Monday hackathon · seven-minute route
Show discovery becoming a safe MCP selection
The central story is not “we copied ONS data”. It is that source-backed metadata can help a person or an agent choose the exact statistical product, understand plausible alternatives and configure a valid live request without storing observations.
One-sentence framing
“OKF makes ONS data findable and distinguishable; MCP retrieves it only after the dataset-specific choices are explicit.”
Demonstration route
- Start with the coverage strip. Explain that “all” is a measured claim: expected, represented, excluded and unexplained records are reported per official source.
- Search for a real statistical intent. Try consumer prices inflation, population estimates or unemployment claimant count. Use one facet to form a reduced candidate set.
- Open the first plausible record. Read its decision signature: population, measure, unit, geography, reference period, frequency and version.
- Choose Compare. Show that a similar title is kept visible and that material differences are source-backed. No equivalence is inferred from title similarity.
- Open Quality & methodology and Standards. Highlight QMI, methodology, provenance and evidence status. Point out the visible warning that metadata coverage is not certification of statistical accuracy.
- Open Dimensions, then Access via MCP. Missing dimensions remain explicit. The browser emits a read-only plan but never calls ONS and never asks for an API key.
- Finish with Open in OKF Explorer. The descriptor proves the demonstrator is an interoperable bundle, not a one-off page.
Useful links
- Human discovery and comparison UI
- OKF Explorer descriptor
- Bounded contrast records
- Coverage ledger
- Standards evaluation
- Discovery evaluation report
- Read-only MCP bindings
Claims to make carefully
| Safe claim | Claim to avoid |
|---|---|
| The frozen build is metadata-only and reproducible. | The bundle proves every statistic is accurate. |
| The UI exposes evidence-backed alternatives. | Similar titles are the same dataset. |
| Standards alignment is reported with evidence. | Every source record is certified compliant. |
| A zero-omission ledger supports the stated source scope. | The bundle covers “all ONS” without a measured denominator. |
| MCP performs live retrieval after validation. | GitHub Pages executes authenticated API calls. |
If the network is awkward
The interface and every record used in the demonstration are static. Open an already loaded tab, use the direct JSON links above, or open the descriptor in OKF Explorer. A live ONS request is the final hand-off, not a dependency of the discovery demonstration.