DataCite MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that wraps the DataCite REST API, giving Claude and other MCP clients read-only access to DataCite's index of 125M+ research DOIs. No API key is required. The server runs as a local stdio process and communicates with Claude Desktop via the MCP protocol, enabling natural-language queries against the full DataCite catalogue: searching by keyword, person, funder, or repository; retrieving full metadata records; and exploring relationships between research outputs.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json (found at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datacite": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/Users/[user_name]/Claude/projects/datacite/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Build Instructions

cd [path-to-project]
npm install
npm run build

To inspect the server interactively:

npm run inspector

Available Tools

Tool	Description
`search_dois`	Full-text search across DataCite's 125M+ DOI index with filters for resource type, funder, year, repository, and more. Supports cursor-based pagination.
`get_doi`	Retrieve complete metadata for a single DOI. Accepts any common DOI format (bare, URL, `doi:` prefix). Optionally includes the raw DataCite Schema XML.
`format_citation`	Format a DOI as a formatted citation string. Supports APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, BibTeX, and CSL JSON.
`get_doi_metrics`	Retrieve view, download, and citation counts for a DOI. Optionally include time-series arrays.
`get_related_works`	Explore the relationship graph for a DOI — citations, references, versions, and parts.
`search_by_person`	Find all DOIs associated with a researcher by ORCID iD or name.
`list_repositories`	Browse DataCite member repositories (clients) with optional search and filtering.
`get_doi_schema_xml`	Fetch the raw DataCite Metadata Schema XML for a DOI (base64-decoded).

Available Prompts

Prompts are pre-built workflows invocable from Claude Desktop's prompt menu (⌘K → "Use a prompt").

Prompt	Arguments	Description
`find-top-works-by-topic`	`resource_type` (required), `topic` (required)	Find the top 10 most relevant DataCite records for a resource type and subject area. Returns a ranked table with repository/year observations and a suggested follow-up.
`repository-summary`	`repository_name` (required)	Full metadata quality and activity report for a repository. Pass a common name like `"Zenodo"` or `"Dryad"` — the prompt resolves it to a DataCite client_id automatically.
`researcher-profile`	`identifier` (required)	Researcher profile from DataCite records. Pass an ORCID iD (`0000-0001-8135-3489`) for exact matching, or a name (`"Jane Smith"`) for fuzzy search with disambiguation.

Available Resources

Resource URI	Description
`datacite://schema/resource-types`	The complete DataCite `resourceTypeGeneral` controlled vocabulary.
`datacite://providers`	All DataCite member providers (organisations).
`datacite://clients`	All DataCite repository clients.
`datacite://doi/{doi}`	Full metadata record for a given DOI as JSON.
`datacite://doi/{doi}/citations`	Works that cite the given DOI.
`datacite://doi/{doi}/references`	Works cited by the given DOI.
`datacite://provider/{id}`	Metadata for a specific DataCite provider.
`datacite://client/{id}`	Metadata for a specific DataCite repository client.

Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust as needed. All variables are optional — defaults work out of the box.

Variable	Default	Description
`MCP_USER_AGENT_URL`	`https://github.com/alexwade/datacite-mcp`	URL included in the HTTP User-Agent header
`MCP_USER_AGENT_EMAIL`	(empty)	Contact email for DataCite's polite pool
`DATACITE_RATE_LIMIT_RPS`	`10`	Max API requests per second
`CACHE_DOI_TTL_SECONDS`	`3600`	DOI cache TTL (1 hour)
`CACHE_SEARCH_TTL_SECONDS`	`300`	Search cache TTL (5 minutes)
`CACHE_STATIC_TTL_SECONDS`	`86400`	Static data cache TTL (24 hours)