SciTeX Dataset MCP

MCP server that lets Claude discover and search neuroscience datasets across OpenNeuro, DANDI, PhysioNet, and Zenodo through one unified BIDS/NWB-aware interface.

   
Type MCP server
Supplier SciTeX
Availability Beta (v2.30.2, released 2026-06-20)
Pricing Free / OSS — AGPL-3.0-only
Capabilities Read-only — queries public dataset-repository APIs
Verified works · 2026-07-20
Security caution · 2026-07-20 — PyPI scitex 2.30.8 AGPL-3.0-only resolves, provenance matches, no OSV advisories, single-maintainer + AGPL copyleft

How to install

The dataset/neuroscience tools ship inside the broader scitex package; the scitex mcp start console script exposes them over MCP.

  • Install the package (PyPI). The [dataset] extra pulls in the OpenNeuro / DANDI / PhysioNet / Zenodo fetchers; [all] installs everything: 
    uv pip install "scitex[dataset]"

    (or pip install "scitex[dataset]"; requires Python 3.10+.)

  • Verify the server starts (one-shot — Ctrl-C after it boots; Claude launches the process itself via stdio): 
    scitex mcp start
  • Claude Code — register the stdio server: 
    claude mcp add --transport stdio scitex -- scitex mcp start
  • Claude Desktop — add the equivalent stdio entry to claude_desktop_config.json: 
    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "scitex": { "command": "scitex", "args": ["mcp", "start"] }
  }
}

What it does

Exposes the scitex.dataset module’s neuroscience fetchers as MCP tools so Claude can:

  • Search and list datasets on OpenNeuro, DANDI, PhysioNet, and Zenodo through one API
  • Run text queries over dataset metadata (e.g., “phase-amplitude coupling”) across repositories
  • Surface BIDS- and NWB-format dataset metadata for downstream analysis

Primary use cases: cross-archive neuroscience dataset discovery, BIDS/NWB metadata search, building reproducible dataset-fetch steps for analysis pipelines.

Notes

Read-only against public repository APIs; no API key required for core dataset discovery (optional cloud integrations exist but are not needed). SciTeX is a 37-package scientific-computing ecosystem and the scitex console script bundles many non-neuroscience MCP tools alongside the dataset module — the neuroscience-relevant surface is the dataset extra. For inspecting individual NWB files and DANDI/OpenNeuro semantic search, see also Neurosift Tools MCP. The exact per-tool MCP names are not enumerated in the upstream docs — Unverified — the tool list above reflects the documented scitex.dataset.neuroscience Python API surface (openneuro / dandi / physionet / zenodo fetchers, search_datasets).

Sources

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