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MCP server for IVOA astronomical archives: NOIRLab Astro Data Lab, NRAO/ALMA, CADC, ESO, Gaia
About
MCP server for IVOA astronomical archives: NOIRLab Astro Data Lab, NRAO/ALMA, CADC, ESO, Gaia
Security Report
MANNA is an astronomy archive MCP server that queries public IVOA TAP, SIA, cone search, registry, and Sesame endpoints; the visible code shows no exfiltration, hardcoded secrets, or shell execution, and its network access matches its purpose. Minor observations include that the supplied code is truncated so tap.py's remaining tools and the URL guard were not fully reviewed, and that the server accepts arbitrary user-supplied endpoint URLs (SSRF-style risk mitigated by an ensure_safe_url guard that was not visible). Supply chain analysis found 3 known vulnerabilities in dependencies (0 critical, 2 high severity). Package verification found 1 issue.
4 files analyzed · 8 issues found
Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.
Permissions Required
This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.
What You'll Need
Set these up before or after installing:
Environment variable: MANNA_ARCHIVES
Environment variable: MANNA_ALLOWED_HOSTS
Environment variable: MANNA_LOG_LEVEL
Environment variable: MANNA_INLINE_ROW_LIMIT
How to Install
Add this to your MCP configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"io-github-nsf-simons-cosmicai-institute-manna": {
"env": {
"MANNA_ARCHIVES": "your-manna-archives-here",
"MANNA_LOG_LEVEL": "your-manna-log-level-here",
"MANNA_ALLOWED_HOSTS": "your-manna-allowed-hosts-here",
"MANNA_INLINE_ROW_LIMIT": "your-manna-inline-row-limit-here"
},
"args": [
"manna-mcp"
],
"command": "uvx"
}
}
}Documentation
View on GitHubFrom the project's GitHub README.
MANNA
MANNA (MCP Architecture for NOIRLab, NRAO, and additional Archives) is an MCP server that gives LLM clients such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Jupyter AI access to astronomical archives through the standard IVOA interfaces: TAP/ADQL, SIA image search, cone search, the IVOA registry, and Sesame name resolution. It includes curated notes for NOIRLab Astro Data Lab, ALMA, CADC, ESO, Gaia, and SDSS, and can reach any archive listed in the IVOA registry.
Its tools fall into four groups:
- Connections call the IVOA interfaces directly: resolve a target name, run an ADQL query, search for images or catalog sources by position, search the registry.
- Workflow tools do a multi-step task in one call: resolve a target, pick an archive, run the search or count.
- Result handling returns small results inline. A large TAP result becomes an async job, and the client receives a result URL and a pyvo snippet to fetch it. The server keeps nothing between requests.
- Archive notes record each archive's quirks (missing columns, enum values, spatial-index hints) so the model sees them before writing ADQL. Every note has a check that re-verifies it.
Full documentation, including the reference for every tool, is at https://manna.readthedocs.io.
Installation
Python 3.12 or later. The PyPI distribution is manna-mcp; the import package
and the command are both manna.
uvx manna-mcp --stdio # run without installing: MCP over stdio
pip install manna-mcp # or install it; `manna` then serves HTTP on :8000
The first launch downloads astropy and pyvo, which takes a while. Run
uvx manna-mcp --stdio once in a terminal before adding it to a client with a
short startup timeout.
The Docker image and the MCP Registry entry are described under Installation.
Connect a client
Claude Code:
claude mcp add manna -- uvx manna-mcp --stdio
Claude Desktop, or any client with a JSON config:
{"mcpServers": {"manna": {"command": "uvx", "args": ["manna-mcp", "--stdio"]}}}
For a shared HTTP server or Jupyter AI, run manna and point the client at
http://localhost:8000/mcp/.
Guides: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Jupyter AI, a first query.
Configuration
All settings are optional and are read from MANNA_* environment variables or
a .env file. The two most often changed:
MANNA_ARCHIVES=datalab,almalimits which archives have curated notes. Unset means every archive exceptnrao, which is inactive until named here.MANNA_INLINE_ROW_LIMIT=2000andMANNA_INLINE_BYTE_LIMIT=262144raise the inline result caps from their small-model defaults to suit a large context window such as Claude's.
Every setting is listed in the configuration guide. Adding or removing an archive is covered in the archives guide.
Development
git clone https://github.com/NSF-Simons-CosmicAI-Institute/manna
cd manna
uv sync
uv run pytest --record-mode=none # offline replay of recorded archive traffic
uv run python -m manna # server on http://localhost:8000
Feature branches are cut from dev and merged back by pull request. Tests,
linting, recorded cassettes, the docs build, and releases are described under
Contributing.
License
MIT. Developed by the NSF-Simons CosmicAI Institute.
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