
Connects Claude to NASA's Exoplanet Archive covering roughly 5600 confirmed exoplanets and candidates. Exposes five tools: a raw ADQL TAP query interface for full flexibility, quick search against the planetary systems table, access to composite planet parameters, Kepler candidate objects, and microlensing event data. Part of the Pipeworx gateway, which adds a natural language wrapper so you can ask questions in plain English instead of crafting queries manually. Reach for this when you need programmatic access to exoplanet discovery data, orbital parameters, detection methods, or candidate validation status without scraping web interfaces or downloading bulk CSV files.
NASA Exoplanet Archive MCP — ~5600 confirmed exoplanets + candidates + light curves. Keyless TAP service.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1476+ live data sources.
tap(query, format?) — ADQL TAP query against the archive (default table: ps)planets(query?, limit?) — quick planet search (defaults to ps planet table)composite(query?, limit?) — query the composite planet parameter table pscompparskepler_candidates(query?, limit?) — Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) tablemicrolensing(query?, limit?) — microlensing event tablehttps://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/TAP/sync
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"exoplanet-archive": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/exoplanet-archive/mcp"
}
}
}
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/exoplanet-archive/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1476+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Exoplanet Archive data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
MIT