# andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🧬 Biology & Bioinformatics  
**Repository:** https://github.com/andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed  
**GitHub Stars:** 171  
**Views:** 6  
**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/andybrandt-mcp-simple-pubmed

## Description
MCP to search and read medical / life sciences papers from PubMed.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `uvx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "mcp-simple-pubmed": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["mcp-simple-pubmed"],
    "env": {
      "PUBMED_EMAIL": "",
      "PUBMED_API_KEY": ""
    }
  }
}
```

**Requires environment variables:** `PUBMED_EMAIL`, `PUBMED_API_KEY` — the values above are empty placeholders; fill in real credentials before running (see the repository for what each one is for).

## Documentation

## What andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed MCP server does

andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed MCP server provides an MCP interface to PubMed articles through the NCBI Entrez API. It is intended for literature discovery and retrieval in medicine, biology, and related life sciences. Search requests can combine ordinary keywords with MeSH terms, author names, date restrictions, and Boolean operators.

The server exposes three main retrieval capabilities. Search PubMed returns matching records, abstract access provides article abstracts and metadata through resource URIs, and full-text retrieval downloads the article content when PubMed Central makes it available. Full text is returned as XML, preserving document structure that can be useful for an AI assistant.

## How it works

An MCP-compatible client starts the server as a Python module and communicates with it over the configured local process. The server sends requests to PubMed using Entrez, with an email address identifying the client as required by NCBI. An API key is optional but raises the documented request allowance from 3 requests per second to 10 requests per second.

The included prompts support three search workflows. Systematic Review Search helps assemble searches using MeSH terms, synonyms, and date filters. PICO Search structures a clinical question around population, intervention, comparison, and outcome. Author Search helps format an author query for finding that person’s publications. These prompts guide query construction; they do not expand the underlying PubMed database.

## Setup and configuration

Install the package with `pip install mcp-simple-pubmed`. The server requires `PUBMED_EMAIL`; set `PUBMED_API_KEY` if higher NCBI rate limits are needed. A Claude Desktop configuration runs `python -m mcp_simple_pubmed` and passes these values in the server’s environment.

On macOS, Python installations may need their certificate bundle installed if HTTPS requests fail with a certificate verification error. The README identifies Python’s `Install Certificates.command` as the relevant fix and notes that Claude Desktop must be restarted after changing certificates.

## Tools and capabilities

andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed MCP server supports:

- PubMed searches using keywords, MeSH terms, authors, dates, and Boolean logic.
- Abstract and metadata retrieval through MCP resource URIs.
- Full-text retrieval for articles available through PubMed Central.
- Prompt-assisted construction of systematic review, PICO, and author searches.

## Limitations and notes

Full-text retrieval is limited by availability and access. The server cannot provide paywalled papers. A failed retrieval does not always prove that a paper is unavailable: browser access to a publication URL may work even when automated retrieval encounters a forbidden response.

The full-text response is XML rather than human-oriented prose. That format contains structural information, but applications should account for it when displaying or processing article content. No rate limiting is implemented by the server, so clients generating requests should stay within NCBI’s documented limits or use an API key where appropriate.

andybrandt/mcp-simple-pubmed MCP server is therefore best suited to PubMed search and accessible article retrieval, not unrestricted full-text access across all biomedical publishers.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/andybrandt-mcp-simple-pubmed/readme_