Imf Portwatch

What Imf Portwatch does

Imf Portwatch exposes maritime trade and disruption data from IMF PortWatch through MCP. Its tools cover eight tracked chokepoints—Suez, Panama, Bosphorus, Gibraltar, Dover, Malacca, Hormuz, and Bab-el-Mandeb—as well as a global port database containing more than 1,500 ports.

The server supports both historical context and recent status checks. You can inspect annual vessel volumes and cargo composition, retrieve daily vessel and deadweight-tonnage series, search ports by name or country, and review disruption events such as cyclones, floods, earthquakes, and conflict-related incidents.

How it works

The hosted MCP endpoint is served by the Pipeworx gateway at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/imf-portwatch/mcp. A client can connect directly over HTTP, or launch the npm package as a local stdio bridge that forwards requests to the same gateway. The gateway endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools alongside the pack-specific tools; the local bridge lists the pack tools by default and can include the meta-tools when configured.

Chokepoint status and comparison results use the most recent settled day available from IMF PortWatch's daily AIS-derived transit data. Responses include the data lag and a freshness note. Baselines can show the mean, delta, percentage deviation, direction, and seven-day or 30-day averages, including vessel-type-specific changes.

Setup and configuration

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imf-portwatch": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/imf-portwatch/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The npm bridge can be started with npx:

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

The bridge requires network access and has no offline mode. Anonymous use is capped at 50 calls per day. Setting PIPEWORX_API_KEY with a key from Pipeworx raises the allowance to 200 calls per day. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to list shared tools such as ask_pipeworx, discovery, search, and memory tools. When using an HTTPS proxy, newer Node versions can use it with NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1.

Tools and capabilities

• chokepoints_list provides annual counts, cargo mix, and leading industries for the eight tracked chokepoints.
• chokepoint_daily_traffic returns recent-first daily vessel counts, aggregate deadweight tonnage, and cargo-type breakdowns.
• chokepoint_status compares a chokepoint's latest settled day with a trailing baseline and reports above, below, or normal traffic.
• chokepoint_compare ranks two to six chokepoints by deviation from their respective baselines.
• port_search finds ports by name, country, or ISO3 and returns location, traffic, industry, and national trade-share data.
• recent_disruptions filters tracked events by country, alert level, or year and reports dates, severity, affected ports, and impacted population.

Chokepoint tools accept common names such as “Suez,” “Hormuz,” and “Bab el-Mandeb,” as well as PortWatch identifiers. The comparison tool sorts results by the largest absolute deviation.

Limitations and notes

Traffic status is not real-time: “latest” refers to the most recent settled day in the source data. The chokepoints_list response may identify whether it came from a primary or fallback layer. In fallback mode, annual totals, coordinates, and top-industry fields can be omitted.

The hosted endpoint does not require an account for initial anonymous calls, but usage limits apply. The npm bridge forwards requests to the gateway rather than running a local copy of the data service. The project is an independent, unofficial integration and is not affiliated with the upstream provider.