CMR Model Context Protocol

Official
by podaac

Integrations

  • Provides access to NASA's Common Metadata Repository (CMR) for Earthdata Search, allowing users to query and retrieve dataset metadata from NASA's catalog based on keywords, time periods, and data providers like PO.DAAC.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) for NASA Earthdata Search (CMR)

This module is a model context protocol (MCP) for NASA's earthdata common metedata repository (CMR). The goal of this MCP server is to integrate AI retrievals with NASA Catalog of datasets by way of Earthaccess.

Dependencies

uv - a rust based python package manager a LLM client, such as Claude desktop or chatGPT desktop (for consuming the MCP)

Install and Run

Clone the repository to your local environment, or where your LLM client is running.

git clone https://github.com/podaac/cmr-mcp.git cd cmr-mcp

Install uv

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv source .venv/bin/activate

Install packages with uv

uv sync

use the outputs of which uv (UV_LIB) and PWD (CMR_MCP_INSTALL) to update the following configuration.

Adding to AI Framework

In this example we'll use Claude desktop.

Update the claude_desktop_config.json file (sometimes this must be created). On a mac, this is often found in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration, filling in the values of UV_LIB and CMR_MCP_INSTALL - don't use environment variables here.

{ "mcpServers": { "cmr": { "command": "$UV_LIB$", "args": [ "--directory", "$CMR_MCP_INSTALL$", "run", "cmr-search.py" ] } } }

Use the MCP Server

Simply prompt your agent to search cmr for... data. Below is a simple example of this in action.

Other prompts that can work:

  1. Search CMR for datasets from 2024 to 2025
  2. Search CMR for PO.DAAC datasets from 2020 to 2024 with keyword Climate

You must be authenticated.

A
security – no known vulnerabilities
F
license - not found
A
quality - confirmed to work

local-only server

The server can only run on the client's local machine because it depends on local resources.

An MCP server that integrates AI retrievals with NASA's Common Metadata Repository (CMR), allowing users to search NASA's catalog of Earth science datasets through natural language queries.

  1. Dependencies
    1. Install and Run
      1. Install uv
      2. Install packages with uv
    2. Adding to AI Framework
      1. Use the MCP Server

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