Neurosift Tools MCP

MCP server for discovering, inspecting, and writing analyses against NWB-format neurophysiology data on DANDI and OpenNeuro.


Type	MCP server
Supplier	Jeremy Magland / Flatiron Institute
Availability	Beta — active through November 2025
Pricing	Free / OSS — parent project is Apache-2.0; this repo’s license field is unset (verify before redistributing)
Capabilities	Read-only

How to install

Claude Code — plugin marketplace (recommended):
```
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/magland/neurosift-mcps.git
/plugin install neurosift-tools@neurosift-mcps
```
(The companion plot-vision server is optional: /plugin install plot-vision@neurosift-mcps.)
Claude Code / Desktop — manual build + stdio registration:
```
git clone https://github.com/magland/neurosift-mcps
cd neurosift-mcps/neurosift-tools
npm install
npm run build
```
Register with Claude Code (replace /path/to/neurosift-tools with the absolute path — e.g., $(pwd) if you’re still inside neurosift-mcps/neurosift-tools from the previous step):
```
claude mcp add --transport stdio neurosift-tools -- node /path/to/neurosift-tools/build/index.js
```
For Claude Desktop, add the equivalent stdio entry to claude_desktop_config.json:
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neurosift-tools": { "command": "node", "args": ["/path/to/neurosift-tools/build/index.js"] }
  }
}
```
(Claude launches the server over stdio — no long-running process to keep open.)

What it does

dandi_search, dandi_semantic_search, dandiset_info, dandiset_assets — DANDI discovery and inspection
openneuro_search — OpenNeuro discovery
nwb_file_info — NWB neurodata-object introspection (without downloading the file)
dandi_list_neurodata_types, dandi_search_by_neurodata_type
pynwb_docs_semantic_search — ground PyNWB code generation in current docs

Primary use cases: Discover NWB datasets on DANDI / OpenNeuro, inspect NWB neurodata objects before downloading, ground PyNWB code generation in current documentation.

Notes

stdio transport, no auth — uses public DANDI and OpenNeuro APIs.

Sources

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