Atlas capabilities reference

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Overview

Once you’ve connected Atlas to an MCP client (setup guide), you can ask your assistant for civic research help in natural language. The assistant chooses the matching Atlas operation. For guided starting points available through some clients, see Guided research starters. Some Atlas responses include a resource_uri. Compatible clients can use that URI to open the same research output later. See Available resources.

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Find Civic Actors

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search_entities

Ask for people, organizations, initiatives, campaigns, or events by place, topic, source type, actor type, or free-text search. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Find labor organizers in Detroit”
• “Search for organizations working on housing affordability in Kansas City”
• “Who’s working on climate issues in rural Montana?“

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get_entity

Open the full Atlas record for a specific actor the assistant has already found. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Tell me more about that first organization”
• “Get the full details for Prairie Workers Cooperative”

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get_entity_sources

Review the public sources behind a specific Atlas actor. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What are the sources for KC Tenants?”
• “Show me where this information came from”

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get_related_entities

Explore other actors connected through Atlas relationships. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Who else is connected to this organization?”
• “What other entities are related to Maria Gonzalez?”

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Verify Sources

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search_sources

Search the public sources Atlas has indexed. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Find news articles about tenant organizing in Kansas City”
• “Search for nonprofit listings related to environmental justice”

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Understand A Place

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get_place_entities

Find actors tied to a specific place. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What civic organizations are active in Boise, Idaho?”
• “Show me all entities in Kansas City working on housing”

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get_place_profile

Get demographic and socioeconomic context for a place. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What’s the demographic profile of Garden City, Kansas?”
• “Tell me about the socioeconomic context of this city”

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get_place_coverage

Compare where Atlas coverage is strong, thin, or uneven for a place. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What issue areas are underrepresented in Kansas City?”
• “Where are the coverage gaps in Boise?”
• “Which issues have the most entities in Detroit?“

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get_place_issue_signals

Summarize issue-area signals for a place, with example actors where available. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What are the main civic issues in Kansas City?”
• “Give me an issue area breakdown for this city”

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Match Issue Areas

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resolve_issue_areas

Translate plain-language topics into Atlas issue-area categories. Parameters: Example requests:

• “What Atlas issue areas relate to affordable childcare?”
• “Map ‘clean water’ to Atlas categories”
• “What issue areas cover worker rights?”

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Reopen Or Start Research

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list_discovery_runs

List source-linked Atlas research runs your workspace can access. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Show recent completed research runs in Missouri”
• “What research has Atlas run for this state?“

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get_discovery_run

Open one source-linked research run and its structured output. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Open that research run”
• “Summarize the entities and sources from this run”

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start_discovery_run

Start a new Atlas research run for a place and issue areas. Unlike read-only requests, this spends from your workspace research budget and can take minutes to complete. Because of that, compatible clients receive a task handle and can check progress while the run finishes. If your client cannot track long-running work yet, use the Atlas dashboard to start the run, then ask your assistant to list or open completed runs later. Starting a research run requires the discovery:write scope, on top of the discovery:read + api.mcp access used by read-only Atlas requests. It is metered against your org’s monthly discovery-run budget. See Scopes and permissions. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Start a new research run for civic organizations in Topeka, Kansas”
• “Research worker cooperatives in Wichita — I don’t see much coverage yet”

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Save And Track Work

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save_entities_to_list

Save selected Atlas actors to an existing private workspace list after confirmation. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Save these three organizations to my follow-up list”
• “Add the tenant groups from this search to my private list”

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create_research_brief

Create a private workspace brief from source-linked Atlas results after confirmation. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Create a private brief from this completed research run”
• “Turn these source-backed results into a workspace brief”

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export_research_brief

Export a private workspace brief with its source linkage after confirmation. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Export this brief with its sources”
• “Give me the structured export for this workspace brief”

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create_coverage_target

Create a private workspace coverage target with linked evidence after confirmation. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Create a coverage target for Kansas City tenant organizations from this run”
• “Track this place and issue as a coverage gap for our workspace”

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export_coverage_report

Export the active workspace coverage report after confirmation. Parameters: None. Example requests:

• “Export our coverage report”
• “Give me the coverage report with gaps and source counts”

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sync_scout_artifacts

Sync reviewed Scout results into the active workspace after confirmation. Synced runs and entries stay private to the workspace unless a separate review path makes them public. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Sync this reviewed Scout run to our workspace”
• “Import these reviewed Scout results without publishing them”

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watch_workspace_resource

Watch an actor or coverage target after confirmation. Parameters: Example requests:

• “Watch this organization for new source-backed changes”
• “Add this coverage target to our digest”

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Manage Account Actions

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open_billing_settings

Open Atlas account settings after browser consent. Atlas does not send payment credentials, workspace identity, user identity, or submitted form content through the MCP client. Parameters: none Example requests:

• “Open Atlas billing settings”
• “Take me to account settings so I can manage my plan”

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open_api_key_settings

Open Atlas account settings for API key management after browser consent. Atlas never asks for API keys, access tokens, or other credentials through MCP forms or chat. Create and copy API keys only on the Atlas account page. Parameters: none Example requests:

• “Open API key settings”
• “Take me to Atlas so I can create an API key”

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require_api_key_settings

Require Atlas API-key setup before an agent continues a request that depends on account-page API-key management. When setup is still needed, Atlas returns a browser-required response. Your MCP client should ask before opening the Atlas account page. After the browser handoff completes, the agent can retry the original request. Atlas does not send API keys, access tokens, user identity, workspace identity, or submitted account-page content through the MCP client. Parameters: none Example requests:

• “I need to create an Atlas API key before continuing”
• “Set up API-key access, then retry this”

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Place key format

Atlas uses normalized place keys in the format city,state (lowercase, hyphenated): State-level queries use just the state name: kansas, idaho, missouri. Most clients handle this normalization. You can say “Kansas City” naturally.

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