Carbon Interface

What the Carbon Interface MCP server does

The Carbon Interface MCP server makes three Carbon Interface API v1 estimates available through MCP. Agents can calculate emissions for electricity consumption, air travel, and vehicle journeys without implementing separate request handling for each estimate type.

The electricity tool accepts an energy amount, a country code, and a unit such as kWh. The flight tool accepts a passenger count and one or more legs identified by departure and destination airport IATA codes. The vehicle tool accepts a distance, a unit, and a Carbon Interface vehicle model ID.

How it works

You can connect an MCP client to the hosted pack endpoint at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/carbon-interface/mcp. That endpoint lists the Carbon Interface tools and also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, including routing and discovery functions. The full gateway at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp reaches the same underlying sources, but lists all available packs directly instead of presenting only this pack's tools.

A local stdio option is also available through the @pipeworx/mcp-carbon-interface package. It communicates over standard input and output and exposes only the three Carbon Interface tools, without the gateway's shared meta-tools or cross-catalog routing.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted connection, add the pack URL to the MCP client's server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "carbon-interface": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/carbon-interface/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The Carbon Interface MCP server can also run locally with npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "carbon-interface": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-carbon-interface"]
    }
  }
}

The package can be started directly with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-carbon-interface. The gateway version uses the pack's own API key through the _apiKey parameter; the standalone mode does not require a Pipeworx account or gateway round-trip.

Tools and capabilities

• estimate_electricity: Calculates electricity-related CO2 emissions and returns gram, kilogram, and metric-ton values. For example, an agent can estimate 500 kWh in the United States with 500, "us", and "kwh".
• estimate_flight: Estimates emissions for specified flight legs and passengers. Results include per-passenger and total emissions. Each leg uses airport IATA codes such as SFO and JFK.
• estimate_vehicle: Calculates driving emissions from a distance and Carbon Interface vehicle model ID. Results include grams, kilograms, and metric tons.

The hosted endpoint can also receive natural-language requests through ask_pipeworx, which selects a suitable tool and fills its arguments. HTTP users can inspect a tool through the gateway's /v1/tools/estimate_electricity route or search packs through /v1/tools/search_packs.

Limitations and notes

The Carbon Interface MCP server does not document tools for arbitrary carbon activities beyond electricity, flights, and vehicles. Vehicle estimates require a model ID from Carbon Interface rather than a free-form vehicle description. Flight inputs must identify legs with departure and destination airport IATA codes.

The hosted pack endpoint intentionally includes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, so its reported tool count is larger than the three pack-specific tools. The local stdio package does not include those shared tools.