ERDDAP MCP Server

MCP server providing AI assistants with access to ocean data from ERDDAP servers worldwide. ERDDAP is the backbone of ocean data distribution — NOAA CoastWatch, IOOS regional associations, and 80+ institutions run ERDDAP servers.

No API key required — all ERDDAP data is free and public.

Features

• Server Registry — 11 well-known ERDDAP servers with region and topic filtering
• Dataset Search — Free-text search across any ERDDAP server
• Dataset Metadata — Variables, dimensions, time/spatial coverage, attributes
• Tabledap Data — In-situ/tabular data (buoys, gliders, ship tracks) with constraint filtering
• Griddap Data — Gridded/satellite data (SST, chlorophyll, currents) with dimension subsetting
• Dataset Listing — Browse all datasets on any server with filtering

Quick Start

Install with uv

git clone https://github.com/oceanmodeling/ocean-mcp.git
cd ocean-mcp/servers/erddap-mcp
uv sync

Configure your MCP client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "erddap": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/erddap-mcp", "python", "-m", "erddap_mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Known ERDDAP Servers

Usage Examples

• "Search for sea surface temperature datasets" → erddap_search_datasets(search_for="sea surface temperature")
• "What variables are in the MUR SST dataset?" → erddap_get_dataset_info(dataset_id="jplMURSST41")
• "Get recent chlorophyll data off the California coast" → erddap_get_griddap_data(dataset_id="erdMH1chlamday", latitude_range=[32, 42], longitude_range=[-125, -117])
• "Find NDBC buoy data near San Francisco" → erddap_get_tabledap_data(dataset_id="cwwcNDBCMet", constraints={"latitude>=": 37, "latitude<=": 38})
• "What ERDDAP servers cover the US East Coast?" → erddap_list_servers(region="East Coast")

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync

# Run live integration tests (makes real API calls)
uv run pytest tests/test_live.py -v -s

# Start the server
uv run python -m erddap_mcp

License

MIT