dhis2-mcp

A read-only MCP server for DHIS2 health data. It runs on stdio.

The server is built for small local models. Each tool returns compact JSON, not the raw DHIS2 response. A small context window is a budget — the tools spend as little of it as possible.

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_indicators	Search DHIS2 indicators by name. Returns id, name, and description.
query_analytics	Get aggregated values for one indicator, split by period, for one organisation unit.

Run search_indicators first to get an indicator id. Then pass the id to query_analytics.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later.
• A DHIS2 instance. The default is the public play demo, so you can start with no setup.

Install and build

git clone https://github.com/brianmituka/dhis2-mcp.git
cd dhis2-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Configuration

Set these environment variables. All three are optional.

Variable	Default	Meaning
DHIS2_BASE_URL	https://play.im.dhis2.org/stable-2-43-1	Base URL of the DHIS2 instance
DHIS2_USERNAME	admin	Basic auth username
DHIS2_PASSWORD	district	Basic auth password

The play demo resets every night. Use the host play.im.dhis2.org, not play.dhis2.org — the old host redirects to an HTML page.

Use with LM Studio

LM Studio 0.3.17 or later supports MCP. Open the Program tab, then edit mcp.json. Add this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dhis2": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dhis2-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "DHIS2_BASE_URL": "https://play.im.dhis2.org/stable-2-43-1",
        "DHIS2_USERNAME": "admin",
        "DHIS2_PASSWORD": "district"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace the path with your clone location. Restart the model chat after you edit the file.

Use with other MCP clients

Any stdio MCP client works. For Claude Code:

claude mcp add dhis2 -- node /absolute/path/to/dhis2-mcp/dist/index.js

Test with MCP Inspector

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

The Inspector does not reload the server after a rebuild. Click Restart in the Inspector after every npm run build.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.