mcp-server-ads

A powerful MCP server for the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) — the primary database for astrophysics literature. Search papers, traverse citation graphs forward and backward, export BibTeX, compute metrics, and manage reading lists, all through natural language. Works with Claude Desktop/Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, and any MCP-compatible client.

Provides 11 tools, 3 resources, and 3 prompt workflows with token-efficient output designed for LLM consumption.

Quick Start

Get an ADS API Token

Create a free account at NASA ADS
Log in and go to Settings > API Token
Click Generate a new key and copy the token

Prerequisites

Python 3.11+

Installation

# Install from GitHub with uv (recommended)
uv tool install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads

# Or with pip
pip install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ads": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads", "mcp-server-ads"],
      "env": {
        "ADS_API_TOKEN": "your-api-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope user mcp-server-ads -e ADS_API_TOKEN=your-api-token-here -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads mcp-server-ads

Use --scope project instead to share the configuration via .mcp.json in your repo, or omit --scope for local (current project only).

Codex CLI

codex mcp add mcp-server-ads --env ADS_API_TOKEN=your-api-token-here -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads mcp-server-ads

This installs to ~/.codex/config.toml (user-level, available across all projects). For project-scoped config, add the entry to .codex/config.toml in your project root instead.

Running from Source

git clone https://github.com/cbyrohl/mcp-server-ads.git
cd mcp-server-ads
uv sync

# Run the server
ADS_API_TOKEN=your-token uv run mcp-server-ads

Configuration

| Environment Variable | Required | Default | Description | |---------------------|----------|---------|-------------| | ADS_API_TOKEN | Yes | — | API token from ADS | | ADS_API_URL | No | https://api.adsabs.harvard.edu | API base URL (override for SciX) |

Tools (11)

Search

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | ads_search | Search the ADS database with full query syntax, including citations(), references(), similar(), trending(), and reviews() operators | | ads_bigquery | Search within a specific set of bibcodes (up to 2000) |

Export & Metrics

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | ads_export | Export records in 18+ formats (BibTeX, AASTeX, RIS, CSL, etc.) | | ads_metrics | Compute citation metrics (h-index, g-index, citation counts, etc.) |

Libraries

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | ads_library | Manage libraries: list, get, create, edit, or delete saved paper collections | | ads_library_documents | Manage documents and notes within a library: add/remove papers, set operations (union, intersection, difference, copy, empty), and note CRUD |

Discovery & Resolution

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | ads_resolve_links | Resolve available links for a paper (full text, data, etc.) | | ads_object_search | Translate astronomical object names to ADS queries (SIMBAD/NED) | | ads_citation_helper | Suggest papers that should be cited alongside a given set | | ads_resolve_reference | Resolve free-text reference strings to ADS bibcodes |

Network Visualization

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | ads_network | Generate author collaboration or paper citation networks from a set of papers |

Resources

| URI | Description | |-----|-------------| | ads://fields | Complete reference of searchable and returnable ADS fields | | ads://syntax | ADS query syntax quick-reference with examples | | ads://rate-limits | Live API rate-limit status |

Prompts

| Prompt | Description | |--------|-------------| | literature_review | Multi-step literature review workflow for a research topic | | citation_analysis | Citation network analysis workflow for a set of papers | | generate_bibliography | Generate a formatted bibliography from search or bibcodes |

Similar Projects

prtc/nasa-ads-mcp — ADS search, metrics, and library management
thostetler/scix-mcp — MCP server for the SciX/ADS API
blazickjp/arxiv-mcp-server — MCP server for arXiv paper search and retrieval

This server focuses on broad ADS API coverage, token-efficient output, and integration-tested reliability. Compared to arXiv-based tools, ADS enables forward/backward citation traversal (citations and references of any paper), though it is focused on astrophysics.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

# Run the server locally
ADS_API_TOKEN=your-token uv run mcp-server-ads

License

MIT

MCP Servers