GSA Per Diem
Fetch official GSA per diem lodging and meals & incidental (M&IE) rates for federal travel cost estimates inside your agent.
Overview
GSA Per Diem MCP is a MCP server for the Validate phase that provides six tools to query federal lodging and M&IE per diem rates using a PERDIEM_API_KEY.
What is this MCP server?
- Six MCP tools for federal travel lodging and M&IE per diem rates
- Uses GSA Per Diem data via api.data.gov with PERDIEM_API_KEY
- Free api.data.gov key signup with 1,000 requests per hour quota described
- PyPI package gsa-perdiem-mcp (v0.2.6), stdio transport
- Useful for proposal travel lines and contractor expense estimators
- 6 MCP tools
- Package version 0.2.6 on PyPI
- Required PERDIEM_API_KEY (api.data.gov)
Community signal: 12 GitHub stars.
What problem does it solve?
Copying GSA per diem tables by hand wastes time and introduces errors when you price federal travel in proposals or expense tools.
Who is it for?
Indie GovCon builders, proposal automators, and travel-expense SaaS prototypes that need GSA per diem inside the dev loop.
Skip if: Products with only private-sector travel (no federal per diem rules) or teams unwilling to manage an api.data.gov API key.
What do I get? / Deliverables
Your agent returns current lodging and M&IE rates on demand so travel cost assumptions in validation stay aligned with GSA published figures.
- Location-based federal lodging and M&IE per diem lookups via six MCP tools
- Validated travel cost inputs for proposals and expense prototypes
- Agent workflow that respects documented 1,000 req/hr api.data.gov usage
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Journey fit
Travel ceilings affect proposal cost volumes and indie GovCon margin models during validation, before you automate expense tooling. Pricing fits because per diem lookups support bid travel budgets and T&E assumptions, not application deployment.
How it compares
MCP access to GSA Per Diem APIs, not a corporate travel booking integration.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is GSA Per Diem MCP for?
Solo developers building federal contracting or travel-cost tools who want GSA lodging and M&IE rates available to Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
When should I use GSA Per Diem MCP?
Use it while validating pricing for proposals, ROM estimates, or expense features that must follow federal per diem by locality.
How do I add GSA Per Diem MCP to my agent?
Sign up for a free api.data.gov key, set PERDIEM_API_KEY in the MCP server environment, install gsa-perdiem-mcp from PyPI as stdio, and reload your agent’s MCP configuration.