mcp-pubmed
# mcp-pubmed
Search PubMed for biomedical literature, abstracts, and citations via the NCBI E-utilities API.
> **Free API** — No API key required.
## Tools
| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `search_articles` | Search PubMed for biomedical articles. Supports full PubMed query syntax including field tags ([Title], [Author], [MeSH]), boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and date ranges. |
| `get_article` | Get full metadata for a specific PubMed article by PMID, including title, abstract, authors, journal, publication date, DOI, and MeSH terms. |
| `get_citations` | Get articles that cite a given PubMed article (PMID). Useful for forward citation tracking. |
| `get_related` | Get related articles for a given PubMed article (PMID), ranked by relevance using NCBI's algorithm. |
| `search_mesh` | Search the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary. Useful for finding standardized biomedical terms, tree numbers, and scope notes. |
| `get_full_text_links` | Get links to free full text versions of an article (e.g., PubMed Central). Returns PMC links and publisher free-access URLs. |
## Installation
```bash
git clone https://github.com/PetrefiedThunder/mcp-pubmed.git
cd mcp-pubmed
npm install
npm run build
```
## Usage with Claude Desktop
Add to your `claude_desktop_config.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"pubmed": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["/path/to/mcp-pubmed/dist/index.js"]
}
}
}
```
## Usage with npx
```bash
npx mcp-pubmed
```
## License
MIT
TDQS
Scored across 6 tools
Each tool has a clearly distinct purpose: get_article retrieves metadata for a single article, get_citations finds citing articles, get_full_text_links provides access links, get_related finds related articles, search_articles searches the article database, and search_mesh searches the MeSH vocabulary. There is no overlap or ambiguity between these functions.
All tools follow a consistent verb_noun pattern with snake_case naming: get_article, get_citations, get_full_text_links, get_related, search_articles, and search_mesh. The verbs 'get' and 'search' are used appropriately and consistently throughout.
With 6 tools, this server is well-scoped for PubMed access. Each tool serves a specific, non-trivial function in biomedical literature retrieval, and the count is appropriate for the domain without being overwhelming or insufficient.
The toolset covers core PubMed workflows: searching articles, retrieving metadata, finding citations and related articles, accessing full text, and searching MeSH terms. A minor gap is the lack of tools for user-specific functions like saving articles to a library or managing alerts, but these are not essential for basic agent operations.