Dienstreiseantrag Model Context Protocol (DRA-MCP)

A model context protocol server for filling out business trip application forms.

Note that DRA-MCP is in early stage of development. It may later be used in production and for teaching. Hence, suggestions and improvements are welcome, as long as we don't over-engineer it.

Setup

It is recommended to install uv first.

git clone https://github.com/scads/dra-mcp
cd dra-mcp
uv sync

Copy .env.example to .env and put in your form and reusable applicant details:

DRA_FORM=saxony
SERVICE_UNIT=
APPLICANT_NAME=
DEPARTMENT=
OFFICE_PHONE=
HOME_ADDRESS=
ADDITIONAL_HOME_ADDRESS=
TEMPORARY_STAY_ADDRESS=
IBAN=
BIC=
BANK_NAME=
PERSONNEL_NUMBER=
TRAVEL_START_FROM=
TRAVEL_END_AT=
HOME_CITY=
OUTPUT_DIR=

This file is ignored by Git because it may contain personal and banking information. Filled PDFs are written to output/ (or OUTPUT_DIR), which is ignored as well.

TRAVEL_START_FROM / TRAVEL_END_AT say where your trips usually start and end (home-a, home-b, office or temporary-address), HOME_CITY is the city travel times are estimated from (default: Leipzig).

Supported forms

DRA_FORM	Form	Template
saxony (default)	Dienstreiseantrag Anlage 1 (VwV-SächsRKG)	00_application-form.pdf
tud	TU Dresden RK-02, Beantragung einer Dienstreise	00_application-form-dresden.pdf

Only the applicant's sections are filled. Notes for the TU Dresden form:

• Section 6 has one row per place where the trip starts or ends. Set TRAVEL_START_FROM / TRAVEL_END_AT in .env; otherwise the AI agent asks for them.
• The purpose (Reisezweck) is a single line of at most 70 characters; details go into the explanations.
• Trips to other EU countries need an A1 certificate (A1-Bescheinigung). Complete section 18 before signing electronically; the form is either signed fully digitally or printed and signed by hand.

If you use this tool via an MCP-compatible AI-agent such as Jan.AI (open source), it is recommended to use privacy-preserving, local-only Large Language Models. If you use a cloud-service for this, be aware that information such as your home adress and bank account might be shared with this cloud service provider!

MCP server

business_trip_mcp_server.py exposes create_business_trip_application as an MCP tool via FastMCP, so an MCP-compatible AI agent can fill out and generate the PDF for you. The tool fills the form selected by DRA_FORM and only offers that form's fields and options. The server also ships a business_trip_travel_planning_guide prompt with detailed rules for choosing the transport mode (train vs. flight) and estimating realistic departure/return dates and times, assuming the traveller starts from HOME_CITY.

Install dependencies and run the server with uv:

uv sync
uv run python business_trip_mcp_server.py

Point your MCP-compatible client (e.g. Jan.AI) at this command (uv run python business_trip_mcp_server.py, working directory dra-mcp) to add it as a stdio MCP server. Most clients (Jan.AI, Claude Desktop, VS Code, ...) accept a JSON config such as:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dra": {
      "active": true,
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "path/to/dra-mcp",
        "run",
        "business_trip_mcp_server.py"
      ],
      "command": "uv"
    }
  }
}

The form can also be chosen in the client config instead of .env, e.g. by adding "env": {"DRA_FORM": "tud"} next to "command".

Use via Terminal and Python (without AI agents)

python business_trip.py --help
python business_trip.py `
  --application-kind business-trip `
  --destination "Dresden" `
  --purpose "Project meeting" `
  --departure-date 2026-10-12 `
  --outbound-train `
  --return-train `
  --output completed-trip.pdf

The CLI accepts options for all applicant-editable text fields, choices, and checkboxes. Omitted fields stay blank in the PDF. Boolean options support both --option and --no-option; radio choices are listed by --help. --form tud fills the TU Dresden form instead of the one in DRA_FORM (python business_trip.py --form tud --help lists its options), and --no-open skips opening the PDF afterwards.

From Python, each form module has a fill function that takes the same arguments as a dict:

import form_saxony

form_saxony.fill(
    {"destination": "Dresden", "purpose": "Project meeting", "outbound_train": True},
    output_path="completed-trip.pdf",
)

from business_trip import create_business_trip_application still works and fills the Saxon form; it is the typed function the MCP tool is built from.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. Note: Large parts of the code in this repository were vibe-coded using GitHub Copilot integration in Visual Studio Code. When modifying code here, consider using a similar tool.

Run the tests with uv run pytest. To support another form, add a form_<name>.py next to form_tud.py (field maps, a typed create_business_trip_application and fill) and register it in FORMS in business_trip.py; the tests in tests/test_forms.py and tests/test_mcp.py then check it against its PDF automatically.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space of Germany and by Sächsische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Kultur und Tourismus in the programme Center of Excellence for AI-research „Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Dresden/Leipzig“, project identification number: ScaDS.AI