Inaturalist
NPM · @PIPEWORX/MCP-INATURALIST · 2 COMPONENTS
iNaturalist MCP — citizen-science species observations (free, no auth for read-only)
Available components
Last scanned (11 hours ago)
Scores higher than 76% of npm servers
Category Health and Science
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. How we score → Why this is hard to score →
Supply Chain Security100
- No malware found by supply-chain analysis.Pass
- No known CVEs affecting this package version or its production dependencies.Pass
- No install/post-install scripts declared.Pass
- No production dependencies, so there is no dependency health to assess. View diagnostics → Pass
Provenance & Transparency97
- Source repository is publicly reachable at the declared URL. View diagnostics → Pass
- Cryptographically verified build provenance (signed, bound to pipeworx-io/mcp-inaturalist). View diagnostics → Pass
- Clear OSI-approved license (MIT).Pass
- Actively maintained (last published 2 days ago).Pass
- Disclosure check failed: no security disclosure policy was found in the source repository. See how to fix → Fail
Schema Quality & AI Usability67
- AI-judged instruction clarity (good).Pass
- Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 517 tokens (~172/item across 3 items; 3 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params. See how to fix → Fail
- Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples. See how to fix → Fail
Stability & Change Management23
- Stability observed for 7 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.Partial
Tool Coverage100
- 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).Pass
- 100% of tool parameters carry a description.Pass
Tool Safety100
- No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.Pass
- We read all 3 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.Pass
- An AI judge read all 4 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.Pass
Capabilities100
- Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.Pass
Every change we have recorded for this component, newest first. Security-relevant changes are always shown. ▲ marks a change for the better, ▼ a change for the worse; unmarked changes are neutral.
- 5 Nov 26 +1
No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 20 to 23. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 6 days of observed history at the previous scan, 7 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.
- 3 Nov 26 +27
- Malware scan: unverified → pass ▲ security
- Known CVEs: unverified → pass ▲ security
- Dependency health: unverified → pass ▲ functional
- 2 Nov 26 −24
- Malware scan: pass → unverified ▼ security
- Known CVEs: pass → unverified ▼ security
- Dependency health: pass → unverified ▼ functional
- Stability: unverified → 0.13 ▲ functional
- Package version: 0.2.0 → 0.2.1 functional
- 30 Oct 26 0
- Security disclosure: unverified → fail ▼ functional
- 29 Oct 26 79
First indexed and scored.
Diagnostic detail from the automated scan of this channel: what the scanner observed at each step, so you can see exactly where a check passed or failed. It is informational only and never changes the trust score.
Captured 5 Nov 2026 · Analysed npm/@pipeworx/mcp-inaturalist@0.2.1
Provenance Verified
A signed build attestation was found and verified, binding this exact artifact to the source repository it claims to come from.
| Result | Verified |
|---|---|
| Ecosystem | npm |
| Reason | Verified |
| Discovered via | Registry attestation endpoint |
| Source repo | pipeworx-io/mcp-inaturalist |
| Certificate issuer | https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com |
| Certificate SAN | https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-inaturalist/.github/workflows/publish.yml@refs/heads/main |
| Rekor log index | 3637425893 |
| Predicate type | SLSA build provenance https://slsa.dev/provenance/v1 |
| Subject digest | sha512:3f18c4edd8076a0caa28710c23c220050098b0c51fba1c3edfcf27fd7af313482a8d14e19632ed4dc7b7ab2aa06388825fe8e1858d083ef1ed74f7138 |
Background: How many MCP packages publish verified provenance →
Dependencies 0 packages
| Packages resolved | 0 |
|---|---|
| Tree resolution | Complete |
Background: SBOMs and build attestations, explained →
The tools this component advertises to a client, with an estimated token cost for each. Expand a tool to see its parameters and schema. The per-tool counts are indicative and are not scored directly; the schema's total context footprint is one signal in Schema Quality & AI Usability. A tool's description is untrusted text the model reads on every call, which is what makes this list a security surface and not just an inventory: how tool poisoning works →
search_observations ~247
Search citizen-science wildlife observations on iNaturalist — ANY organism: plants, fungi, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians. This is the tool for "sightings/observations of <species> in <place> in <year>". Filter by taxon name (scientific or common, e.g. "Leucanthemum vulgare"/"oxeye daisy", "Pandion haliaetus"/"osprey"), place name ("Yukon", "California"), year, threatened status, or quality grade. Returns photographed sightings with coordinates, dates, and observer info. Pairs well with GBIF for cross-validation.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| per_page | number | – | Results per page (1-200, default 20) |
| place | string | – | Place name (country, state, park). Auto-resolved to place_id. |
| quality_grade | string | – | casual | needs_id | research (default: research) |
| taxon_name | string | – | Scientific or common species/taxon name |
| threatened | boolean | – | Restrict to IUCN-threatened taxa |
| year | number | – | Filter to a specific year |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
search_taxa ~113
Search iNaturalist taxa by name (common or scientific). Returns taxon ID, rank, ancestry, conservation status, and photo URL. Use the taxon ID for downstream filters or to disambiguate look-alike species.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| per_page | number | – | Results per page (1-30, default 10) |
| query | string | yes | Common or scientific name |
| rank | string | – | Restrict to a rank (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
top_species ~103
Most-frequently-observed species in a place over a date range. Auto-resolves place name to place_id. Returns ranked species with observation counts and taxonomic info. Great for "what wildlife lives here?" questions.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| per_page | number | – | Top-N species (1-50, default 20) |
| place | string | yes | Place name (country, state, park, etc.) |
| year | number | – | Restrict to a specific year (optional) |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
How do I install the Inaturalist MCP server?
Inaturalist runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-inaturalist. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.
npm · @pipeworx/mcp-inaturalist
claude mcp add pipeworx-io-inaturalist -- npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-inaturalist
What is the Inaturalist MCP server?
Inaturalist is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.pipeworx-io/inaturalist. iNaturalist MCP, citizen-science species observations (free, no auth for read-only). This page covers its npm package (@pipeworx/mcp-inaturalist).
Is the Inaturalist MCP server safe to use?
Inaturalist scores 83 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 Inaturalist MCP server expose?
Inaturalist exposes 3 tools: search_observations, search_taxa, top_species. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 463 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.
Is the Inaturalist MCP server still maintained?
Inaturalist 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 Inaturalist MCP server under?
Inaturalist declares the MIT licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.