skyportal-mcp

Beta: This project is under active development. Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are very welcome — please open an issue or submit a PR.

A local MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for SkyPortal and Fritz. It runs on your own machine and exposes SkyPortal data as tools that AI coding assistants — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor — can call directly. Query astronomical transient data — photometry, spectra, classifications, observability — without leaving your AI assistant.

Compatibility: This has been tested with Claude Code and Claude Desktop. It has not been tested with other MCP-compatible clients (e.g., Cursor, OpenAI Codex, Gemini, or other services) — the setup steps for those clients may differ from the instructions below.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/AnastasiaKWei/skyportal-mcp.git
cd skyportal-mcp
pip install -e .

Related MCP server: VoIPbin MCP Server

Configuration

Set two environment variables:

export SKYPORTAL_URL="https://fritz.science"    # Your SkyPortal/Fritz instance
export SKYPORTAL_TOKEN="your-api-token-here"    # From your profile page

For Fritz, get your token at https://fritz.science/profile — click your username, scroll to API Token, and copy it.

Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code MCP config (~/.claude.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skyportal": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "skyportal_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SKYPORTAL_URL": "https://fritz.science",
        "SKYPORTAL_TOKEN": "your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skyportal": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "skyportal_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SKYPORTAL_URL": "https://fritz.science",
        "SKYPORTAL_TOKEN": "your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skyportal": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "skyportal_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SKYPORTAL_URL": "https://fritz.science",
        "SKYPORTAL_TOKEN": "your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Read vs Write

• Read — queries data from SkyPortal/Fritz; no data is created or modified.

• Write (SkyPortal) — can create, update, or delete data in your SkyPortal/Fritz account. Use with care; these operations may not be reversible.

• Write (local) — creates files on your local machine (notebooks, CSVs). Does not touch SkyPortal.

Source Data — source_products.py

Analysis — analysis.py

Observing — observing.py, astro_utils.py

Filtering — filtering.py

Bulk Analysis — bulk_analysis.py

API Access — api.py

Test Prompts

Try these prompts after connecting to verify the tools work. Replace source names with ones you have access to on your SkyPortal instance.

Source Data

Photometry:

"Get the g and r band photometry for ZTF20acigmel"

Expects: CSV table with MJD, filter, mag, magerr columns. Should return both ztfg and ztfr data points.

Spectra:

"Show me the spectra for ZTF20acigmel"

Expects: Summary listing each spectrum with date, instrument, wavelength range, and a Fritz link.

Classifications:

"What are the classifications for ZTF20acigmel?"

Expects: List of classifications with type (e.g., SN Ia), probability, classifier name, and date.

Comments and annotations:

"Show me the comments and ML annotations for ZTF20acigmel"

Expects: User comments with text/author/date, plus annotation key-value pairs (e.g., braai score, cross-match results).

Host galaxy:

"What is the host galaxy of ZTF20acigmel?"

Expects: Galaxy name, coordinates, redshift, distance, stellar mass, and angular offset from the transient.

TNS summary:

"Generate a TNS report for ZTF20acigmel"

Expects: Formatted report with coordinates (deg + HMS/DMS), discovery info, photometry summary, classification, spectroscopy, and host galaxy — ready to paste into a TNS submission.

Analysis

Light curve analysis (text):

"Analyze the light curve of ZTF20acigmel in g and r bands. Give me a text summary."

Expects: Per-band summary with peak magnitude, peak date, rise time, fade time, and duration.

Light curve analysis (notebook):

"Analyze the light curve of ZTF20acigmel and generate a notebook"

Expects: Creates a Jupyter notebook with interactive Plotly light curve plots and editable analysis code cells.

Color evolution (text):

"What is the g-r color evolution of ZTF20acigmel? Text summary please."

Expects: Color at peak, color trend (bluing/reddening/stable), and a table of color measurements over time.

Observing

Observability:

"When can I observe ZTF20acigmel from Keck and Palomar tonight?"

Expects: Per-telescope observing windows with rise/set times (UTC and local), transit time, peak altitude, and airmass.

Time conversion:

"Convert MJD 60000 to a calendar date"

Expects: All formats — MJD, JD, ISO datetime, and Unix timestamp.

Survey links:

"Get survey links for RA=150.0, Dec=2.0"

Expects: Clickable URLs for Legacy Survey, PanSTARRS, SDSS, NED, SIMBAD, VizieR, WISE, DSS, and others.

Cone search:

"Search for sources within 10 arcsec of RA=150.0, Dec=2.0"

Expects: List of sources sorted by separation, with source ID, coordinates, separation in arcsec, and saved groups.

API Access

Direct API call:

"Use the SkyPortal API to get the source page for ZTF20acigmel"

Expects: Raw JSON response from /api/sources/ZTF20acigmel.

Multi-Tool Prompts

These prompts exercise multiple tools in sequence, testing the AI assistant's ability to chain tool calls.

Photometry + classification + observability:

"Get the photometry and classification for ZTF20acigmel, then check if it's observable from Keck tonight"

Expects: The assistant calls get_source_photometry, get_source_classifications, and get_source_observability (either in parallel or sequentially), then synthesizes the results.

Cone search + photometry:

"Search for sources within 5 arcsec of RA=210.9, Dec=54.3 and get the photometry for any matches"

Expects: First calls search_sources_near_position, then calls get_source_photometry for each result.

TNS report + observability:

"Generate a TNS summary for ZTF20acigmel and tell me when I can observe it from VLT"

Expects: Calls get_tns_summary and get_source_observability (potentially in parallel), then presents both results.

Light curve analysis + color evolution:

"Analyze both the light curve and color evolution of ZTF20acigmel in text format"

Expects: Calls analyze_light_curve and analyze_color_evolution, presenting rise/fade metrics alongside color trend information.

License

BSD 3-Clause