Inaturalist MCP server

online · 100% uptime

by cyanheads·io.github.cyanheads/inaturalist-mcp-server·v0.3.2·1 stars

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Search iNaturalist sightings, identification threads, phenology, and look-alike species.

A93/100grade A

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A93/100

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Adoption

Growing

1 stars608 downloads/wk

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How Inaturalist compares

Against every graded Web search MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.

Safety score: 93/100; higher than 95% of 3,471 Web search servers
Uptime: 100%; of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%
Response time: 551 ms; faster than 30% of 2,238 Web search servers
GitHub stars: 1; more than 55% of 1,788 Web search servers
Downloads a week: 608; more than 88% of 837 Web search servers with a package

Release history: 7 versions in the registry since 2026-09-20, latest 2026-11-01, typically one every 6 days.

Install Inaturalist in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code

claude mcp add --transport http inaturalist-mcp-server https://inaturalist.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Add to Cursor

What the publisher says

From the Inaturalist repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub

@cyanheads/inaturalist-mcp-server Search wildlife sightings, read identification threads, rank species by area, chart phenology, and find look-alike taxa from iNaturalist via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP. 10 Tools • 2 Resources

Public Hosted Server: https://inaturalist.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Overview

iNaturalist's index of 380M+ georeferenced citizen-science observations of plants, animals, and fungi. Search sightings by area, date, taxon, and annotation; read the community identification thread behind a record; chart when a taxon appears in a place; rank the species of an area; and check what a look-alike is most often confused with. Keyless and read-only, running as a stdio process, a local Streamable HTTP server, or the public hosted endpoint above.

Composes with servers covering institutional specimen records, botanical nomenclature, and geocoding — this one contributes the observation, identification-thread, and phenology layer.

Tools

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.

Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.

Inaturalist: common questions

Is Inaturalist MCP server safe?: Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (93/100). Read the Inaturalist safety report
How do I install Inaturalist?: It runs remotely at inaturalist.caseyjhand.com. Add it to Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop with the snippets above, or call it through the mcp.market gateway without installing anything.
Does Inaturalist need an API key?: No secret keys are declared. It reads 17 settings from the environment.
Is Inaturalist maintained?: The last commit was 28 days ago (2026-10-08). The latest release is v0.3.2.
Is Inaturalist up?: 100% of our last 28 checks got an answer. We check remote servers about four times a day.
How does Inaturalist compare with other Web search MCP servers?: safety score 93/100 (higher than 95% of 3,471 Web search servers); uptime 100% (of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%); response time 551 ms (faster than 30% of 2,238 Web search servers). Full comparison.

Run it through the gateway

With the gateway added, ask your agent for it by name:

agent prompt

call io.github.cyanheads/inaturalist-mcp-server → <tool>

Free per call. Metered, capped by your key, logged for reliability.

Add the gateway (gw.mcp.market)

Rating: —
Safety grade: A · 93/100
Stars: 1
Downloads/wk: 608
Price: Free
Licence: Apache-2.0
Transport: Remote · mixed
Uptime: 100% · 28/28 checks
Version: 0.3.2
Category: Web search
Last release: 2026-10-08

Credentials it needs

MCP_LOG_LEVELSets the minimum log level for output (e.g., 'debug', 'info', 'warn').
INATURALIST_CLAMP_LIMITSClamp oversized read limits and radius (20,040 km), and defer oversized by-id batches. Set false to restore strict rejection, including radius above 500 km.
INATURALIST_USER_AGENTUser-Agent sent on every request to api.inaturalist.org. Defaults to the package name, its version, and the repository URL. Keep a contact URL in any override — the published terms ask for identifiable clients.
INATURALIST_MIN_REQUEST_INTERVAL_MSMinimum spacing between outbound request starts, in milliseconds. The default holds the sustained rate near 54 requests per minute, under the 60 the upstream asks for and well under its 100 ceiling.
INATURALIST_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQUESTSMaximum outbound requests in flight. Separate from the start interval: spacing bounds the sustained rate, this bounds the burst so one slow call does not stall the lane.
INATURALIST_DAILY_REQUEST_BUDGETOutbound requests allowed per UTC day, counted in-process. The default sits under the 10,000 per day the upstream asks for, and exhaustion fails loudly rather than degrading silently. The counter is per process and resets on restart.
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPESelects the HTTP transport.
MCP_HTTP_HOSTThe hostname for the HTTP server.
MCP_HTTP_PORTThe port to run the HTTP server on.
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATHThe endpoint path for the MCP server.
MCP_AUTH_MODEAuthentication mode to use: 'none', 'jwt', or 'oauth'.
MCP_LOG_LEVELSets the minimum log level for output (e.g., 'debug', 'info', 'warn').
INATURALIST_CLAMP_LIMITSClamp oversized read limits and radius (20,040 km), and defer oversized by-id batches. Set false to restore strict rejection, including radius above 500 km.
INATURALIST_USER_AGENTUser-Agent sent on every request to api.inaturalist.org. Defaults to the package name, its version, and the repository URL. Keep a contact URL in any override — the published terms ask for identifiable clients.
INATURALIST_MIN_REQUEST_INTERVAL_MSMinimum spacing between outbound request starts, in milliseconds. The default holds the sustained rate near 54 requests per minute, under the 60 the upstream asks for and well under its 100 ceiling.
INATURALIST_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQUESTSMaximum outbound requests in flight. Separate from the start interval: spacing bounds the sustained rate, this bounds the burst so one slow call does not stall the lane.
INATURALIST_DAILY_REQUEST_BUDGETOutbound requests allowed per UTC day, counted in-process. The default sits under the 10,000 per day the upstream asks for, and exhaustion fails loudly rather than degrading silently. The counter is per process and resets on restart.

Endpoint

https://inaturalist.caseyjhand.com/mcp

streamable-http

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