KWR's EPANET MCP server

Overview

A Model Context Protocol server for EPANET water distribution network simulation and analysis. This server provides tools to load, simulate, visualise, and modify hydraulic network models via Large Language Models.

Please note that mcp-server-epanet is currently in early development. The functionality and available tools are subject to change and expansion as we continue to develop and improve the server.

Publication

This work was presented at the 16th International Conference on Hydroinformatics (HIC 2026), Zaragoza, Spain, June 22–26, 2026.

If you use this software in your research, please cite the conference paper:

@inproceedings{zanutto2026epanetmcp,
  title     = {Conversational Hydraulic Modelling: An Open-source Model Context Protocol Server for {EPANET}},
  author    = {Zanutto, Dennis and Michalopoulos, Christos and Savi\'{c}, Dragan},
  booktitle = {TOADD},
  year      = {2026},
  address   = {Zaragoza, Spain},
  doi = {TOADD},
}

If you specifically reference the code or software package, also cite the Zenodo release:

@software{zanutto2026epanetmcp_software,
  title   = {The {EPANET} {MCP} server},
  author  = {Zanutto, Dennis and Michalopoulos, Christos},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.17771952},
  version = {Concept (all versions)},
}

Tools

TODO

Installation

Using uv (recommended)

When using uv no specific installation is needed. We will use uvx to directly run mcp-server-epanet.

Using PIP

Alternatively you can install mcp-server-epanet via pip:

pip install mcp-server-epanet

After installation, you can run it as a script using:

python -m mcp_server_epanet

Configuration

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

"mcpServers": {
  "epanet": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["mcp-server-epanet"]
  }
}

"mcpServers": {
  "epanet": {
    "command": "python",
    "args": ["-m", "mcp_server_epanet"]
  }
}

Usage with VS Code

For manual installation, add the configuration to a file called .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "epanet": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-epanet"]
    }
  }
}

Or using a local uv installation:

{
  "servers": {
    "epanet": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "mcp-server-epanet"]
    }
  }
}

For more details about MCP configuration in VS Code, see the official VS Code MCP documentation.

Debugging

You can use the MCP inspector to debug the server. For uvx installations:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx mcp-server-epanet

Or if you are developing locally:

cd path/to/epanet-mcp-server
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run mcp-server-epanet

Running tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log will show the logs from the server and may help you debug any issues.

Development

If you are doing local development, there are two ways to test your changes:

1. Run the MCP inspector to test your changes. See Debugging for run instructions.

2. Test using the Claude desktop app. Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "epanet": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/epanet-mcp-server",
        "run",
        "mcp-server-epanet"
      ]
    }
  }
}