OceanOPS MCP

Read-only Model Context Protocol server for the public OceanOPS API. It runs locally over stdio and does not write to OceanOPS.

Tools

Tool	What it calls
search_platforms	POST /oceanjson/platforms/search
get_platform	the same search, or a passport summary when only ptfId is known
get_passport	POST /passports/search (one document, summary unless full is true)
search_ships	GET /ships and GET /ships/search
list_vocabulary	GET /vocab/{programs,countries,ptf-statuses,ptf-families,goos-observing-networks,ship-statuses,ship-types}

Pages are capped at 20 rows. Cruise search is not included: GET /cruises requires the Amrit gateway.

get_passport also returns a world-map image: an amber marker for the deployment and a red marker for the last position. search_platforms and get_platform include the same map when a latest position is present.

Codes such as statusCode=operational, countryCode2=FR, programCode=argo-jamstec, and networkCode=argo are resolved through the vocabulary before they are sent as database ids.

Run

cd oceanops-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Point any MCP client at the built server. It speaks stdio: the client starts the process and exchanges JSON-RPC on stdin and stdout.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "oceanops": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/oceanops-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "OCEANOPS_API_BASE": "https://www.ocean-ops.org/api/data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Use an absolute path in args. Where this block lives depends on the client (project config or user settings). Restart or reload MCP servers after saving it.

The public endpoints used here need no token. To send an API id and token, add OCEANOPS_API_ID and OCEANOPS_API_TOKEN under env. They are sent as X-OceanOPS-Metadata-ID and X-OceanOPS-Metadata-Token.

Check the live API with npm run smoke.