Add
CommunitySearch & Research

PubMed

by cyanheads

Search PubMed and Europe PMC, pull abstracts and open-access full text, and format citations from an assistant.

ConnectRepository(opens in a new tab)

Best for

Literature reviews where an assistant needs to look up papers, read open-access text and produce properly formatted references.

Connect PubMed

Choose your client

Remote

This server is hosted by its publisher. Pick your client for the matching setup.

Important

Full text is only available where PMC, Europe PMC or Unpaywall hold an open-access copy, and unauthenticated use is limited to 3 requests per second.

Open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then enter this URL:
https://pubmed.caseyjhand.com/mcp
  • Claude Desktop adds remote servers through Connectors, not through claude_desktop_config.json. Menu names can differ by plan.

Format checked Oct 30, 2026 against Claude Desktop documentation. Client settings change, so confirm with the client's own docs.

Official setup guide(opens in a new tab)

Connection details

Hosted endpoint
https://pubmed.caseyjhand.com/mcp
Packages

npm package · stdio
@cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server@2.11.1

npm package · streamable-http
@cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server@2.11.1

Overview

This community server wraps NCBI's PubMed E-utilities and Europe PMC for literature work. It searches PubMed with full query syntax, fetches article metadata by PMID, retrieves full text by PMID, PMCID or DOI by falling back from PMC to Europe PMC to Unpaywall, and looks up MeSH headings. Further tools fetch NIH iCite citation metrics, find related, citing or cited articles, convert between DOI, PMID and PMCID, and format citations in APA, MLA, BibTeX, RIS or Vancouver. It runs locally, and an optional NCBI API key raises the request rate limit. The maintainer also runs a public hosted instance, which this record does not cover.

What it can do

  • Twelve tools for searching PubMed and Europe PMC, fetching articles and full text, citation metrics, related articles, MeSH lookup, citation matching and ID conversion.
  • Formats citations as APA 7th, MLA 9th, BibTeX, RIS or Vancouver, with linked retraction and correction notices.
  • Also ships a research_plan prompt that produces a four-phase biomedical research plan.

What you need

Sign-in and credentials

No account is needed. An optional NCBI API key raises the rate limit from 3 to 10 requests per second.

Environment variables

10 listed; the first 8 are shown.

  • MCP_LOG_LEVEL
  • NCBI_API_KEY
  • NCBI_ADMIN_EMAIL
  • UNPAYWALL_EMAIL
  • MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE
  • MCP_HTTP_HOST
  • MCP_HTTP_PORT
  • MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH
Runs as

npm package (started with npx)

Sources

MCP Registry
Listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server
Documentation
github.com/cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server
Repository
github.com/cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server
Last checked
Oct 31, 2026
Record reviewed
Oct 31, 2026

Statements on this page come from

Why is this labelled Community?

Registry name io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server. The io.github.<user> namespace is for the GitHub account that owns it (registry authentication docs, read 2026-10-30), and the repository is cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server, owned by that personal account. Nothing in the README or registry entry claims an affiliation with NCBI or the NIH.

Listing on HistChat is not an endorsement or a security review. MCP servers can access data or perform actions, so review the source and permissions before connecting.

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