@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server
Search USGS and EMSC seismic data — real-time feeds, event queries, and earthquake counts via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.
Public Hosted Server: https://earthquake.caseyjhand.com/mcp
Tools
4 tools for querying global earthquake data from USGS and EMSC:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
earthquake_get_feed | Fetch a USGS pre-computed real-time earthquake feed by magnitude tier and time window |
earthquake_search | Search earthquakes by time range, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER alert level, or felt reports |
earthquake_count | Count earthquakes matching filters without fetching full records |
earthquake_get_event | Fetch complete detail for a specific earthquake by USGS event ID |
earthquake_get_feed
Fetch a USGS pre-computed real-time earthquake feed by magnitude tier and time window.
- CDN-cached by USGS — faster and more available than the FDSN query API
- Five magnitude tiers:
all(microseisms),1.0,2.5,4.5, andsignificant(USGS-curated by magnitude, felt reports, and PAGER impact) - Four time windows:
hour,day,week,month - Returns event list with counts and the source feed URL
- Best for real-time "what's happening now" queries; use
earthquake_searchfor historical or filtered queries
earthquake_search
Search earthquakes by time range, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER alert level, or felt reports.
- Dual-source: USGS (global, richer metadata) or EMSC (European-Mediterranean, independent catalog for cross-verification)
- Full FDSN ComCat query API parameters: time range, magnitude, depth, location radius
- USGS-specific filters: PAGER alert level (
green/yellow/orange/red), DYFI felt reports count, significance score - Location-based queries: provide
latitude,longitude, andradius_kmtogether - Sort by time (newest first) or magnitude (largest first), ascending or descending
- Results capped at 20,000 events per query; use
earthquake_countfirst to gauge result size - USGS-specific filters are silently ignored when
source=emsc
earthquake_count
Count earthquakes matching filters without fetching full records.
- Lightweight alternative to
earthquake_searchfor statistical queries ("how many M5+ events in 2025?") - Same filter surface as
earthquake_search: time, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER, DYFI, significance - Returns
exceeds_limitflag when count exceeds 20,000 — signals that a full search would be truncated - USGS returns the
max_allowedcap (20,000); EMSC count endpoint does not expose this field (max_allowedwill be null)
earthquake_get_event
Fetch complete detail for a specific earthquake by USGS event ID.
- Returns the full USGS property set: felt reports count (DYFI), ShakeMap maximum intensity (MMI), PAGER alert level, tsunami flag, and magnitude type
- Event IDs appear in the
idfield ofearthquake_get_feedandearthquake_searchresults (e.g.us6000sznj,hv74966427) - USGS-only — EMSC events have no per-event detail endpoint
Resources
| Type | URI pattern | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Resource | earthquake://feed/{magnitude_tier}/{time_window} | USGS real-time earthquake feed as injectable context |
| Resource | earthquake://event/{event_id} | Full USGS earthquake event detail by ID as injectable context |
Features
Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:
- Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
- Unified error handling across all tools
- Pluggable auth (
none,jwt,oauth) - Swappable storage backends:
in-memory,filesystem,Supabase,Cloudflare KV/R2/D1 - Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
- Runs locally (stdio/HTTP) or on Cloudflare Workers from the same codebase
Earthquake-specific:
- Two independent data sources: USGS ComCat (global, full metadata) and EMSC SeismicPortal (European-Mediterranean, independent catalog)
- USGS real-time GeoJSON feeds (CDN-cached, fast availability) plus FDSN event query API
- EMSC FDSN-WS event and count endpoints
- No API key required — both USGS and EMSC are fully public
Agent-friendly output:
- Source attribution on every response (
usgs/emsc) so agents can reason about data provenance exceeds_limitflag on count responses surfaces truncation risk before a full search- USGS-specific fields (
alert_level,felt,mmi,tsunami) clearly labeled as USGS-only to prevent misattribution on EMSC results
Getting started
Public Hosted Instance
A public instance is available at https://earthquake.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. Point any MCP client at it via Streamable HTTP:
{
"mcpServers": {
"earthquake-mcp-server": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://earthquake.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Self-Hosted / Local
Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"earthquake-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "bunx",
"args": ["@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}
}
}
}
Or with npx (no Bun required):
{
"mcpServers": {
"earthquake-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}
}
}
}
Or with Docker:
{
"mcpServers": {
"earthquake-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "docker",
"args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server:latest"]
}
}
}
For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp
Prerequisites
- Bun v1.3.0 or higher.
- No API keys required — USGS and EMSC data is fully public.
Installation
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server.git
- Navigate into the directory:
cd earthquake-mcp-server
- Install dependencies:
bun install
Configuration
All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts. Key environment variables:
| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Transport: stdio or http | stdio |
MCP_HTTP_PORT | HTTP server port | 3010 |
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH | HTTP endpoint path where the MCP server is mounted | /mcp |
MCP_PUBLIC_URL | Public origin override for TLS-terminating reverse-proxy deployments | none |
MCP_AUTH_MODE | Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth | none |
MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Log level (debug, info, warning, error, etc.) | info |
MCP_GC_PRESSURE_INTERVAL_MS | Opt-in Bun-only forced-GC pressure loop (ms). Try 60000 if heap growth is observed under sustained HTTP load. | 0 (disabled) |
LOGS_DIR | Directory for log files (Node.js only) | <project-root>/logs |
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE | Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1 | in-memory |
USGS_BASE_URL | USGS API base URL. Override for testing or mirroring. | https://earthquake.usgs.gov |
EMSC_BASE_URL | EMSC API base URL. Override for testing or mirroring. | https://www.seismicportal.eu |
DEFAULT_LIMIT | Default result limit for earthquake_search | 100 |
REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS | HTTP timeout in milliseconds for upstream API calls | 10000 |
OTEL_ENABLED | Enable OpenTelemetry | false |
Running the server
Local development
-
Build and run the production version:
# One-time build bun run rebuild # Run the built server bun run start:http # or bun run start:stdio -
Run checks and tests:
bun run devcheck # Lints, formats, type-checks, and more bun run test # Runs the test suite
Project structure
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
src/mcp-server/tools | Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Four tools across USGS and EMSC. |
src/mcp-server/resources | Resource definitions. Feed and event resources. |
src/services/usgs | USGS ComCat service — GeoJSON feed fetcher and FDSN query API client. |
src/services/emsc | EMSC SeismicPortal service — FDSN event search and count endpoints. |
src/config | Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. |
tests/ | Unit and integration tests, mirroring the src/ structure. |
Development guide
See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:
- Handlers throw, framework catches — no
try/catchin tool logic - Use
ctx.logfor logging,ctx.statefor storage - Register new tools and resources in the
createApp()arrays
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:
bun run devcheck
bun run test
License
This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.