@cyanheads/datacite-mcp-server

Overview

DOI metadata from DataCite for datasets, software, samples, workflows, and other research outputs that repositories deposit worldwide. Search it, open a record in full, trace a DOI's relations (versions, parts, supplements, citations), find the repositories that publish in a field, and format citations. Runs without an API key, as a stdio process or a local Streamable HTTP server.

Tools

Related MCP server: musicbrainz-mcp-server

Capability reference

datacite_search_works tool

• text (plain words, every reserved character escaped) or query (OpenSearch query syntax), ANDed with filters: resource_types, creator (ORCID iD or name), affiliation (ROR ID or name), affiliation_country, funder (ROR ID, Crossref Funder ID, or name; include_child_funders with a ROR funder), subject, fields_of_science, repository_ids, provider_ids, licenses, language, place, published_from / published_to, and min_citations; list filters take up to 10 values, any of which match

• limit 1–100 (default 20); ranked pages reach the first 10,000 matches under sort (relevance, newest, oldest, recently_updated, most_cited, most_viewed, most_downloaded; default relevance with text or query, else newest), while cursor: "*" walks the whole result set in registration order through nextCursor and takes neither page nor sort

• include_facets adds top counts for resource types, years, repositories, providers, affiliations, fields of science, and licenses (2–8 s slower); every response reports totalCount, effectiveQuery, sortApplied, and appliedFilters

datacite_get_work tool

• One doi, in any case: bare, with a doi: or info:doi/ prefix, as a doi.org URL, or %2F-encoded

• Titles, creators and contributors with ORCID iDs and ROR affiliations, dates, subjects, descriptions, funding, geolocations, rights, related identifiers and items, repository and provider, and counts (citations, references, versions, parts, views, downloads); long lists are capped and their full sizes reported in truncatedLists and relatedIdentifierCounts

• A DOI DataCite holds no public record for returns found: false with missReason (other_agency, does_not_exist, not_public, unclassified), the registrationAgency when known, and guidance

datacite_trace_relations tool

• Any agency's doi: a DataCite dataset or software DOI, or a journal article's DOI to find the DataCite data and software it cites or that cite, supplement, or derive from it

• depth 1 (default) or 2 — the second hop expands at most 10 DataCite neighbours and runs only when the first hop leaves max_nodes room; max_nodes 1–100 (default 50, root included) fills with own-metadata targets, then records pointing at the root, then Event Data endpoints, then the second hop; relation_types keeps only the listed relation types, read from the traced DOI's side (omitted: all); include_event_data (default true) adds Event Data citation links

• Edges keep relationType exactly as asserted and list their sources (metadata, reverse_metadata, event_data); coverage states how much of each source was read (up to 100 reverse records per hop, only the first 10 when those are large, and up to 100 events per call), and rootCounts carries DataCite's own counts for comparison. An absent edge is not evidence that no relationship exists

datacite_search_repositories tool

• query text over names and descriptions, plus field_of_science, repository_types, certificates, software, client_type, and provider_id; or repository_ids alone (up to 25) to look up known accounts

• limit 1–100 (default 20) with page; name-ordered rows carry the repositoryId that datacite_search_works takes in repository_ids, plus providerId, types, certificates, software, subjects, homepage, and re3data link

datacite_get_citation tool

• format: text (default), csl_json, bibtex, ris, datacite_json, datacite_xml, schema_org, codemeta, or jats

• For text only: style takes a CSL style id (default apa; verified ids under datacite_list_reference topic citation_styles), and one DataCite would silently render as APA fails as unsupported_style; locale takes one of the 61 CSL locales DataCite renders (en-GB, de-DE, fr-FR, …) or a bare language code that expands to its primary dialect (de → de-DE), default en-US (list: topic citation_locales)

• text returns the citation as plain text in citation and the upstream markup in citationHtml; machine formats return the payload verbatim up to 100,000 characters, with its mediaType; a longer payload is cut to its first 100,000 and the cut is disclosed (truncated: true). A DOI DataCite doesn't hold returns found: false as in datacite_get_work; a format DataCite can't render for that DOI fails as format_unavailable

datacite_list_reference tool

• topic: resource_types, relation_types, identifier_types, date_types, contributor_types, fields_of_science, licenses, repository_types, certificates, software_platforms, client_types, sort_orders, query_syntax, citation_formats, citation_styles, citation_locales, identifier_formats, or coverage

• Returns entries (value, label, group, inverse) and usage notes; makes no upstream request

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

DataCite-specific:

• Keyless and read-only: the DataCite REST API (/dois, /repositories, Event Data at /events, and DOI content negotiation for citations), plus the doi.org registration-agency lookup for DOIs DataCite doesn't hold

• Shared request budget: one paced request queue, an in-process response cache, and a 45 s deadline per tool call; a spent budget fails as rate_limited with the wait in seconds. DATACITE_CONTACT_EMAIL moves requests to DataCite's identified tier, 1,000 requests per 5 minutes per IP instead of 500

• Forgiving identifiers: DOIs in any case, bare or prefixed or as doi.org URLs; ORCID iDs with their checksum verified; ROR IDs and Crossref Funder IDs bare or as URLs; vocabulary values in any case, with hyphens, underscores, or spaces

• DataCite DOI metadata is waived under CC0 1.0; the waiver covers the deposited metadata only, not the datasets, software, or papers it describes. datacite_get_work reports metadataLicense separately from the work's own rights

Agent-friendly output:

• Provenance on every search: effectiveQuery, appliedFilters as sent upstream, the sort or order applied, and totalCount; trace edges name their sources, and coverage says how much of each source was read

• Typed misses instead of errors: a DOI DataCite doesn't hold comes back found: false with a missReason, the agency that holds it when known, and the next step

• Disclosed limits: capped lists report their full counts, and notices explain zero hits, the 10,000-match paging ceiling, an unexpanded second hop, and citations the returned edges don't account for

• In the text output, depositor-supplied text (titles, descriptions, names) is blockquoted or flattened and machine payloads are fenced, so deposited content can't pose as structure; structuredContent keeps it verbatim

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file. No API key is needed; the contact email is optional.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datacite-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/datacite-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "DATACITE_CONTACT_EMAIL": "you@example.org"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datacite-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/datacite-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "DATACITE_CONTACT_EMAIL": "you@example.org"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datacite-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/datacite-mcp-server:latest"]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).

• No API key or account. Optional: a contact email in DATACITE_CONTACT_EMAIL doubles DataCite's per-IP request allowance.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/datacite-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd datacite-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set DATACITE_CONTACT_EMAIL if you want the identified tier

Configuration

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run the production version:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:http
  # or
  bun run start:stdio

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck  # Lints, formats, type-checks, and more
  bun run test      # Runs the test suite

Project structure

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic

• Use ctx.log for logging, ctx.state for storage

• Register new tools in the createApp() arrays in src/index.ts

• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.