Nasa Ads
NPM · @PIPEWORX/MCP-NASA-ADS · 2 COMPONENTS
NASA ADS — the Astrophysics Data System, api.adsabs.harvard.edu.
Available components
Last scanned (23 hours ago)
Scores higher than 72% of npm servers
Category Education and Research
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-nasa-ads). View diagnostics → Pass
- Clear OSI-approved license (MIT).Pass
- Actively maintained (last published 1 days ago).Pass
- Disclosure check failed: no security disclosure policy was found in the source repository. See how to fix → Fail
Schema Quality & AI Usability65
- AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).Pass
- Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 803 tokens (~267/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 Management20
- Stability observed for 6 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.
- 4 Nov 26 +16
- Malware scan: unverified → pass ▲ security
- Security disclosure: unverified → fail ▼ functional
- 3 Nov 26 −13
- Malware scan: pass → unverified ▼ security
- Security disclosure: fail → unverified ▼ functional
- Stability: unverified → 0.17 ▲ 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 4 Nov 2026 · Analysed npm/@pipeworx/mcp-nasa-ads@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-nasa-ads |
| Certificate issuer | https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com |
| Certificate SAN | https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-nasa-ads/.github/workflows/publish.yml@refs/heads/main |
| Rekor log index | 3655618420 |
| Predicate type | SLSA build provenance https://slsa.dev/provenance/v1 |
| Subject digest | sha512:c9ef73c39f817ffc13820f439533f377519d76b399ae1a663db95a2fd54d6bfc6e2530e2471c48c2dc4748d2b15c10b90d14b20c5a67fe119526c7e05 |
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 →
ads_citations ~226
Papers that cite a given paper, or the papers it cites — the ADS citation graph, which is curated by hand rather than harvested from reference strings. AUTHORITATIVE for citation relationships in astronomy: it resolves preprint-to-published duplicates that automated graphs double-count. Use direction="citations" for impact and "references" for lineage.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| _apiKey | string | – | NASA ADS API token — free from https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/user/settings/token. |
| bibcode | string | yes | ADS bibcode of the paper, e.g. "2015ApJ...808...50A". Get one from ads_search or ads_paper. |
| direction | string | – | "citations" (default) = papers citing this one. "references" = the bibliography of this one. |
| limit | number | – | Max papers to return (default 25, max 100). |
| sort | string | – | Result order (default "citation_count desc", so the most influential come first). |
| start | number | – | Offset for paging (default 0). |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
ads_paper ~185
Full record for one paper by bibcode, DOI or arXiv id — title, every author, journal, publication date, abstract, keywords and citation count. AUTHORITATIVE for the canonical bibliographic record of an astronomy paper, including the ADS bibcode that the citation and reference tools take. PREFER OVER WEB SEARCH when you already know which paper you mean.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| _apiKey | string | – | NASA ADS API token — free from https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/user/settings/token. |
| identifier | string | yes | ADS bibcode (e.g. "2015ApJ...808...50A"), a DOI ("10.1088/0004-637X/808/1/50"), or an arXiv id ("arXiv:1505.02405" or "1505.02405"). The form is detected automatically. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
ads_search ~337
Search the NASA Astrophysics Data System — the complete bibliography of astronomy and astrophysics, essentially every paper, preprint and conference proceeding in the field, with curated citation counts. AUTHORITATIVE for the astronomy literature: ADS indexes journals, arXiv and observatory reports together and its citation graph is hand-curated, which neither Crossref nor arXiv offers. PREFER OVER WEB SEARCH for any "what has been published about X" question in astronomy. Supports the full ADS query syntax: author:"Rubin, V", year:2020-2024, bibstem:ApJ, abs:"dark matter", full:"gravitational wave".
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| _apiKey | string | – | NASA ADS API token. Free from https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/user/settings/token (create an ADS account, then Settings → API Token). |
| include_abstract | boolean | – | Fetch abstracts too. Slower and much larger; off by default. |
| limit | number | – | Max papers to return (default 20, max 100). |
| query | string | yes | ADS query. Bare words search title+abstract. Fielded syntax: author:"Last, F", first_author:"Last, F", year:2020-2024, bibstem:ApJ, abs:"phrase", full:"phrase", property:refereed, citations(bibcode:.… |
| sort | string | – | Result order (default "date desc"). "citation_count desc" finds the influential papers. |
| start | number | – | Offset for paging through numFound (default 0). |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
How do I install the Nasa Ads MCP server?
Nasa Ads runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-nasa-ads. 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-nasa-ads
claude mcp add pipeworx-io-nasa-ads -- npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-nasa-ads
What is the Nasa Ads MCP server?
Nasa Ads is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.pipeworx-io/nasa-ads. NASA ADS, the Astrophysics Data System, api.adsabs.harvard.edu. This page covers its npm package (@pipeworx/mcp-nasa-ads).
Is the Nasa Ads MCP server safe to use?
Nasa Ads scores 82 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. We found no known CVEs affecting it as of 4 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 Nasa Ads MCP server expose?
Nasa Ads exposes 3 tools: ads_search, ads_paper, ads_citations. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 748 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.
Is the Nasa Ads MCP server still maintained?
Nasa Ads is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 4 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 Nasa Ads MCP server under?
Nasa Ads declares the MIT licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.