Notanda local MCP server — Beta

Every OpenAlex search stores its request, response and checksums so sources can be checked later.

Beta: an external developer's unassisted acceptance test is still pending. Technical tests do not replace that external usability and installation check.

This directory exposes Notanda's provenance-aware OpenAlex retrieval to local MCP clients. It is a separate notanda-mcp package, not a hosted service and not part of the notanda 1.3.2 package. It depends on that released core.

The component provides exactly two tools:

• search_literature: search OpenAlex for OA works with a DOI and persist the request, provider observation, returned result and hashes under one evidence ID; the returned receipt is the SHA-256 of manifest.json.
• get_evidence: verify those hashes and return the original result by evidence ID without repeating the provider request. An optional caller-held receipt also detects replacement of the payloads together with their manifest.

Both tool descriptions and every successful response warn that titles and metadata are unverified third-party content, not instructions.

It does not download full text, write to the Notanda corpus or Evidence Ledger, modify the web UI, expose a network server, or provide general agent reasoning.

Provenance and status

The implementation is adapted from the isolated branch experiment/local-mcp, commit 366bc2d4827aa915e2e58a82cd567163ed63d4be. The sealed handoff package bound that source to 20 passing MCP tests and a successful live OpenAlex run. For the public repository integration, the duplicated Notanda runtime was replaced by the released notanda==1.3.1 PyPI dependency. Beta 3 updates that pin to notanda==1.3.2; MCP remains pinned to the tested SDK version 1.30.0. SOURCE_PROVENANCE.json records the source hashes and the deliberate integration changes in machine-readable form.

Five of the six original acceptance criteria are technically satisfied. The sixth — an external developer with no Notanda knowledge completing installation, search, restart and independent verification without assistance — remains externally to be verified until that result is returned.

Install the Beta package

Use Python 3.11 or 3.12. A dedicated virtual environment is recommended:

python -m venv .venv-mcp
# Linux/macOS:
. .venv-mcp/bin/activate
# Windows PowerShell instead:
# .venv-mcp\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install "notanda-mcp==0.1.0b3"

Beta 3 requires exactly notanda==1.3.2. Installing it into an environment already containing that version preserves the core version. Beta 2 requires notanda==1.3.1 and pip may downgrade an existing 1.3.2 installation to satisfy that pin. Use a separate environment if you need Beta 2 or a different Notanda core version; do not bypass dependency checks. The exact pin keeps the tested core/server combination reproducible; it does not promise compatibility with future core releases.

For a client that uses uvx, configure this command and arguments (replace the evidence directory with a writable absolute path on your computer):

uvx --python 3.12 notanda-mcp@0.1.0b3 --evidence-dir ABSOLUTE_LOCAL_EVIDENCE_PATH

Set HARVESTER_OPENALEX_API_KEY in the MCP client's local environment. The key is required for searches and must not be placed in the command arguments. The registry manifest declares this variable as secret and the evidence path as a required input.

Install from this repository

Use Python 3.11 or 3.12. From the repository root:

python -m venv .venv-mcp
# Linux/macOS:
. .venv-mcp/bin/activate
# Windows PowerShell:
# .venv-mcp\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install -e ./mcp

This installs the MCP component from the checkout and resolves the reviewed Notanda core as notanda==1.3.2 from PyPI.

Configure an OpenAlex API key locally. For example, in PowerShell without placing the key in terminal history:

$mcpSecureKey = Read-Host 'OpenAlex API key' -AsSecureString
$env:HARVESTER_OPENALEX_API_KEY = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new('', $mcpSecureKey).Password

The existing Notanda configuration mechanisms also work: HARVESTER_CONFIG or HARVESTER_OPENALEX_API_KEY. Never add credentials to evidence directories, Git, screenshots or returned test reports.

Run and verify

The supplied real stdio client starts the server, initializes MCP, verifies the two tool names and executes a search:

python mcp/tools/mcp_client.py \
  --evidence-dir ./tmp/mcp-evidence \
  --query "scientific reproducibility" \
  --limit 2

The response contains an evidence_id and a receipt. Keep both outside the evidence directory. A second process can verify that receipt and retrieve the stored response without another provider request:

python mcp/tools/mcp_client.py \
  --evidence-dir ./tmp/mcp-evidence \
  --id EVIDENCE_ID \
  --receipt RECEIPT

For compatibility, get_evidence also works without receipt and performs the previous payload hash and identity checks. Those checks detect corruption, but a coordinated replacement of payloads and manifest is detectable only when the original receipt is supplied.

The independent verifier uses only the Python standard library:

python -S mcp/tools/verify_mcp_evidence.py \
  ./tmp/mcp-evidence/EVIDENCE_ID

For another local MCP client, configure the virtual environment's notanda-mcp executable with these arguments:

--evidence-dir ABSOLUTE_LOCAL_EVIDENCE_PATH

Transport is stdio. The server has no user interface and opens no listening port.

Evidence contract

Each search creates one directory named by its 32-character evidence ID:

The manifest alone detects corruption or one-file modification. It is not a digital signature and, without a caller-held receipt, does not detect coordinated replacement of payloads and manifest. Comparing the optional receipt anchors the exact manifest observed during the original search.

Limits and failure behavior

• Query length: 1–1000 characters. Result limit: integer 1–10.
• One OpenAlex request, no pagination, no automatic retry.
• 20-second operation timeout, 10-second connection timeout, 4 MiB response ceiling.
• Only https://api.openalex.org/works is accepted as the provider endpoint.
• Missing key: configuration_error; invalid input: invalid_arguments.
• Provider/transport failure: provider_error; no provider exception text is stored.
• Interrupted write: incomplete; hash or identity mismatch: integrity_failure; supplied receipt mismatch: receipt_mismatch.
• Provider text is persisted as untrusted data, never interpreted as instructions.

Tests

Install the development extra and run the 23 deterministic checks:

python -m pip install -e "./mcp[dev]"
python -m pytest mcp/tests

The tests cover successful retrieval, restart, independent verification, corruption, invalid input, HTTP 401/429/500, timeouts, malformed and oversized responses, storage failure, process death, secret redaction and real two-process stdio MCP operation.