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syntheticgio

ncbi-datasets-mcp

by syntheticgio

Server Configuration

Describes the environment variables required to run the server.

NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
NCBI_API_KEYNoNCBI API key — raises rate limit to 10 req/s
NCBI_CLI_PATHNoOverride path to datasets binary
NCBI_MAX_RESULTSNoCap for summary tool result counts20
NCBI_AUTO_INSTALLNoAuto-install CLI tools on startupfalse
NCBI_DOWNLOAD_DIRNoDefault download location~/Downloads/ncbi_datasets
NCBI_DATAFORMAT_PATHNoOverride path to dataformat binary
NCBI_REQUEST_TIMEOUTNoSeconds before a download times out300

Capabilities

Features and capabilities supported by this server

CapabilityDetails
tools
{
  "listChanged": false
}
prompts
{
  "listChanged": false
}
resources
{
  "subscribe": false,
  "listChanged": false
}
experimental
{}

Tools

Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions

NameDescription
ensure_cliA

Check whether the NCBI datasets/dataformat CLI tools are installed and, if not, download and install them automatically. Call this tool once before using any download or format-conversion tools.

Returns the install status, binary paths, and version string.

genome_summary_by_taxonA

Search NCBI for genome assemblies matching a taxon name or tax ID.

Returns assembly metadata including accession numbers, organism info, assembly statistics, annotation status, and submission details.

Args: taxon: Taxon name (e.g. "human", "Mus musculus") or NCBI tax ID assembly_level: Filter by level — chromosome, complete_genome, contig, scaffold assembly_source: Filter by source — all, genbank, refseq reference_only: Return only reference/representative genomes annotated_only: Return only annotated genomes limit: Maximum number of assemblies to return (capped by server config)

genome_summary_by_accessionA

Retrieve genome assembly metadata for one or more NCBI accessions.

Args: accessions: RefSeq or GenBank assembly accessions (e.g. ["GCF_000001405.40", "GCA_000001405.29"])

genome_download_by_accessionA

Download a genome data package for one or more assembly accessions.

Returns the local path to the downloaded ZIP file.

Args: accessions: RefSeq/GenBank assembly accessions include: Data types — genome, rna, protein, cds, gff3, gbff, seq-report. Defaults to ["genome"]. output_dir: Directory for the download. Uses NCBI_DOWNLOAD_DIR if omitted. dehydrated: Download a lightweight dehydrated package (use rehydrate_genome_package to fetch the actual sequence files).

genome_download_by_taxonA

Download genome data packages for assemblies matching a taxon.

For taxa with many assemblies, use dehydrated=True first, then call rehydrate_genome_package to fetch only the data you need.

Args: taxon: Taxon name or NCBI tax ID include: Data types — genome, rna, protein, cds, gff3, gbff, seq-report output_dir: Directory for the download dehydrated: Download a dehydrated package (recommended for large taxa) reference_only: Download only the reference/representative genome

rehydrate_genome_packageA

Fetch the full sequence files for a dehydrated genome package.

Args: package_path: Path to the dehydrated ZIP file or its extracted directory.

dataformat_genome_tsvB

Convert a genome JSONL data report from a downloaded package to TSV.

Args: jsonl_path: Path to the genome data_report.jsonl file inside the package. fields: Optional list of fields to include. Omit to use the default set.

taxonomy_summaryA

Get taxonomy metadata for a taxon — lineage, rank, scientific name, common names, and child taxa.

Args: taxon: Taxon name (e.g. "human", "Bacteria") or NCBI tax ID

taxonomy_downloadC

Download a taxonomy data package for a given taxon.

Args: taxon: Taxon name or NCBI tax ID output_dir: Directory for the download

Prompts

Interactive templates invoked by user choice

NameDescription

No prompts

Resources

Contextual data attached and managed by the client

NameDescription

No resources

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