io.github.cyanheads/nasa-power-mcp-server

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Overview

NASA POWER historical solar and meteorological observations for renewable energy, sustainable buildings and agroclimatology. Retrieve point time series and climatology, inspect native-grid regions, and compare labeled locations with source units and provenance. No NASA account or API key is required.

Tools

Tool	Description
nasa_power_get_timeseries	Hourly, daily or monthly observations at one point
nasa_power_get_climatology	Monthly and annual point climatology, including tilted solar profiles
nasa_power_get_region	One parameter across a bounded native-grid region
nasa_power_compare_locations	Shared observations and seasonal summaries for 2–10 labeled points
nasa_power_search_parameters	Search the complete community/resolution parameter dictionary
nasa_power_list_reference	Presets, communities, coverage, missing values, wind surfaces and dataframe guidance
nasa_power_dataframe_describe	Inspect staged schemas, units, expiry and provenance
nasa_power_dataframe_query	Run bounded read-only SQL against an explicit canvas token
nasa_power_dataframe_drop	Opt-in removal of one named staged table

Eight tools are enabled by default; NASA_POWER_DATAFRAME_DROP_ENABLED=true enables the ninth.

Capability reference

nasa_power_get_timeseries _tool

• latitude / longitude and temporalResolution: hourly and daily take an inclusive startDate / endDate, monthly takes startYear / endYear. selection is a named preset (default solar_pv) or explicit parameters, at most 15 effective codes hourly and 20 otherwise, corrections included.
• community (RE, SB, AG; default RE), units (metric, imperial) and timeStandard (LST, UTC). Optional siteElevation adds PSC; paired windElevation (10–300 meters) and windSurface add WSC. Use nasa_power_list_reference topic wind_surfaces for all 17 canonical NASA aliases, including airportgrass, airportice and vegtype_1; vegetation underscores are retained.
• Returns metadata, parameters, expansions, omittedParameters, summaries, rows, an exact rowCount and dataset (null unless staged). Optional canvas_id reuses a canvas when staging is needed.

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nasa_power_get_climatology _tool

• Point coordinates with the same selection and corrections; optional startYear and endYear together, otherwise the source product range. No temporalResolution input.
• Always inline, with no canvas_id; a profile over the 40,000-character budget fails dataset_limit. The SI_EF_TILTED_SURFACE alias lists its returned members, numeric angles and N/S orientation text included, in expansions.

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nasa_power_get_region _tool

• One parameter over ordered latitudeMin / latitudeMax and longitudeMin / longitudeMax, each axis spanning 2–10 degrees (invalid_region otherwise); split antimeridian regions into separate calls. temporalResolution is daily, monthly or climatology; point corrections are unsupported.
• Returns cell-tagged rows, cellCount and per-period summaries with equal-weight cell min / mean / max, not area-weighted. Optional canvas_id reuses a canvas for staging.

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nasa_power_compare_locations _tool

• 2–10 locations, each with coordinates and a label of 1–120 characters, sharing one selection, corrections and window. temporalResolution defaults to climatology; hourly, daily and monthly also work.
• Returns successful locations with per-site provenance, location-tagged rows, annual and calendar-season summaries, and failed entries with partial: true when some sites fail; all-site failure returns all_locations_failed. possibleSharedGridCell flags sites that may share a grid cell.
• Optional sort (parameter, direction asc / desc) orders by a selected numeric parameter with known identical units. Optional canvas_id reuses a canvas for staging.
• When summaries exceed the response budget, summaryDatasets.buckets and summaryDatasets.locations point to complete SQL tables; inline summaries become whole-record previews and each location includes summaryCount. Query in summaryIndex order; the location-summary table includes locationId. SQL units: null represents an omitted source unit, not a known unit.

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nasa_power_search_parameters _tool

• community (default RE), temporalResolution (default daily), optional filter (up to 256 characters), offset and positive integer limit (default 20, effective cap 100 with a notice when capped).
• Every case-insensitive filter token must match a code, name or definition across the complete dictionary before sorted pagination; a blank filter browses it. entries, total, hasMore and truncated describe the page.

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nasa_power_list_reference _tool

• topic: presets (default), communities, coverage, missing_data, wind_surfaces or dataframes.
• Returns typed entries, guidance, documentationUrls and verifiedOn. Presets are solar_pv, wind_turbine, building_hvac, agroclimatology and water_balance; building_hvac is unavailable hourly. agroclimatology adds T2M_MAX and T2M_MIN outside hourly resolution; monthly/climatology extremes remain source aggregates, without reconstructed daily records or calculated growing degree days.

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nasa_power_dataframe_describe _tool

• Required canvas_id from a producing response; optional table limits inspection to one table.
• Returns canvas and table expiry, SQL columns with source units, and original scientific provenance. Only tables in the supplied canvas are visible.

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nasa_power_dataframe_query _tool

• Required canvas_id and one read-only SELECT in sql (up to 16,384 characters); positive integer rowLimit defaults to 100 and is capped at 1,000, with an effective-cap notice for larger requests. Files, writes and system catalogs are denied.
• Returns columns, rows, rowCount, shownCount, truncated and countSemantics (exact or materialized_prefix). SQL has a 10-second deadline; the structured and rendered outputs each must fit 40,000 characters.
• SQL mistakes retain bounded identifiers or conversion values with recovery guidance. Operational failures use generic messages; engine paths and native causes are excluded.

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nasa_power_dataframe_drop _tool

• Required canvas_id and exact table; enabled only by NASA_POWER_DATAFRAME_DROP_ENABLED=true.
• Returns dropped: false for an absent table while other tables keep the canvas alive. Removing the final table also retires its canvas and frees its slot; subsequent describe, query or drop calls return canvas_not_found.

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

POWER-specific:

• Historical gridded observations, rather than site measurements or forecasts. Meteorological coverage starts in 1981, solar in 1984 and hourly in 2001; source configuration and publication latency further constrain availability.
• One active upstream request, starts at least two seconds apart, bounded retries and a 55-second overall call deadline. NASA publishes no numeric request allowance. References cache for 24 hours and observations for 10 minutes.
• Source fill values become null; zero remains a measurement. Monthly annual keys and climatology ANN remain distinct from monthly observations. LST labels have no UTC offset.

Agent-friendly output:

• Scientific provenance — source API version, dataset identifiers, endpoint and access time accompany results; preserve returned units and attribute NASA POWER.
• Explicit gaps — omittedParameters distinguishes an absent series from fill values; arithmetic observation means and calendar-season buckets are not climate normals, annual yields or water balances.
• Complete datasets — inline outputs each fit 40,000 characters. Larger datasets stage all rows with a preview of at most 20 rows and a dataset handle; unsupported or oversized requests fail with narrowing guidance instead of returning a capped source prefix.

Staging requires DuckDB and supports at most 250,000 rows, 64 parameter columns and 32 MiB of serialized rows per dataset. Canvases are process-local capabilities: pass the returned token explicitly and route later calls to the same process. Tables expire after 30 minutes, canvases after one idle hour with a six-hour absolute cap; limits are eight tables per canvas, four canvases per tenant and eight per process. Engine memory is 256 MiB per canvas, not a total RSS or temporary-disk quota.

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nasa-power-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/nasa-power-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": { "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio" }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nasa-power-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/nasa-power-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": { "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio" }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nasa-power-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/nasa-power-mcp-server:latest"]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://127.0.0.1:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
• npm and Docker install native DuckDB dependencies normally on supported platforms, and staging and SQL are on by default. Set CANVAS_PROVIDER_TYPE=none to keep every result inline.
• The portable Claude Desktop MCPB bundle fixes CANVAS_PROVIDER_TYPE=none and supports inline results. Narrow an oversized request or use npm/Docker for analytics.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/nasa-power-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd nasa-power-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env to change transport, logging or canvas settings

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
NASA_POWER_DATAFRAME_DROP_ENABLED	Expose explicit staged-table removal.	false
CANVAS_PROVIDER_TYPE	duckdb stages large results for SQL on npm/Docker; none keeps results inline. MCPB fixes none.	duckdb
CANVAS_DEFAULT_MEMORY_LIMIT_MB	Fixed engine memory limit; not total RSS or temporary disk.	256
CANVAS_MAX_CANVASES_PER_TENANT	Fixed tenant canvas cap.	4
CANVAS_TTL_MS	Fixed sliding canvas lifetime.	3600000
CANVAS_ABSOLUTE_CAP_MS	Fixed absolute canvas lifetime.	21600000
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	stdio or http.	stdio
MCP_HTTP_HOST / MCP_HTTP_PORT	HTTP bind address and port.	127.0.0.1 / 3010
MCP_AUTH_MODE	none, jwt or oauth.	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Minimum log level.	info
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry.	false

DuckDB startup rejects changes to the four fixed canvas settings. See .env.example for optional transport, authentication, storage, logging and telemetry settings.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run the production version:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:http
  # or
  bun run start:stdio
  

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck  # Lints, formats, type-checks, and more
  bun run test      # Runs the test suite
  

Docker

docker build -t nasa-power-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 127.0.0.1:3010:3010 nasa-power-mcp-server

The image defaults to HTTP on port 3010 in stateless session mode and logs to /var/log/nasa-power-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default; build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them. For a client outside loopback, configure authentication and TLS at the deployment boundary.

Project structure

Path	Purpose
src/index.ts	Nine tool registrations, bounded canvas setup and service shutdown
src/config	Workload limits and server-specific environment parsing
src/mcp-server/tools/definitions	Tool contracts and comparison orchestration
src/services/power	Paced NASA client, normalization, presets and scientific summaries
src/services/canvas	Explicit-token staging, SQL, provenance and admission limits
scripts	Build, validation, packaging and release tooling
tests	Offline contracts and native integration tests

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for logging and ctx.signal for cancellation
• Register new tools in the createApp() array in src/index.ts
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields, and preserve source units and annual-period distinctions
• content[] and structuredContent carry the same complete data

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.