server at https://mcp.zipexplore.com/mcp. It needs an API key from Andrew Sondgeroth; ask me to enter it through your secure credential prompt. Ask me before you share anything with it." Muse asks before it shares anything with the app's site. Meta does not review apps used this way, so only use ones you trust. We tested this in the Muse app on September 24, 2026: Muse used an app's link directly this way and returned a live answer.

Tools:
- get_article: Returns the full prose of a specific ZipExplore research article. Use this for editing, fact-checking, detailed analysis, or when get_research summaries aren't enough. Valid slugs: disappearing-towns, hazard-premium, snap-economy, wealthy-retirees. Each article includes all body 
- ping: Returns server status and tool/resource counts. Use this to verify the ZipExplore MCP connection is live.
- get_methodology: Returns ZipExplore's data interpretation guide: reasoning guardrails (associations vs. causes, small-ZIP noise, averages hiding distributions, editorial score weights, drawing conclusions about people from geographic data), quality flag definitions, known data limitations, covera
- get_research: Returns ZipExplore's published research articles — original data findings on topics including disaster risk vs. housing costs (the Hazard Premium), food insecurity in fully-employed communities (SNAP economy), economically declining towns vs. retirement communities, and income va
- search_zips: Find ZIP codes matching one or more criteria. Returns a ranked list with scores. Use this first when the user wants recommendations (e.g. "find a low-crime suburb near Denver"). Call get_search_fields first if you're unsure what field names to use. criteria: list of {"field": str
- get_zip_profile: Full location profile for one ZIP code across all 12 data domains: demographics, climate, tax, crime, cost of living, voting, education, healthcare, business, air quality, disaster risk, and transit. Use this to get detail on a ZIP after search, or when the user asks about a spec
- compare_zips: Side-by-side full profiles for 2–5 ZIP codes. Use when the user has finalists and needs to choose between them. Returns the same profile shape as get_zip_profile for each ZIP. 
- get_search_fields: Lists every field name, type, and description available for search criteria. Call this when you're unsure what field names to pass to search_zips, or when the user asks what data ZipExplore has. 
- get_census_profile: Detailed Census / demographics data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's demographics section isn't sufficient depth. Includes population, housing, income distribution, education attainment, economic indicators, internet access, and public assistance rates. 
- reverse_geocode: Convert a latitude/longitude coordinate to a ZIP code. Use when the user provides an address or map coordinates rather than a ZIP code. 
- get_zip_centroids: Get the latitude/longitude centroid for one or more ZIP codes (max 200). Use when you need map coordinates for a set of ZIPs. 
- get_weather_profile: Detailed climate data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's climate section isn't sufficient depth. Includes annual/monthly temperature averages, precipitation, humidity, and nearest weather station info. 
- get_tax_profile: Detailed tax data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's tax section isn't sufficient depth. Includes state income tax, sales tax, property tax effective rates, excise taxes, and IRS income statistics. 
- get_crime_profile: Detailed crime data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's crime section isn't sufficient depth. Includes violent crime rate, property crime rate, and data quality flags (coverage level, Bayesian shrinkage). 
- get_cost_profile: Detailed cost of living data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's cost section isn't sufficient depth. Includes fair market rents, housing cost burden, regional price indices, and affordability metrics. 
- get_voting_profile: Detailed voting and political data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's voting section isn't sufficient depth. Includes presidential election results, partisan lean, congressional and state legislative districts, and state officials. 
- get_education_profile: Detailed school data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's education section isn't sufficient depth. Includes school counts, student-teacher ratios, graduation rates, per-pupil spending, Title I percentage, and budget breakdown (instruction vs. admin vs. capital). May refl
- get_healthcare_profile: Detailed healthcare data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's healthcare section isn't sufficient depth. Includes hospital count and ratings, nursing homes, beds per capita, primary care and mental health shortage area designations, pharmacy count, and urgent care count. 
- get_business_profile: Detailed business and employment data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's business section isn't sufficient depth. Includes top industries, sector breakdowns, total establishments, employment, and annual payroll from Census BDS/CBP data. 
- get_air_quality_profile: Detailed air quality data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's air quality section isn't sufficient depth. Includes EPA AQS pollutant levels (PM2.5, PM10, ozone, NO2, SO2, CO) and AQI summary. 
- get_disaster_risk_profile: Detailed natural disaster risk data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's disaster risk section isn't sufficient depth. Includes FEMA NRI overall risk score, individual hazard scores (hurricane, tornado, earthquake, wildfire, flood, etc.), and expected annual loss estimate
- get_transit_profile: Detailed public transit data for one ZIP code. Use when get_zip_profile's transit section isn't sufficient depth. Includes bus stop count, subway station count, rail station count, light rail count, ferry terminal count, total transit stops, transit commute percentage, and neares

Screening checks:
- MCP handshake: pass (Answered in 390ms)
- Domain against threat feeds (Cloudflare security DNS): pass (mcp.zipexplore.com not flagged)
- Published packages against the OSV malicious-package database: n/a (No npm or PyPI package published)
- Hidden instructions or invisible characters in tool text: pass (22 tools read, nothing found)
- Inputs asking for passwords, card numbers or seed phrases: pass (None found)
- Domain and redirects: pass (Domain registered 164 days ago)
- AI review of purpose and tool behavior: pass (No concerns)