pubmed-mcp-server

Connects to the NCBI PubMed API for biomedical literature search, article retrieval, and metadata queries. Requires an NCBI API key and optionally an Unpaywall email.

research

Add to Your Project

Copy this JSON into your .mcp.json to enable this server

Add to your .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pubmed-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "<your-ncbi-api-key>",
        "UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "",
        "NCBI_ADMIN_EMAIL": "",
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace placeholder values for: NCBI_API_KEY

Security Considerations

Review these signals before enabling this server

Requires secrets

This MCP server needs API keys or credentials. Configure them in your environment before use.

Details

Server configuration and connection parameters

Commandnpx

Access Levelwrite

Arguments

Command-line arguments passed to the server process

-y@cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server

Environment Variables

Environment variables set when the server starts

NCBI_API_KEY=

UNPAYWALL_EMAIL=

NCBI_ADMIN_EMAIL=

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio

Required Secrets

Sensitive values you must provide — never committed to source control

NCBI_API_KEY

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LanguageTypeScript

Stars116

Forks20

MaintenanceExcellent

Last CommitJun 30, 2026

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