A side-by-side look at the Usgs Mineral Commodities and Usgs Water MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Usgs Mineral Commodities for environment & nature work as a local process; choose Usgs Water for environment & nature as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
current_conditions, daily_values, find_sites.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Environment & Nature | Environment & Nature |
| Quality signal | 44/100 · Fair | 52/100 · Good |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | No auth required | Not declared |
| Pricing | Free | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | Not listed | 3 |
| Full listing | View Usgs Mineral Commodities | View Usgs Water |
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
current_conditionsLatest instantaneous (real-time) readings for one or more USGS gauge sites. Returns the most recent value per site × parameter — e.g. current streamflow and gage height for a river. Common parameter codes: 00060 = discharge/streamflow (ft³/s), 00065 = gage height (ft), 00010 = water temperature (°C…daily_valuesDaily-values time series for a single USGS site + parameter over a date range. Returns one statistic per day (default mean). Useful for trends, hydrographs, and historical comparison. Common statCd: 00003 = mean, 00001 = max, 00002 = min. Common parameter codes: 00060 = discharge (ft³/s), 00065 = g…find_sitesDiscover active USGS gauge sites in a US state that are currently reporting a given parameter (real-time). Returns sites with their latest reading; useful for finding which gauges are live in a region. Can match many sites, so results are capped. Keyless.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.
{
"mcpServers": {
"usgs-mineral-commodities": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-usgs-mineral-commodities"
]
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"usgs-water": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-usgs-water"
]
}
}
}