orcid-mcp-server — Claude Code MCP server: ORCID researcher data
Gives your agent the ORCID registry: researcher profiles, works, affiliations, funding and peer reviews. Handy when you need to pin down an author by ORCID iD.
claude mcp add --transport http orcid-mcp-server https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcpWhat orcid-mcp-server does
The server talks to the ORCID registry and exposes nine tools to the agent. Search runs on structured fields — name, affiliation, keyword, ROR ID, DOI, PMID, grant number — combined with AND, while query accepts raw Solr syntax. An empty search is rejected instead of being run against the whole registry.
From there you can pull a profile with other names and external identifiers, a paginated works list, affiliation records, funding items and peer review activity. One tool takes an ambiguous author name and returns a ranked list of verified ORCID iD candidates. Two resources, orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/profile and orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/works, are meant for injecting stable context into a prompt; tools are the better fit when you need to filter or process results.
A public host at https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp means no API key. Running it locally goes through npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server with the MCP_LOG_LEVEL, MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_HTTP_HOST, MCP_HTTP_PORT and MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH environment variables. If Node.js is missing from PATH, npx will not run. Pagination hits the public ORCID API ceiling: start stops at 10,000, and a page also ends early once the response grows past 64,000 bytes.
What it helps with
- find an author by family name and affiliation when the name is shared by dozens of people
- build a researcher dossier from profile, works and funding records
- check whether someone linked a specific paper to their ORCID iD by DOI or PMID
- export a publication list with offset pagination
- see which reviews and organisations a researcher took part in
Example prompts for the agent
- Search ORCID for researchers with family name Ivanov and affiliation Moscow State University
- Show the profile and first works for ORCID iD
0000-0001-2345-6789 - Resolve the name J. Smith into a ranked list of ORCID iD candidates
How to install orcid-mcp-server
1Platform CLI: remote server
claude mcp add --transport http orcid-mcp-server https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp2Platform CLI
claude mcp add --env MCP_LOG_LEVEL=<MCP_LOG_LEVEL> --env MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE> --env MCP_HTTP_HOST=<MCP_HTTP_HOST> --env MCP_HTTP_PORT=<MCP_HTTP_PORT> --env MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH=<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH> --transport stdio orcid-mcp-server -- npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values. 1 more environment variable is in the server README
1Platform CLI: remote server
codex mcp add orcid-mcp-server --url https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp2Platform CLI
codex mcp add orcid-mcp-server --env MCP_LOG_LEVEL=<MCP_LOG_LEVEL> --env MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE> --env MCP_HTTP_HOST=<MCP_HTTP_HOST> --env MCP_HTTP_PORT=<MCP_HTTP_PORT> --env MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH=<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH> -- npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values. 1 more environment variable is in the server README
Config file
{
"mcpServers": {
"orcid-mcp-server": {
"url": "https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
}
}
}{
"mcpServers": {
"orcid-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "<MCP_LOG_LEVEL>",
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE>",
"MCP_HTTP_HOST": "<MCP_HTTP_HOST>",
"MCP_HTTP_PORT": "<MCP_HTTP_PORT>",
"MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH": "<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values. 1 more environment variable is in the server README
Config file
{
"servers": {
"orcid-mcp-server": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
}
}
}{
"servers": {
"orcid-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "<MCP_LOG_LEVEL>",
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE>",
"MCP_HTTP_HOST": "<MCP_HTTP_HOST>",
"MCP_HTTP_PORT": "<MCP_HTTP_PORT>",
"MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH": "<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values. 1 more environment variable is in the server README
1Platform CLI: remote server
gemini mcp add -t http orcid-mcp-server https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp2Platform CLI
gemini mcp add -e MCP_LOG_LEVEL=<MCP_LOG_LEVEL> -e MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE> -e MCP_HTTP_HOST=<MCP_HTTP_HOST> -e MCP_HTTP_PORT=<MCP_HTTP_PORT> -e MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH=<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH> orcid-mcp-server npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values. 1 more environment variable is in the server README
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about orcid-mcp-server
How do I install orcid-mcp-server in Claude Code?
The remote server takes one command: claude mcp add --transport http orcid-mcp-server https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp. For a local run use `claude mcp add --env MCP_LOG_LEVEL=<MCP_LOG_LEVEL> --env MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=<MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE> --env MCP_HTTP_HOST=<MCP_HTTP_HOST> --env MCP_HTTP_PORT=<MCP_HTTP_PORT> --env MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH=<MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH> --transport stdio orcid-mcp-server -- npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server`.
What does orcid-mcp-server do?
It hands the agent the ORCID registry: structured researcher search, profiles, works, affiliations, funding and peer reviews. It also disambiguates a vague author name into ranked candidates.
Does orcid-mcp-server need an API key?
The public host https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp needs none. Keep the public ORCID API limits in mind: start offsets go up to 10,000, and a page can return fewer rows than requested when the response gets too large.
