Ieee Standards

What Ieee Standards does

Ieee Standards connects MCP clients to the IEEE Xplore Metadata Search API through the Pipeworx gateway. Its main purpose is metadata discovery across IEEE standards and the broader IEEE Xplore collection, including journals, conference proceedings, magazines, books, courses, and standards.

The server is an independent, unofficial integration and is not affiliated with IEEE. It returns structured records rather than the complete text of IEEE publications. For standards, responses can include the title, scope or abstract, publication year, DOI, and IEEE Xplore URL. Research results can include authors, venue, year, DOI, abstract, and a link to the source record.

How it works

MCP clients can connect to the hosted streamable HTTP endpoint at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ieee-standards/mcp. The gateway exposes this pack’s tools together with shared Pipeworx tools. A full Pipeworx gateway connection is also available when an agent needs direct access to the wider catalog.

A local npm bridge is available through @pipeworx/mcp-ieee-standards. The bridge runs with npx, forwards requests to the same hosted endpoint, and requires network access. It does not provide offline operation. Tool calls that access IEEE data require an IEEE Xplore API key supplied as the _apiKey argument.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted MCP connection, add the endpoint to the client’s MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ieee-standards": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/ieee-standards/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The local bridge can be configured as follows:

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

Pass an IEEE Xplore API key as _apiKey on each tool call. The key is obtained by registering an application with IEEE at developer.ieee.org. For the local bridge, PIPEWORX_API_KEY authenticates requests to Pipeworx; without it, usage is limited to 50 calls per day, while a free Pipeworx account raises the limit to 200 calls per day. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 if the local bridge should also list Pipeworx’s shared gateway tools.

Tools and capabilities

• ieee_standard_search searches the IEEE standards catalog by identifier or subject. It can locate standards such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 1588, IEEE 1547, IEEE 1149.1, IEEE 754, and IEEE 802.1AS, returning metadata and scope or abstract information.
• ieee_search searches the complete IEEE Xplore corpus. Use content_type to narrow results to categories such as journals, conferences, standards, magazines, books, courses, or early-access records. A year filter is also supported.
• ieee_article retrieves one record using an article number or DOI. Its response can include all listed authors and affiliations, the full abstract, publication details, page information, publisher, index terms, and standard-specific fields when applicable.

Limitations and notes

The tools provide metadata and abstracts, not the normative text of standards or the full text of research publications. Access the returned IEEE Xplore HTML or PDF URL to purchase content or read it through an institutional subscription. Every IEEE data call needs the caller’s own IEEE Xplore API key.

The hosted pack endpoint also lists shared Pipeworx meta-tools, so the tool count may exceed the three IEEE-specific tools described here. The local bridge lists the pack tools by default and can add those shared tools through its environment setting. Requests must be able to reach the Pipeworx gateway over the network.