ROBINS I V2 MCP vs Substack MCP Server
A side-by-side look at the ROBINS I V2 MCP and Substack MCP Server MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose ROBINS I V2 MCP for developer tools work as a local process; choose Substack MCP Server for developer tools as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose ROBINS I V2 MCP when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
get_spec, parse_document, parse_pmcid.
Choose Substack MCP Server when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You have the keys it needs:
SUBSTACK_PUBLICATION_URL, SUBSTACK_SESSION_TOKEN, SUBSTACK_USER_ID. - You want tools like
create_draft_post, set_post_body, upload_image.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 55/100 · Good | 67/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | SUBSTACK_PUBLICATION_URLSUBSTACK_SESSION_TOKENSUBSTACK_USER_ID |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 87 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 9 | 27 |
| Full listing | View ROBINS I V2 MCP | View Substack MCP Server |
Tools & capabilities
ROBINS I V2 MCP tools 9
get_specReturn the encoded ROBINS-I V2 specification: 13 preliminaries, 40 signalling questions across 6 domains (domain 1 in two variants), the response vocabularies, the evidence policy, and the algorithm fingerprint. OPTIONAL in the assessment flow — introspection only. assess_result already carries the rubric for the domain in hand, so calling both duplicates the payload. detail='compact' (default) gives question ids, own-words labels, response options and evidence modes; detail='full' adds every intent and assessor note. The descriptions are this implementation's own wording, NOT the published signalling-question text, which is not redistributable. The published question IDs are what make the output interoperable.parse_documentPRIMARY entry point: parse a study report into a bundle with character-offset, source-tagged section spans. Every quote you later cite is resolved against THIS text, and every claim of absence is searched in it. PASS `citation=`: the full bibliographic reference in APA style. It appears on the rendered assessment so the study being judged is unambiguous. `document` is EITHER the raw text OR a file path — but the path must be readable on the SERVER host. If your files live on your own filesystem, paste the TEXT instead, or use parse_pmcid for an open-access PMCID. A path-looking string the server cannot find raises rather than being ingested as its own text. PASS THE SUPPLEMENT WHEN YOU HAVE IT. `supplements` is a list of server-readable paths merged as supplementary material. This matters more for ROBINS-I than for a reporting audit: the target-trial specification that settles C1-C4, and the analysis detail domains 1 and 4 turn on, routinely live only in the appendix. Without it those questions read NI when the answer was merely in a file nobody passed. supplement_status defaults to 'user_provided' when supplements are given; pass 'none_exists' to assert the article has none. Returns the section map, the text hash that keys later calls, and a cue survey — hit counts for the 15 evidence patterns, so you can see before reading where each domain's evidence lives and which absences already look real.parse_pmcidCONVENIENCE entry point: retrieve an open-access article from Europe PMC by PMCID and parse it, main text plus PMC-hosted supplements, merged into one source-tagged bundle. Use it when you have no file in hand, or to auto-fetch an open-access paper's supplement; for a manuscript you were given, use parse_document. supplement_status is 'retrieved' when a supplement was obtained, else 'not_retrieved' — a supplement may still exist on the publisher site, so absence of retrieval is never proof of absence. Raises if no open-access full text is available. An APA-style citation is built from the article's JATS metadata; pass citation= to override it.set_prespecified_confoundersSupply P1 — the confounding factors this REVIEW judges important for the intervention-outcome relationship, listed before any study is assessed. THIS IS BLOCKING. Domain 1 will not be scored without it. Question 1.1 asks whether all IMPORTANT confounding factors were controlled for, and 'important' is defined by this list, not by the paper's covariate table. Substituting the paper's own list would let the study grade its own confounding control, which is exactly the judgement ROBINS-I asks the reviewer to make independently. 'Important' means adjustment would be expected to change the estimate meaningfully; factors with only very weak associations are excluded. You MAY propose a list from domain knowledge or a DAG — that is useful and is what this parameter is for — but a proposed list is not a ratified one. Leave `ratified_by` empty unless a human in this conversation has actually reviewed and accepted the list; the assessment then carries P1 in its ratification queue and is explicitly not final until they do. Do not sign it off on their behalf. Scoped by `review_id` because P1 belongs to the review, not to one study: the same list applies to every result assessed under it.specify_resultName the ONE numerical result being assessed, and settle C4. Required before any domain can be scored. ROBINS-I assesses a single effect estimate, not a paper. A study reporting three outcomes across two analyses yields six assessments; give each its own `result_id` and run them separately. `accounts_for_deviations` IS C4, and it is the highest-leverage input here: it swaps domain 1's entire question set and algorithm, so it cannot be deferred until domain 1 is reached. 'no_itt' — the analysis does NOT account for switches between the compared strategies or other protocol deviations. It targets the effect of assignment. Domain 1 variant A (baseline confounding only). 'yes_pp' — the analysis DOES account for them, by censoring, follow-up partitioning, or a g-method. It targets the effect of sustained receipt. Domain 1 variant B (baseline AND time-varying confounding). Judge this on what the ANALYSIS DOES, not on the label the authors give their estimand. A paper whose protocol table says 'observational analogue of the per-protocol effect' but which never censors at deviation is 'no_itt'. Getting this wrong means answering five questions that do not apply. `result_assessed` is A1: the estimate with its precision. `outcome` is A3. `result_location` (A2) is where it appears and why it was chosen. `target_trial` is C1-C3 as a dict of labelled strings — eligible participants, intervention strategy, comparator strategy, and any note on the estimand. `information_sources` is D1: what you actually read. An NI answer is only defensible relative to what was searched. `b1`/`b2`/`b3` are the section B screening answers (Y/PY/PN/N). b1: was any attempt made to control confounding in this result? b2 (asked only if b1 is PN/N): is the potential for confounding great enough that an unadjusted result should not be considered further? b3: is the outcome measurement method unsuitable for the outcome it is meant to capture? Y/PY on b2 or b3 sends the result straight to critical and no domain is scored.assess_resultReturn the assessment scaffold for ONE domain: the questions actually in play, their own-words intent, the response vocabulary each accepts, what evidence each answer must carry, and the cue searches already run against this bundle with their hits. THE SCAFFOLD IS PER DOMAIN BY DESIGN. Most signalling questions are unreachable on any given path — 24 of 41 were never reached on the reference assessment — and which of domain 1's two question sets exists at all is decided by C4. There is no flat 41-question rubric to fetch, and asking for one would mean answering questions the algorithm discards. domain=0 (default) returns the overview: the preliminaries, what is settled, which domains are done, and which are outstanding. domain=1..6 returns that domain's scaffold. Domain 1 is refused until P1 is set. Work a domain at a time: read the cues to find where the evidence is, answer only the questions the algorithm reaches, then submit_answers. You do not state a judgement — the server computes it from your answers.submit_answersSubmit one domain's signalling-question answers and get back the COMPUTED domain judgement, or (domain=0) finalize the assessment. Each element of `answers` is one question: `question`, `response`, `evidence_mode`, `rationale`, plus the evidence that mode requires — `quotes` for manuscript_positive, `search_cue` or `search_terms` for manuscript_absent, `prior_ref` for reviewer_prior. Answer only the questions the algorithm reaches; omit the rest rather than answering NA. `support` is your narrative for the domain as a whole and appears in the report. Three things are enforced here, and all three are the point of the tool: every quote is resolved to character offsets in the ingested bundle and an unresolvable one is REJECTED with the nearest text found; every claim of absence is backed by a search THE SERVER runs, so it is reproducible; and the judgement is computed by the published algorithm from your answers, never asserted by you. If the traversal reaches a question you did not answer, the call returns status='incomplete' naming it — supply it and call again. `override_judgement` sets the domain judgement against the algorithm and REQUIRES `override_justification`. Overrides cannot hide: the report shows both values and the override enters the ratification queue. domain=0 finalizes: it computes the overall judgement (worst of the six domains by default), assembles the stamped assessment and returns the rendered report inline. `overall_escalate` applies the tool's permitted escalation — several moderates to serious, or several seriouses to critical — and requires a justification. The returned `report` is THE ARTIFACT OF RECORD: present that, not a table of your own, and repeat its ratification queue if it is non-empty, because an assessment with unratified items is not final.render_reportRe-render a finalized assessment as a self-contained HTML page — the meta panel, the six-domain summary strip, the per-domain judgement with its algorithm trail and the evidence behind every answer, styled to the Black Swan Causal Labs identity and carrying the provenance stamp. Returns the HTML in `html` (display it inline or publish it as an artifact) and the same bytes base64-encoded in `content_base64` (decode and save as .html). This is a pure re-render of the artifact submit_answers already stamped — nothing is re-scored. The assessment must have been finalized this session; the cache does not survive a server restart.export_robvisCombine assessment RECORDS from any number of runs into a CSV for **robvis** (McGuinness & Higgins), the standard tool for Cochrane-style risk-of-bias figures. A review of 200 studies is 200 separate runs — each assessment costs a session, and nothing in this server survives between them. So pass `records`: the `record` object each submit_answers(domain=0) returns. They are small, flat and JSON-native, so a whole review's worth fits in one context, and they carry their own provenance so every row stays traceable to a document and an algorithm fingerprint. Omit `records` to use only what was assessed in THIS session (convenient, but session-scoped). READ THE RETURNED `losses` BEFORE PUBLISHING THE FIGURE. It reports records that are not yet ratified, mixed C4 variants, equal weighting, and records built under differing algorithm transcriptions — each of which would make the figure claim more than the assessments support. This is not a column dump, because robvis's ROBINS-I template is ROBINS-I **V1** and V2 is not drop-in compatible: * V1 has SEVEN domains and orders selection of participants BEFORE classification of interventions. V2 has six and swaps that pair. Writing V2's columns out in order loses no data and raises no error — it just prints your classification judgement under the heading "Bias due to selection of participants". layout='robins_i' (the default) places each V2 judgement into its correct V1 SLOT and marks the dropped deviations domain NA. Upload it with tool='ROBINS-I'. * layout='generic' writes six columns headed with V2's own domain names, for tool='Generic'. The headings are then right, but robvis relabels the judgements into ROB1's vocabulary — Moderate becomes "Some concerns", Serious becomes "High". Prefer 'robins_i'. Neither layout can carry 'Low, except for concerns about uncontrolled confounding': robvis reduces every cell to its first initial over a five-fill palette, so it collapses to Low whatever string is written. Say so in the figure caption.
Substack MCP Server tools 27
create_draft_postcreate a draft post on your Substack account.set_post_bodyreplace the body of a draft with a Substack document. This is the only way to write structured content — headings, lists, links, code blocks, images, buttons and a paywall. Create the draft first with create_draft_post, then call this with its id. The result reports how many nodes of each type were stored, so a caller can confirm that what it asked for is there. An image must already be hosted by Substack: this cannot upload one.upload_imageHost an image on your Substack publication and get back a Substack URL — the one thing image2.src in set_post_body and cover_image in update_draft will actually render. The source is either an http(s) URL, which the server downloads and re-hosts, or `path`, an absolute path to a local file on the machine running this server, which is read straight from disk: use that for an image you generated or edited locally, with no need to publish it anywhere first. Private and loopback hosts are refused, HEIC is not accepted, max 10 MB.list_subscribersList and filter the subscribers of your Substack publication. Supports the same 48 columns and operators as the Subscribers dashboard, combined with AND, plus free-text search, sorting and pagination. Returns `count`, the total matching the filters regardless of `limit`, so a call with limit 1 is a cheap way to size a segment. Engagement columns (email opens, post views, comments, shares, activity rating) can be filtered on here but are not part of the records this tool returns — use export_subscribers to read their values.export_subscribersExport subscribers with their full column values, including the engagement metrics list_subscribers can filter on but not return: email opens over 7d/30d/6mo, unique emails seen, post views, unique posts seen, comments, shares, links clicked, days active and activity rating. Takes the same filters as list_subscribers and covers the whole matching set — there is no paging. Substack generates the file asynchronously, so this waits for it and returns the parsed records. One column cannot be exported and is reported in `missing_columns` rather than failing: tag_ids.list_postsList the posts of your Substack publication: drafts, published posts or scheduled posts. Supports free-text search, pagination and sort direction. Each post is returned as a summary; use get_draft for the full content of an unpublished one.get_draftRead one draft post of your Substack publication in full, including its body and its audience and email settings. Take the id from list_posts or create_draft_post.update_draftChange an existing draft's title, subtitle or any of its Post settings: audience, who may comment, comment order, cover image, social preview title and description, SEO title and description, and URL slug. The update is partial: only the fields you pass change, everything else — including the body — is left alone. A cover_image not already hosted by Substack is downloaded and re-hosted first. Take the id from list_posts or create_draft_post.publish_draftPublish a draft. The post goes live on the web; `send` additionally emails it to subscribers and defaults to false, because an email cannot be recalled. Publishing cannot be undone from this server — there is no unpublish tool.delete_draftDelete an unpublished draft. Refuses if the id belongs to a published post: Substack deletes both through the same endpoint, and removing a live post is irreversible, so that is left to the dashboard.get_publicationRead the settings and identity of your Substack publication: name, subdomain, custom domain, hero text, copyright, sender name, logo, plans and payment state. Returns a projection by default; pass full: true for all 111 fields.get_user_profileRead the account behind the session: id, handle, name, bio, and every publication you have a role on. This is how to discover which publications the session can reach, beyond the one SUBSTACK_PUBLICATION_URL points at.- +15 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
ROBINS I V2 MCP
{
"mcpServers": {
"robins-i-v2-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"robins-i-mcp"
]
}
}
}
Substack MCP Server
{
"mcpServers": {
"substack-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"substack-mcp@latest"
],
"env": {
"SUBSTACK_PUBLICATION_URL": "YOUR_SUBSTACK_PUBLICATION_URL_HERE",
"SUBSTACK_SESSION_TOKEN": "YOUR_SUBSTACK_SESSION_TOKEN_HERE",
"SUBSTACK_USER_ID": "YOUR_SUBSTACK_USER_ID_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
ROBINS I V2 MCP is categorized under Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Substack MCP Server belongs to Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick ROBINS I V2 MCP for developer tools work and Substack MCP Server for developer tools.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
ROBINS I V2 MCP has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Substack MCP Server has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add robins-i-v2-mcp and substack-mcp-server as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, ROBINS I V2 MCP has a quality signal of 55/100 (Good) with 1 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. Substack MCP Server has 67/100 (Great) with 2 views, 0 installs and 87 GitHub stars.