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Phở Research Tools

REMOTE · MCP.PHO.CHAT

Verifies AI-written references; finds real papers, evidence, datasets and research tools; PRISMA.

Available components

+2 this week 79 Trust /100

Last scanned (3 hours ago)

Scores higher than 82% of remote servers

Reachable. Last reached 25 Oct 2026.

Category Education and Research

Trust breakdown (7 categories)

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically against the live server, and we only credit what we can confirm. How we score → Why this is hard to score →

Endpoint Security80
Transport & Reachability100
Schema Quality & AI Usability62
  • AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).Pass
  • Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 2767 tokens (~307/item across 9 items; 9 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 Management60
  • Stability observed for 18 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.Partial
Tool Coverage98
  • 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).Pass
  • 95% of tool parameters carry a description.Partial
  • Structured output schemas are declared (100% of tools); any adoption earns full credit.Pass
Tool Safety100
  • No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.Pass
  • We read all 9 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.Pass
  • An AI judge read all 10 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
Changelog

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.

  • 24 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 53 to 57. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 16 days of observed history at the previous scan, 17 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 21 Oct 26 +1
    • The server rewrote its instructions, which are the text every model session reads security
    • Tool “find_evidence” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
  • 20 Oct 26 0
    • Tool “check_retractions” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “prisma_flow_diagram” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
    • Tool “verify_references” rewrote its description, which is the text the model reads security
  • 19 Oct 26 0
    • The server rewrote its instructions, which are the text every model session reads security
    • Schema quality: 234 → 292 ▼ functional
    • Server version: 0.1.0 → 0.2.0 functional
    • New tool “find_datasets” functional
    • New tool “find_evidence” functional
    • New tool “find_tools” functional
    • New tool “screening_log” functional
  • 17 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 30 to 33. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 9 days of observed history at the previous scan, 10 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 15 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 23 to 27. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 7 days of observed history at the previous scan, 8 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 13 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 17 to 20. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 5 days of observed history at the previous scan, 6 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

  • 12 Oct 26 +1

    No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 10 to 17. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 3 days of observed history at the previous scan, 5 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

Diagnostics

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 25 Oct 2026 · Probed https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp

TLS valid

Negotiated TLS 1.3 with TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 .

Subject Issuer Valid from Valid until Key Signature Serial
CN=mcp.pho.chat CN=YR2,O=Let's Encrypt,C=US 6 Oct 2026 4 Jan 2027 RSA 2048 SHA256-RSA 651399122d5d18909ad1b8760eb07b1663e
SANs: mcp.pho.chat
CN=YR2,O=Let's Encrypt,C=US (CA) CN=Root YR,O=ISRG,C=US 3 Sept 2025 2 Sept 2028 RSA 2048 SHA256-RSA 4ebd24947e24d394802d84a52fd5b319
CN=Root YR,O=ISRG,C=US (CA) CN=ISRG Root X1,O=Internet Security Research Group,C=US 13 May 2026 2 Sept 2032 RSA 4096 SHA256-RSA f24b6d17f9d9ad7cb1c9fea78782699f

Background: What to check on a remote MCP endpoint →

DNSSEC insecure

Validation of mcp.pho.chat. — Not signed

Zone DS Keys Algorithms Outcome
. trust_anchor 20326, 38696 8, 8 Verified
chat. present 33026 8 Verified
pho.chat. absent Unsigned (proven) parent-signed NSEC/NSEC3 proves an unsigned delegation
Authentication No authorisation required

The endpoint answered without asking for a token. Anyone who knows the URL can reach it.

Result No authorisation required
HTTP status 200
Header Value
strict-transport-security max-age=63072000

Background: How OAuth 2.1 works in the 2026 MCP spec →

Transports 2 probes
Transport URL Outcome Status Location
streamable-http https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp Verified 200
http (plaintext) http://mcp.pho.chat/mcp HTTPS enforced 308 https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp
MCP tools · 9 exposed · ~2,490 tokens

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 →

Tool Tokens
check_retractions ~167

Check DOIs for retractions, expressions of concern and corrections, using Crossref (which includes Retraction Watch data). Status per DOI: retracted, concern, corrected, other_notice, no_notice (nothing on record), not_in_crossref, invalid_doi, rate_limited or lookup_failed (the DOI could not be checked, which is not a clean result). Works for a single paper or a whole reference list. verify_references already includes this check, so use this tool for DOIs that have not just been through verify_references. A DOI the same caller checked in the last hour is answered again at no cost to the allowance.

NameTypeReqDescription
doisarrayyesDOIs, bare (10.1000/xyz) or as https://doi.org/ links.
NameTypeReqDescription
countsobjectyes–
quotaobjectyes–
resultsarrayyes–

No examples provided.

find_datasets ~392

Find open scientific datasets (and optionally models) that fit a research question, check their licences, verify the source papers (DOI, retractions, corrections), and return a citable Research Data Brief with a public share link. Searches DataCite (Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad and other data repositories), the Hugging Face Hub boosted by the Hugging Science curated index, and, for life-science questions, NCBI GEO, CZ CELLxGENE Discover (curated single-cell data) and the CZ CryoET Data Portal (cryo-electron tomography). Each result has a match level, a plain-language licence verdict, the source paper and whether it checks out, a citation for the data, and a line of code to load it. Every identifier comes from the repositories' own metadata; nothing is generated. The `why` field lists the facts behind the match: explain the fit to the user in your own words from those facts, and say plainly when the brief is empty. Pass `keywords` with English search words when the question is long or not in English. Licence verdicts come from repository metadata and are not legal advice.

NameTypeReqDescription
citation_stylestring–Style for the ready-made citations.
domainstring–Field of the question. Life-science domains also search NCBI GEO.
include_modelsboolean–Also look for pretrained models on Hugging Face.
intended_usestring–What the data is for. `commercial` demotes anything its licence does not clear for commercial use.
keywordsstring–English search keywords (e.g. "triple negative breast cancer RNA-seq"). Recommended.
max_resultsinteger–Number of results, 1–5.
questionstringyesThe research question in natural language (e.g. "gene expression in triple-negative breast cancer").
NameTypeReqDescription
intended_usestringyes–
questionstringyes–
quotaobjectyes–
resultsarrayyes–
search_termsarrayyes–
share_urlstring––
statsobjectyes–
suggestionsarrayyes–
takeawaysarrayyes–
titlestringyes–
warningsarrayyes–

No examples provided.

find_evidence ~327

Find the strongest published evidence for and against a scientific or medical claim. Searches PubMed (including a pass limited to guidelines, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and randomized trials) and OpenAlex, and returns real papers, each with a PMID or DOI, ordered by level of evidence: guideline, meta-analysis, systematic review, RCT, other trial, observational study, narrative review, case report, then study protocols that have not reported results yet. Each paper comes with the conclusion copied verbatim from its abstract, so you can judge for yourself whether it supports the claim, contradicts it, or does not address it, and quote the sentence you rely on. The tool does not judge stance and does not summarise: count a paper as support or contradiction only when its conclusion says so. Pass `query` with English search keywords when the claim is long or not in English. Retracted papers and correction notices are left out. Preprints are included and marked (not peer reviewed).

NameTypeReqDescription
claimstringyesThe claim to check, as a sentence (e.g. "Drinking coffee reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes").
include_preprintsboolean–Keep preprints (marked as not peer reviewed).
max_resultsinteger–Number of papers, 1–25.
querystring–English search keywords for the claim (e.g. "coffee consumption type 2 diabetes risk"). Recommended.
year_frominteger–Earliest publication year, inclusive.
year_tointeger–Latest publication year, inclusive.
NameTypeReqDescription
by_levelobjectyes–
claimstringyes–
excludedobjectyes–
papersarrayyes–
querystringyes–
statusstringyes–
warningsarrayyes–
without_abstractintegeryes–

No examples provided.

find_tools ~395

Find research software for a task from the bio.tools registry (ELIXIR), check each tool's licence, verify the paper behind it (DOI, retractions, corrections), label whether it is still maintained, and give the install line. Describe the task (e.g. "cluster single-cell RNA-seq data") and optionally the file format the data is in (e.g. H5AD, FASTQ, VCF); tools that list that format as an input are favoured. Each result has a match level, a plain-language licence verdict, the paper and whether it checks out, a maintenance label (active, idle, stale, archived) read from the linked GitHub repository, and an install line built from a PyPI, Bioconda, Bioconductor, CRAN or GitHub link the registry lists. Every identifier and command comes from the registry's own records; nothing is generated. The `why` field lists the facts behind the match: explain the fit in your own words from those facts, and say plainly when no tool matched. Pass `keywords` with English words when the task is long or not in English. Licence verdicts come from registry and repository metadata and are not legal advice.

NameTypeReqDescription
citation_stylestring–Style for the ready-made paper citations.
input_formatstring–The file format the data is in (e.g. "H5AD", "FASTQ", "VCF"). Tools that read it are favoured.
intended_usestring–What the software is for. `commercial` demotes anything its licence does not clear.
keywordsstring–English search keywords (e.g. "single-cell clustering"). Recommended.
max_resultsinteger–Number of results, 1–5.
questionstringyesThe task in natural language (e.g. "cluster single-cell RNA-seq data").
NameTypeReqDescription
data_notestringyes–
input_formatstring––
intended_usestringyes–
questionstringyes–
quotaobjectyes–
resultsarrayyes–
search_termsarrayyes–
statsobjectyes–
suggestionsarrayyes–
takeawaysarrayyes–
warningsarrayyes–

No examples provided.

format_citations ~274

Format references in a citation style (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, AMA) or export them as BibTeX, RIS or CSL-JSON. By default every reference is first verified against Crossref, PubMed and OpenAlex, and verified references are formatted from the database record, so wrong years, pages or author names in the input are corrected. References that could not be verified are formatted exactly as written and flagged in `entries[].warnings`. Returns the bibliography and, for text and html output, the matching in-text citation for each reference.

NameTypeReqDescription
outputstring–text (plain bibliography), html, bibtex, ris or csl-json.
referencesstringyesReferences in any form: a pasted list in any style, BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, or DOIs one per line.
stylestring–Citation style: apa (APA 7), mla (MLA 9), chicago (Chicago author-date), harvard (Harvard), vancouver (Vancouver), ieee (IEEE), ama (AMA). Ignored for bibtex/ris/csl-json output.
verifyboolean–Verify each reference before formatting (recommended). When false, references are formatted exactly as given, without corrections.
NameTypeReqDescription
contentstringyes–
entriesarrayyes–
outputstringyes–
quotaobject––
stylestringyes–
style_titlestringyes–
warningsarrayyes–

No examples provided.

prisma_flow_diagram ~194

Draw a PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for a new systematic review from the record counts, as a PNG image plus an SVG and download links. Give the counts you have; screened, sought, assessed and reports-included boxes that follow from others are filled in and marked as derived. Studies included is never derived. The tool checks that the numbers add up (records identified minus removed equals screened, and so on) and returns a warning naming each box that does not, with the value it should have. The diagram always shows the numbers exactly as given. Add `otherMethods` counts to draw the second column (websites, organisations, citation searching).

NameTypeReqDescription
countsobjectyes–
footnotesboolean–Print the template footnotes and source attribution.
other_methods_columnboolean–Force the other-methods column on or off. Default: drawn when otherMethods counts are given.
NameTypeReqDescription
countsobjectyes–
heightnumberyes–
image_urlstring––
svgstringyes–
svg_urlstring––
warningsarrayyes–
widthnumberyes–

No examples provided.

screening_log ~223

Turn the screening decisions of a systematic review into its PRISMA 2020 counts, flow diagram and screening log. Give one row per record: its title/abstract decision (include or exclude), its full-text decision for records that passed (include, exclude or not_retrieved), and the reason for each exclusion. Every box from "records screened" down is counted from the rows, so the diagram always matches the decisions; full-text exclusions are grouped by reason. Returns the diagram (PNG, SVG, links), the counts, a CSV of every decision for the review appendix, and the problems a reviewer would catch: full-text exclusions without a reason, records still waiting for a full-text decision, and duplicate ids. Add the identification counts (records from databases, duplicates removed) to complete the top of the diagram. At most 5000 records per call.

NameTypeReqDescription
footnotesboolean–Print the template footnotes and source attribution.
identificationobject–Counts before screening, for the top of the diagram.
recordsarrayyes–
NameTypeReqDescription
countsobjectyes–
heightnumberyes–
image_urlstring––
screeningobjectyes–
svgstringyes–
svg_urlstring––
warningsarrayyes–
widthnumberyes–

No examples provided.

search_papers ~266

Search PubMed and OpenAlex for real papers. Every result carries a DOI or PubMed ID that resolves, so nothing returned can be fabricated. Finds sources for a claim or a topic. Filters: publication year range, open-access only, study types, and the number of results. Retracted papers are left out by default. Preprints are included and marked `preprint: true` (not peer reviewed). Results are ranked by the databases' relevance, alternating between the two sources.

NameTypeReqDescription
include_retractedboolean–Keep retracted papers (flagged) instead of leaving them out.
max_resultsinteger–Number of results, 1–50.
open_access_onlyboolean–Only papers with a free, legal full text.
querystringyesWhat to look for, in English keywords (e.g. "sepsis early antibiotics mortality").
study_typesarray–Study designs. Known ids use database filters: rct, clinical-trial, systematic-review, meta-analysis, review, guideline, cohort, case-control, case-report, observational. Any other text is added as k…
year_frominteger–Earliest publication year, inclusive.
year_tointeger–Latest publication year, inclusive.
NameTypeReqDescription
excludedobjectyes–
querystringyes–
resultsarrayyes–
statusstringyes–
warningsarrayyes–

No examples provided.

verify_references ~252

Check every reference in a list against Crossref, PubMed and OpenAlex and report, for each one, whether the paper really exists and whether the details are right. Works on lists written by a person or generated by an AI model. Input: a pasted reference list in any common style (APA, Vancouver, numbered, mixed), BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, or one DOI per line. Each reference gets exactly one status: verified, verified_with_corrections (real paper, some details wrong; corrected metadata included), likely_fabricated (no such paper exists), not_found (could not be confirmed either way), retracted, or ambiguous (several papers fit). likely_fabricated, not_found and ambiguous mean the reference could not be confirmed as a real paper; retracted means the paper exists but has been withdrawn. Retractions, expressions of concern and corrections are already checked here, so there is no need to call check_retractions on the same references afterwards. At most 50 references per call.

NameTypeReqDescription
referencesstringyesThe reference list exactly as written: any citation style, BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, or DOIs one per line.
NameTypeReqDescription
quotaobjectyes–
referencesarrayyes–
summaryobjectyes–

No examples provided.

Install

How do I install the Phở Research Tools MCP server?

Phở Research Tools is a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp, so there is nothing to install locally. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

remote · mcp.pho.chat

# add to Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http thaohienhomes-pho-research-tools 'https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp'
Common questions

What is the Phở Research Tools MCP server?

Phở Research Tools is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.thaohienhomes/pho-research-tools. Verifies AI-written references; finds real papers, evidence, datasets and research tools; PRISMA. This page covers its hosted endpoint (https://mcp.pho.chat/mcp).

Is the Phở Research Tools MCP server safe to use?

Phở Research Tools scores 79 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. 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 Phở Research Tools MCP server expose?

Phở Research Tools exposes 9 tools: verify_references, format_citations, search_papers, check_retractions, prisma_flow_diagram, and 4 more. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 2,490 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

Does the Phở Research Tools MCP server require authentication?

No. We connected to Phở Research Tools without credentials and it answered, so anything it exposes is reachable by anyone who knows the address.

Is the Phở Research Tools MCP server still maintained?

Phở Research Tools is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 25 October 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.