Public Hosted Server: https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Overview

Researcher identity data from the ORCID registry. Search and disambiguate authors, build a researcher dossier from profile, works, affiliations, funding, and peer review records, and chain external identifiers to Crossref, PubMed, or arXiv.

Tools

| Tool | Description | |:-----|:------------| | orcid_search_researchers | Search the ORCID registry using structured field params (name, affiliation, keyword, ROR ID, DOI, PMID, grant number) | | orcid_get_profile | Fetch a researcher's public profile — name, other names, biography, keywords, researcher URLs, external identifiers | | orcid_get_works | Retrieve works (publications, datasets, software, preprints) for a researcher, filtered by work type and publication year, paginated | | orcid_get_work_detail | Accept up to 1,000 put-codes, fetch the first 100 distinct works, and return deferred codes for continuation | | orcid_get_affiliations | Fetch affiliation records: employment, education, memberships, and more | | orcid_get_funding | List grouped funding summaries or select one award's deposited description, amount, and source | | orcid_get_peer_reviews | Fetch peer review activity: convening organizations, reviewer role, review type | | orcid_get_research_resources | List research resources — compute allocations, equipment access, lab facilities | | orcid_resolve_researcher | Disambiguate an ambiguous author name to a ranked list of verified ORCID iD candidates |

Resources

| Resource | Description | |:---|:---| | orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/profile | Researcher profile (person section) — name, other names, bio, keywords, external IDs | | orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/works | Works list for a researcher — the first 25 plus the total count |

All resource data is also reachable via tools. Use resources when injecting stable researcher context into a prompt; use tools when filtering or processing results is needed.

The server also publishes an agent skill, orcid-guide (skill://orcid-guide/SKILL.md, source in skills/orcid-guide/): identity-confirmation gates, identifier chains between the tools, and raw Solr field syntax.

Capability reference

orcid_search_researchers tool

• Structured params — given_name, family_name, affiliation, keyword, ror_id, doi, pmid, grant_number — AND together automatically; query adds raw Solr syntax — sent as written when it is the only field, otherwise ANDed as one parenthesized group so a top-level OR keeps its alternatives (an exclusion-only query such as -keyword:x is ANDed ungrouped, since ORCID matches nothing for a group of only exclusions)
• At least one param must be non-blank — an empty or whitespace-only search is rejected rather than run against the whole registry
• given_name phrase-matches, except that a value of only initials (J., J. A.) matches given names starting with each letter
• doi and pmid map to doi-self / pmid-self field queries — finds researchers who linked that specific work to their ORCID record. URL and label forms (https://doi.org/…, doi:…, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/…/, PMID:…) are accepted and reduced to the bare identifier, preserving its case. Nonblank values must contain a complete DOI (10. followed by digits, /, and a non-whitespace suffix) or numeric PMID; malformed and prefix-only values fail before a request. Omitted or genuinely blank fields remain unset
• ror_id takes a ROR ID bare (00f54p054) or as a ror.org URL (https://ror.org/…, ror.org/…, a www. host, a trailing slash), in either letter case, and is reduced to the https://ror.org/<lowercase id> form ORCID indexes; a value that is not a ROR ID, or whose check digits do not match, is rejected before any search runs
• grant_number phrase-matches the grant numbers on researchers' funding items, case-insensitively, over the parts between separators such as hyphens and slashes — 5F31MH010500 also matches 5F31MH010500-03, but a number cut mid-part matches nothing — pair with orcid_get_funding to inspect each match
• rows: results per page, default 20; a larger value (up to 10,000) is clamped to 1,000, the most ORCID serves per request, and a notice names both sizes on both surfaces. start: 0–10,000 offset pagination (the ORCID Public API's ceiling for unauthenticated requests)
• A page returns rows results, fewer only at the end of the matches; nextStart is start plus the number returned while matches remain
• Returns expanded-search results with inline name and institution data — no follow-up profile fetch needed for basic discovery
• Use for precise field-anchored lookups; use orcid_resolve_researcher for ambiguous names needing ranked disambiguation

orcid_get_profile tool

• Accepts a bare ORCID iD (0000-0001-2345-6789) or an orcid.org URI (https://orcid.org/…, orcid.org/…, a www. host, a trailing slash); a lowercase x check digit is canonicalized to X. Every tool that takes orcid_id accepts the same forms; the orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/… resources take the bare iD
• A deprecated iD — one ORCID merged into another account — resolves to the primary record on every record tool and both resources, and orcidId/orcidUri report the primary iD; on the tools, selfAsserted is judged against it and a notice names both iDs
• Returns name, other names (former names, transliterations, initialed forms), biography, keywords, researcher URLs, external identifiers (Scopus Author ID, ResearcherID, Loop, etc.), emails, and country codes — all in one response
• Only publicly visible fields are returned; researchers control per-field visibility. A notice names every section with no public data (e.g. "no public email addresses or countries"), since an empty section can be private rather than empty
• Entry point for building a researcher dossier before fetching works or affiliations

orcid_get_works tool

• work_types keeps works of the listed types (ORCID's 58-value vocabulary, e.g. journal-article, preprint, data-set; any listed type matches, an empty list filters nothing); year_from and year_to keep works published in that inclusive range, read from the first four digits of publicationDate. Under a year bound, undated works drop out and a notice counts them. The filters run over the whole record before paging, at no extra upstream cost: matchedCount counts the matches, workCount the whole record, and appliedFilters echoes what was applied
• Returns 25 matching works by default; limit is clamped to 1,000 (accepted up to 10,000) with a notice naming both sizes. Page with offset and the returned nextOffset; a page holds limit works, fewer only at the end, and truncated says more remain. An offset past the matches returns a notice saying so; no match returns a notice naming the filters and workCount
• Set include_external_ids to false to drop DOI/PMID/arXiv/ISBN identifier lists for a lighter payload
• One record per ORCID work group; its identifiers are the group's — the preferred version's own, then any that another source holds, such as a PMID beside a Crossref DOI
• External identifiers are pre-formatted for chaining to Crossref, PubMed, or arXiv
• Summaries only — pass a work's putCode to orcid_get_work_detail for abstracts and contributor lists
• Each work lists its sources — the researcher, or member organizations such as Crossref or a university system — with selfAsserted marking what the researcher asserted; an empty list does not mean no publications

orcid_get_work_detail tool

• put_codes: 1–1,000 raw codes per call (from orcid_get_works), deduplicated in first-occurrence order before fetching the first 100 distinct codes in one request; every record ORCID returns for them comes back, and a notice names the input cap when applied
• Returns abstract, contributors with CRediT roles, the record's external IDs, citation metadata (BibTeX or other deposited formats), journal title, and URL
• A record listing more than 100 contributors keeps the first 100 plus the researcher's own entries, matched by ORCID iD, with contributorCount and contributorsTruncated marking the cut; a citation over 8,192 bytes is left out and flagged citationOmitted, so a large-collaboration paper costs about what its other fields do. Even so, 100 large-collaboration records run past 1 MB: size batches to what the step needs
• Each put-code is one source's version of the work, so its identifiers can be fewer than orcid_get_works lists for the work group; sources names that source
• Per-put-code failures (not found or inaccessible) arrive as errors entries — the rest of the batch still resolves
• deferredPutCodes lists, in request order, the distinct codes beyond the input cap and any ORCID's answer left out; pass it as put_codes in another call. Notices distinguish the two causes
• An upstream rate limit surfaces as a RateLimited error carrying ORCID's retryAfter when it sent one

orcid_get_affiliations tool

• types filters which sections to return: employment, education, invited-positions, distinctions, memberships, qualifications, services, or all — default is employment + education; an explicit empty list is rejected
• One upstream call regardless of how many types are requested
• Returns organization name, disambiguated ID (ROR/GRID/Ringgold), department, role, and date range per record
• Each record's sources names who added it — the researcher, or a member organization such as a university research information system; an empty result does not mean no affiliation

orcid_get_funding tool

• Without put_code, returns the complete grouped funding list in one request with view: summary; each preferred summary exposes its optional putCode
• Returns funding type (grant, contract, award, salary-award), funder name and disambiguated ID (Crossref Funder ID/ROR), grant numbers, and funding period
• One record per ORCID funding group, from its preferred version — a grant deposited twice counts once in fundingCount; when the group's versions record distinct award periods, such as renewals under one grant number, periods lists each
• Supply a summary putCode as put_code for view: detail: fetches only that deposit, with its own source and optional description, URL, and amount: { value?, currency? }. Decimal text is preserved exactly; missing amounts and currencies stay absent
• The deposited description arrives whole (ORCID caps it at 5,000 characters); the text surface represents it as a JSON string so original CRLF line endings survive
• An unavailable selected deposit returns funding_not_found and denied public access returns funding_inaccessible; each error explains how to recover
• Funding comes from the researcher or from member organizations (funders, institutions, search-and-link tools), and each record's sources names which; most researchers with real grants have no entries here, and absence does not imply no funding

orcid_get_peer_reviews tool

• Pages the history in upstream order with offset (default 0) and limit (default 25; a larger value, up to 10,000, is clamped to 1,000 with a notice naming both sizes on both surfaces)
• reviewCount counts returned reviews, limit of them, fewer only at the end; totalCount reports the full history. Continue with nextOffset when truncated is true. Empty and past-end pages retain the total with no continuation, and an offset past a non-empty history returns a notice saying so
• Returns reviewer role (reviewer, editor, chair, etc.), review type, completion date, an ISSN-keyed group identifier, and the convening organization ORCID records per record
• The convening organization is often the service that imported the review (Publons, Clarivate) rather than the journal; ORCID returns no journal name, so the ISSN is the journal key and heads each review that has one
• Reviews come from the researcher or from member organizations that import them, and each record's sources names which; coverage varies widely by researcher

orcid_get_research_resources tool

• Covers compute allocations, equipment access, lab facilities, data resources, and clinical study registrations
• A newer, sparsely populated ORCID section — most researchers have zero entries, and absence does not imply none exist
• Entries are typically deposited by resource-allocation systems (e.g. ACCESS, XSEDE) rather than added by the researcher
• Returns resource title, hosting organization (with disambiguated ID), external identifiers (often a portal URI), access period, and the sources that deposited it
• Default view: summary lists proposals; proposalHosts includes every proposal host, while hostOrganization keeps the first host for compatibility
• Supply a proposal's putCode as put_code for view: detail: each item carries its name, type, all operators in hosts, external identifiers, and URL; proposal provenance stays on the resource record
• Detail pages return item_limit items from item_offset: item_offset defaults to 0, item_limit to 25, and a larger item_limit returns at most 100 (accepted maximum 10,000); both require put_code. itemCount, returnedItemCount, itemOffset, itemsTruncated, and nextItemOffset describe the page; top-level truncated mirrors itemsTruncated, and itemLimitNotice discloses a reduced limit on both surfaces
• Each page repeats the proposal metadata; resume at nextItemOffset with the same put_code. Empty and past-end pages have no continuation

orcid_resolve_researcher tool

• Returns ranked candidates (rows default 5; a larger value, up to 10,000, returns at most 20 at every search stage) with transparent disambiguation signals: name match type (exact/partial/other-name/none), institution overlap flag, and anchor type (doi/pmid/none). A notice reports requested and effective sizes when capped, alongside empty-result guidance
• Name and institution comparisons are case- and accent-insensitive — José Baselga and Jose Baselga classify the same candidate identically
• When doi or pmid is provided (bare or as a URL), uses doi-self or pmid-self as an anchor — researchers who have linked that work to their ORCID record are near-deterministic matches
• Accepts a full name (Jennifer Doudna), a byline with initials (J. Doudna, Jennifer A. Doudna), or Family, Given (Doudna, Jennifer, read as Jennifer Doudna); an initial counts toward a partial match when the candidate's first given name starts with it
• Searches the exact name phrase first, so a name that matches as written sends one query. Each later stage runs only when every earlier one found nothing: the byline form of any initials with the affiliation, then the phrase and the byline without it, then the other names listed on ORCID records, then each supplied anchor alone
• No synthetic scores — raw signal fields only, so callers can apply their own ranking logic

orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/profile resource

• Returns name, other names, biography, keywords, researcher URLs, and external identifiers as application/json
• {orcid_id} is the bare iD, with an X or x check digit — a URI segment cannot carry the https://orcid.org/ form
• Fails with a typed data.reason and a recovery hint, like the tools: invalid_orcid_id for a checksum-invalid iD (rejected locally, before any upstream call), profile_not_found for an iD ORCID does not know or a record with no public name
• Prefer the orcid_get_profile tool when the response needs to flow into conditional logic

orcid://researcher/{orcid_id}/works resource

• Returns the first 25 works plus workCount (the total available) as application/json
• {orcid_id} is the bare iD, with an X or x check digit
• Fails with invalid_orcid_id (checksum, before any upstream call) or profile_not_found (unknown iD, data.orcidId included), each with a recovery hint
• No cursor pagination on this resource — use the orcid_get_works tool to page the full list or filter results
• DOIs and PMIDs in the response are ready for Crossref or PubMed chaining

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.

ORCID-specific:

• ORCID Public API v3.0 (https://pub.orcid.org/v3.0) — no API key required for public read endpoints
• expanded-search as the primary search backend — returns ORCID iD, name, and institution data inline, eliminating N+1 profile fetches
• Single /activities call for affiliation queries, filtered client-side — eliminates up to 7 parallel upstream calls vs. per-section fetching
• External identifiers (DOIs, PMIDs, arXiv IDs) surfaced in works responses in formats ready for cross-server chaining to Crossref, PubMed, or arXiv
• Inline markup that depositing systems leave in work titles, abstracts, and funding and research-resource titles (<i>, <sup>, <h4>) is stripped to plain text; the deposited citation is relayed verbatim

Agent-friendly output:

• Provenance — orcid_resolve_researcher returns raw disambiguation signals (name match type, institution overlap, anchor type) instead of a synthetic confidence score
• Who asserted each item — every record from the six activity tools carries sources: the person or member organization that added it (a university system, funder, Crossref, Web of Science) and whether the researcher asserted it (selfAsserted); grouped works and funding list every source in the group
• Truncation awareness — pages are sized by count alone and a request over a tool's cap returns the cap with a notice; orcid_search_researchers reports numFound and a truncated flag against the ORCID Public API's 10,000-offset ceiling, with nextStart to continue; orcid_get_works reports workCount, matchedCount, and truncated against the requested page, and orcid_get_peer_reviews totalCount and truncated, each with nextOffset to continue; orcid_get_research_resources detail reports truncated with nextItemOffset
• Merged accounts — a deprecated ORCID iD is served from the primary record it was merged into, reported under the primary iD with a notice naming both, including on the three endpoints ORCID does not redirect (bulk work detail, research resources, allocation detail)
• Partial failure isolation — orcid_get_work_detail returns per-put-code errors alongside successfully resolved works instead of failing the whole batch, and names any put-codes past the 100-code fetch cap or missing from ORCID's answer
• Empty-result guidance — orcid_get_works, orcid_get_affiliations, orcid_get_funding, orcid_get_peer_reviews, and orcid_get_research_resources return a notice when a result is empty, explaining that this may mean neither the researcher nor a member organization added entries, or that visibility settings hide them, rather than confirmed absence; orcid_get_profile names each section with no public data
• Record text marked as data — in the text output, biographies and abstracts render as blockquotes, names, titles, and organization names are kept to one line, and a deposited citation sits in a code fence it cannot close, so text a researcher or depositing system wrote never reads as the server's own headings or labels; structuredContent carries every value verbatim

Getting started

Connect to the hosted instance, no install:

claude mcp add --transport http orcid-mcp-server https://orcid.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Or run it locally:

claude mcp add orcid-mcp-server -- npx -y @cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server

For other clients, add this to the MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "orcid-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

No API key is required: the ORCID Public API is open for public read access, for non-commercial use under ORCID Public API ToS §2. For Docker or a source build, see Running the server.

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts. Key environment variables:

| Variable | Description | Default | |:---------|:------------|:--------| | ORCID_API_BASE_URL | Override the ORCID API base URL. Useful for pointing at the sandbox (https://pub.sandbox.orcid.org/v3.0/). | https://pub.orcid.org/v3.0 | | MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Transport: stdio or http | stdio | | MCP_HTTP_PORT | HTTP server port | 3010 | | MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH | HTTP endpoint path | /mcp | | MCP_SESSION_MODE | HTTP session mode: auto, stateful, or stateless. This server declares stateless in createApp() — no tool asks the caller for input mid-handler — and a set value overrides it. | stateless | | MCP_PUBLIC_URL | Public origin for TLS-terminating reverse-proxy deployments | none | | MCP_AUTH_MODE | Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth | none | | MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Log level (debug, info, warning, error, etc.) | info | | MCP_GC_PRESSURE_INTERVAL_MS | Opt-in Bun-only forced-GC pressure loop (ms). Try 60000 if heap growth is observed under sustained HTTP load. | 0 (disabled) | | LOGS_DIR | Directory for log files (Node.js only) | <project-root>/logs | | STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE | Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1 | in-memory | | OTEL_ENABLED | Enable OpenTelemetry | false |

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

Running the server

Local development

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

• Clone and install:

  git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server.git
  cd orcid-mcp-server && bun install
  cp .env.example .env   # no required variables

• Build and run:

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

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 ghcr.io/cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server:latest

The image defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/orcid-mcp-server. To run it over stdio from an MCP client, use "command": "docker" with "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/orcid-mcp-server:latest"]. To build locally, docker build -t orcid-mcp-server .; OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

| Directory | Purpose | |:----------|:--------| | src/index.ts | createApp() entry point — registers tools and resources, inits services. | | src/config | Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. | | src/mcp-server/tools | Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Nine tools across search, disambiguation, profile, works, work detail, affiliations, funding, peer reviews, and research resources. | | src/mcp-server/resources | Resource definitions (*.resource.ts). Profile and works resources. | | src/services/orcid | ORCID Public API v3.0 service layer — search, record section fetchers, retry/backoff. | | skills/ | Agent skill published over MCP and in the npm package, Docker image, and .mcpb bundle (orcid-guide). | | tests/ | Unit and integration tests mirroring src/. |

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 request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
• Register new tools and resources in the createApp() arrays
• Wrap ORCID API calls: validate raw response → 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

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.