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Overview

Seven tools for searching, discovering, analyzing, and matching clinical trials:

Tool Name	Description
clinicaltrials_search_studies	Search studies with full-text queries, filters, pagination, sorting, and field selection.
clinicaltrials_get_study_record	Fetch a single study by NCT ID. Tool equivalent of the clinicaltrials://{nctId} resource.
clinicaltrials_get_study_count	Get total study count for a query without fetching data. Fast statistics and breakdowns.
clinicaltrials_get_field_values	Discover valid values for API fields (status, phase, study type, etc.) with per-value counts.
clinicaltrials_get_field_definitions	Browse the study data model field tree — piece names, types, nesting. Supports subtree navigation and keyword search.
clinicaltrials_get_study_results	Extract outcomes, adverse events, participant flow, and baseline from completed studies. Optional summary mode reduces ~200KB payloads to ~5KB.
clinicaltrials_find_eligible	Match patient demographics and conditions to eligible recruiting trials. Builds optimized queries from a patient profile and returns studies with eligibility/location fields.

Resource	Description
clinicaltrials://{nctId}	Fetch a single clinical study by NCT ID. Full JSON.

Prompt	Description
analyze_trial_landscape	Adaptable workflow for data-driven trial landscape analysis using count + search tools.

Tools

clinicaltrials_search_studies

Primary search tool with full ClinicalTrials.gov query capabilities.

• Full-text and field-specific queries (condition, intervention, sponsor, location, title, outcome)
• Status and phase filters with typed enum values
• Geographic proximity filtering by coordinates and distance
• Advanced AREA[] Essie expression support for complex queries
• Field selection to reduce payload size (full records are ~70KB each)
• Pagination with cursor tokens, sorting by any field

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clinicaltrials_get_study_results

Fetch posted results data for completed studies.

• Outcome measures with statistics, adverse events, participant flow, baseline characteristics
• Section-level filtering (request only the data you need)
• Optional summary mode condenses full results (~200KB) to essential metadata (~5KB per study)
• Batch multiple NCT IDs per call with partial-success reporting
• Separate tracking of studies without results and fetch errors

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clinicaltrials_find_eligible

Match a patient profile to eligible recruiting trials.

• Takes age, sex, conditions, and location as patient demographics
• Builds optimized API queries with demographic filters (age range, sex, healthy volunteers)
• Returns studies with eligibility and location fields for the caller to evaluate
• Provides actionable hints when no studies match (broaden conditions, adjust filters)

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

• Declarative tool/resource/prompt definitions with Zod schemas and format functions
• Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches and classifies
• Dual transport: stdio and Streamable HTTP from the same codebase
• Pluggable auth (none, jwt, oauth) for HTTP transport
• Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing

ClinicalTrials.gov-specific:

• Type-safe client for the ClinicalTrials.gov REST API v2
• Public API — no authentication or API keys required
• Retry with exponential backoff (3 attempts) and rate limiting (~1 req/sec)
• HTML error detection and structured error factories

Getting Started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://clinicaltrials.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. Point any MCP client at it via Streamable HTTP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://clinicaltrials.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosted / Local

Add to your MCP client config (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or for Streamable HTTP:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http
MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.2.0 or higher (or Node.js >= 22.0.0)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server.git
   

2. Navigate into the directory:

   cd clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server
   

3. Install dependencies:

   bun install
   

Configuration

All configuration is optional — the server works with defaults and no API keys.

Variable	Description	Default
CT_API_BASE_URL	ClinicalTrials.gov API base URL.	https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2
CT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS	Per-request timeout in milliseconds.	30000
CT_MAX_PAGE_SIZE	Maximum page size cap.	200
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http.	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	Port for HTTP server.	3010
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth.	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (RFC 5424).	info
LOGS_DIR	Directory for log files (Node.js only).	<project-root>/logs
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry tracing.	false

Running the Server

Local Development

• Build and run the production version:

  bun run build
  bun run start:http   # or start:stdio
  

• Run in dev mode (with watch):

  bun run dev:http     # or dev:stdio
  

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck     # Lints, formats, type-checks
  bun run test         # Runs test suite
  

Docker

docker build -t clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server .
docker run -p 3010:3010 clinicaltrialsgov-mcp-server

Project Structure

Directory	Purpose
src/mcp-server/tools/	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts).
src/mcp-server/resources/	Resource definitions (*.resource.ts).
src/mcp-server/prompts/	Prompt definitions (*.prompt.ts).
src/services/clinical-trials/	ClinicalTrials.gov API client and types.
src/config/	Environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
tests/	Unit and integration tests.

Development Guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, no console calls
• Register new tools and resources in the index.ts barrel files

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.