# Herb Tcm (npm · @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm)

HERB 2.0 (herb.ac.cn) — Traditional Chinese Medicine herb/ingredient/target/ disease knowledge…

- Trust score: 82/100 (high trust)
- Change this week: +4
- Registry status: active
- Liveness: live
- Owner verified: no
- Last scored: 2026-11-05

## Components

- remote · `gateway.pipeworx.io`: 63/100, [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/herb-tcm-mcp.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/herb-tcm-mcp)
- npm · `@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm`: 82/100 (this document), [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm)

## Channel facts

- Registry: `npm`
- Package: `@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm`
- Version: `0.2.1`
- Transport: `stdio`

## Trust breakdown

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically from public evidence about the published package, including repeated runs of it in an isolated sandbox, and we only credit what we can confirm. Scores are 0–100 per category. Scoring method: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring (what has changed: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring/changelog)

Scored 2026-11-05.

- **Supply Chain Security**: 100/100
  - No malware found by supply-chain analysis.
  - No known CVEs affecting this package version or its production dependencies.
  - No install/post-install scripts declared.
  - No production dependencies, so there is no dependency health to assess.
- **Provenance & Transparency**: 97/100
  - Source repository is publicly reachable at the declared URL.
  - Cryptographically verified build provenance (signed, bound to pipeworx-io/mcp-herb-tcm).
  - Clear OSI-approved license (MIT).
  - Actively maintained (last published 3 days ago).
  - Security-disclosure policy not yet verified: we couldn't inspect the source repository.
- **Schema Quality & AI Usability**: 63/100
  - AI-judged instruction clarity (good).
  - Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 1310 tokens (~187/item across 7 items; 7 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params.
  - Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples.
- **Stability & Change Management**: 23/100
  - Stability observed for 7 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.
- **Tool Coverage**: 95/100
  - 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).
  - 86% of tool parameters carry a description.
- **Tool Safety**: 100/100
  - No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.
  - We read all 7 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.
  - An AI judge read all 8 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.
- **Capabilities**: 100/100
  - Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.

## Install

### How do I install the Herb Tcm MCP server?

Herb Tcm runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

### Claude

```bash
claude mcp add pipeworx-io-herb-tcm -- npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
```

### Cursor

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx-io-herb-tcm": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### VS Code

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "pipeworx-io-herb-tcm": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Codex

```bash
codex mcp add pipeworx-io-herb-tcm -- npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
```

### opencode

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "pipeworx-io-herb-tcm": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
```

### OpenClaw

```bash
openclaw mcp add pipeworx-io-herb-tcm --command npx --arg -y --arg @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
```

### Hermes

```yaml
mcp_servers:
  pipeworx-io-herb-tcm:
    command: "npx"
    args: ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"]
```

### Netclaw

```json
{
  "McpServers": {
    "pipeworx-io-herb-tcm": {
      "Transport": "stdio",
      "Command": "npx",
      "Arguments": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Vellum

```bash
assistant mcp add pipeworx-io-herb-tcm -t stdio -c npx -a -y @pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
```

### Other

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx-io-herb-tcm": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

## Changelog

Every change recorded for this component, newest first. Days that predate change tracking, or that we cannot explain, say so: "we were watching and nothing happened" and "we were not watching" are different claims.

### 2026-11-05 (score 82, +1)

- [functional regression] Security disclosure: fail → unverified

### 2026-11-03 (score 81, +16)

- [security improvement] Malware scan: unverified → pass

### 2026-11-02 (score 65, −13)

- [security regression] Malware scan: pass → unverified
- [functional improvement] Stability: unverified → 0.13
- [functional] Package version: 0.2.0 → 0.2.1

### 2026-11-01 (score 78, 0)

- [functional regression] Security disclosure: unverified → fail

### 2026-10-29 (score 78)

First indexed and scored.

## MCP tools (7)

### `herb_search` (~166 tokens)

Search HERB 2.0 for a herb, ingredient, gene target or disease by Chinese name, pinyin, English name, Latin name, gene alias or HERB id — e.g. "板蓝根", "banlangen", "Dyers Woad" and "BAN LAN GEN" all resolve the same herb record. Returns matching ids to pass to herb_detail. Does not itself carry evidence tiers (it is a name lookup, not a relationship).

Input parameters:

- `category` (string): Which table to search. Defaults to "herb".
- `keyword` (string, required): Search term: Chinese characters, pinyin, English/Latin name, gene name/alias, disease name, or a HERB id (e.g. HERB004520, HBIN016960).

### `herb_browse` (~112 tokens)

Page through HERB 2.0's full herb, ingredient, target or disease list (7,263 herbs / 49,258 ingredients / 12,933 targets / 28,212 diseases). Use herb_search instead when you already have a name to look up.

Input parameters:

- `category` (string, required): Table to browse.
- `page` (number): 1-based page number. Defaults to 1.
- `page_size` (number): Rows per page, max 100. Defaults to 20.

### `herb_detail` (~445 tokens)

Full record for one HERB id: herb (composition + traditional-use summary + predicted and literature target/disease links), ingredient (structure + predicted and literature target/disease links), target (curated disease associations + which herbs are statistically linked to it), or disease (which targets and herbs are statistically linked to it). Every relationship row carries an evidence_tier. computational_prediction means a statistical or database-mined association with NO clinical or experimental confirmation — it is a hypothesis, not proof the herb/ingredient treats the condition. traditional_use reflects historical TCM practice, not a trial. Only human_clinical rows come from a paper that studied humans. A predicted herb-disease or herb-target edge (evidence_tier computational_prediction) is a screening hit from expression-overlap statistics, not proof of efficacy — never present it as "HERB shows herb X treats disease Y" without saying it is a prediction. Relationship tables are paged: each comes back as {total, offset, limit, returned, truncated, rows} with the TRUE upstream row count in `total` (a well-studied herb can have thousands of predicted disease rows — 25 are returned by default). truncated:true means more rows exist; page with offset, or narrow with `sections`.

Input parameters:

- `category` (string, required): Must match the id's prefix.
- `id` (string, required): HERB id, e.g. HERB004520 (herb), HBIN016960 (ingredient), HBTAR000001 (target), HBDIS000001 (disease).
- `limit` (number): Max rows returned per relationship table (herb_ingredient, herb_target, herb_disease, ingredient_target, ingredient_disease, target_disease, drug_paper_target, drug_paper_disease). Default 25, max 20…
- `offset` (number): 0-based row offset applied to each relationship table. Default 0.
- `sections` (array): Return only these sections — e.g. ["summary","herb_ingredient"] for composition without pulling hundreds of predicted disease rows. Omit for all sections.

### `herb_papers` (~205 tokens)

List PubMed-cited papers in HERB's reference index — the literature backing herb/ingredient-target and -disease associations. Each row is tagged evidence_tier human_clinical (its "Experiment type" includes "Clinical Experiment") or laboratory (cell/animal studies only). Filter by drug type or experiment type, or leave both blank to page through all ~2,000 references.

Input parameters:

- `drug_type` (string): Restrict to papers about herbs or about single ingredients.
- `experiment_type` (string): Upstream free-text filter, e.g. "Clinical Experiment", "Animal Experiment", "Cell Experiment".
- `limit` (number): Max rows to return, default 25, max 100 (the full index is fetched upstream and sliced here).
- `offset` (number): 0-based offset for paging past the first `limit` rows.
- `sort_by` (string): Upstream sort field (optional; upstream default order is used if omitted).

### `herb_paper_detail` (~105 tokens)

One reference's bibliographic record (journal, PubMed id, experiment type, phenotype) plus the specific targets/diseases that paper reports, tagged evidence_tier human_clinical or laboratory from the paper's own experiment type. Use the Paper id from a drug_paper_target/drug_paper_disease row (herb_detail) or from herb_papers.

Input parameters:

- `paper_id` (string, required): HERB reference id, e.g. HBREF000003.

### `herb_experiments` (~118 tokens)

List HERB's transcriptomic experiments (herb/ingredient treatment vs. control, GEO-deposited) — the raw evidence behind the differential-expression predictions in herb_experiment_detail. Filter by drug type, species or platform.

Input parameters:

- `drug_type` (string)
- `experiment_type` (string)
- `limit` (number): Max rows to return, default 25, max 100.
- `offset` (number): 0-based offset for paging past the first `limit` rows.
- `species` (string)

### `herb_experiment_detail` (~104 tokens)

Differential-expression results for one HERB transcriptomic experiment: top up/down-regulated genes and enriched GO terms / KEGG pathways, plus connectivity-map hit counts (compounds/knockdowns/overexpression signatures matching the expression pattern). Every row is evidence_tier computational_prediction — this is a statistical enrichment over one dataset, not a validated mechanism or a clinical finding.

Input parameters:

- `experiment_id` (string, required): HERB experiment id, e.g. HBEXP000001.

## Diagnostics

Captured diagnostic sections: Provenance, Dependencies. The full working is on the page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm#diagnostics

## Score history

- 2026-11-05: 82
- 2026-11-04: 81
- 2026-11-03: 81
- 2026-11-02: 65
- 2026-11-01: 78
- 2026-10-31: 78
- 2026-10-30: 78
- 2026-10-29: 78

## Common questions

### What is the Herb Tcm MCP server?

Herb Tcm is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.pipeworx-io/herb-tcm. HERB 2.0 (herb.ac.cn), Traditional Chinese Medicine herb/ingredient/target/ disease knowledge… This page covers its npm package (@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm).

### Is the Herb Tcm MCP server safe to use?

Herb Tcm scores 82 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. We found no known CVEs affecting it as of 5 November 2026. It declares no install or post-install scripts. Its build provenance is signed and verified. That is a record of what we were able to check automatically, not an endorsement. The category breakdown on this page shows every signal behind the number, including the ones we could not confirm.

### What tools does the Herb Tcm MCP server expose?

Herb Tcm exposes 7 tools: herb_search, herb_browse, herb_detail, herb_papers, herb_paper_detail, and 2 more. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 1,255 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

### Is the Herb Tcm MCP server still maintained?

Herb Tcm is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 5 November 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.

### What licence is the Herb Tcm MCP server under?

Herb Tcm declares the MIT licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.

### What did VerifyMCP test on the Herb Tcm MCP server?

VerifyMCP ran 15 checks on Herb Tcm, covering Malware scan, Known CVEs, Install scripts, Dependency health and 11 more. One item could not be completed, a gap on our side rather than a finding about Herb Tcm: Security disclosure. Endpoint Security and Transport & Reachability do not apply to an npm package, so they were not tested. The score does not measure everything, and the scoring documentation lists what it leaves out.

## Links

- npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
- Socket report: https://socket.dev/npm/package/@pipeworx/mcp-herb-tcm
- Repository: https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-herb-tcm
- Website: https://pipeworx.io/packs/herb-tcm
- Changelog RSS feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm.xml
- Changelog JSON feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm/changelog.json
- Trust report (JSON): https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm.json
- HTML version of this page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/pipeworx-io-herb-tcm/pipeworx-mcp-herb-tcm