
Connects to the Hipolabs Universities API to query information about universities worldwide. No authentication required, which makes it easy to drop into any Claude Desktop or MCP-compatible setup. Part of the Pipeworx gateway ecosystem, so you can use it standalone or bundle it with 673+ other data sources through their unified gateway. Supports plain English queries through ask_pipeworx instead of direct tool calls, letting Claude figure out the right parameters. Useful when you need to look up university data by country, name, or domain without managing API keys or rate limits.
Universities MCP — Hipolabs Universities API (free, no auth)
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1476+ live data sources.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
search_universities | Search universities worldwide by name and/or country using the Hipolabs API. Returns name, country, state/province, web pages, and email domains. At least one of name or country must be provided. |
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"universities": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/universities/mcp"
}
}
}
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/universities/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 Universities data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
MIT