ORCID MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides tools for searching the ORCID registry, reading researcher profiles, retrieving publications, and exporting citations in RIS and BibTeX formats.

Built with FastMCP and the ORCID Public API v3.0.

Tools

Tool	Description
orcid_search	Search for researchers by name, affiliation, keyword, DOI, or advanced Solr query
orcid_read_record	Read a researcher's full profile (bio, employment, education, keywords)
orcid_read_works	Get publications from a researcher's ORCID record
orcid_export_ris	Export retrieved works as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.)
orcid_export_bibtex	Export retrieved works as BibTeX

Setup

1. Get ORCID API credentials

Register for free public API credentials at ORCID Developer Tools.

2. Install

cd orcid-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure environment

Copy the example env file and add your credentials:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your ORCID_CLIENT_ID and ORCID_CLIENT_SECRET

4. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "orcid-mcp": {
      "command": "/path/to/orcid-mcp-server/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/path/to/orcid-mcp-server/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "ORCID_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "ORCID_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add orcid-mcp \
  /path/to/orcid-mcp-server/venv/bin/python \
  /path/to/orcid-mcp-server/server.py \
  -e ORCID_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  -e ORCID_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret

Usage examples

Once connected, you can ask Claude things like:

• "Search ORCID for researchers at Northwestern University working on machine learning"
• "Look up the ORCID profile for 0000-0002-1825-0097"
• "Get the publications for this researcher and export them as RIS for Zotero"

License

MIT

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.SMABoundless/orcid -->