GW MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server providing tools to query Gravitational Wave (GW) data from GraceDB and GWOSC.

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) allows AI assistants like Claude to use external tools. This server gives Claude the ability to query gravitational wave databases in real-time, so you can ask questions about GW events in natural language.

Sample Questions

Once connected, you can ask Claude questions like:

• "What was the GPS time of GW150914?"
• "Show me all events in the GWTC-3 catalog"
• "Get strain data from the Hanford detector around GW150914"
• "Search for gravitational wave events with FAR less than 1e-10"
• "What files are available for a specific GraceDB event?"

Example

Access Levels

Source	Public Access	Authenticated Access
GWOSC	Full (strain data, catalogs)	N/A
GraceDB	Released events only	Full access to current observing run
GCN Kafka	No	Requires NASA Earthdata credentials

This server works out-of-the-box with public data only.

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Installation

Step 1: Create Conda Environment

Create new conda environment with Python 3.11

conda create -n opticsGPT python=3.11 -y

Activate the environment

conda activate opticsGPT

Step 2: Install Dependencies

cd C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\OpticsGPT\GW_MCP

Install from requirements.txt

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 3: Verify Installation

Test GWOSC (should print GPS time)

python -c "from gwosc.datasets import event_gps; print('GW150914 GPS:', event_gps('GW150914'))"

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Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

Or create the file

{ "mcpServers": { "GW-Data": { "command": "C:/Users/Asus/anaconda3/envs/mcp/python.exe", "args": ["C:/Users/Asus/Desktop/GW_MCP/server.py"] } } }

WARNING: You must update the paths below to match your system. Change:

• The Python executable path to your conda environment location
• The server.py path to where you cloned this repository

Find your Python path with: conda activate mcp && where python

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Using with Other LLMs and Frameworks

LangChain Integration

You can use this MCP server with LangChain using the langchain-mcp-adapters package:

pip install langchain-mcp-adapters

from langchain_mcp_adapters.client import MCPClient from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI

Connect to the MCP server

client = MCPClient( command="python", args=["path/to/GW_MCP/server.py"] )

Get tools from MCP server

tools = client.get_tools()

Use with any LangChain-compatible LLM

llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-4") llm_with_tools = llm.bind_tools(tools)

Open Source LLMs

For open source LLMs (Ollama, LMStudio, etc.), you can:

1. Use MCP-compatible clients: Some open source projects like MCP CLI support connecting MCP servers to local LLMs.
2. Direct function calling: Import the service classes directly in your Python code:

from services.gracedb_service import get_gracedb_service from services.gwosc_service import get_gwosc_service

Use services directly

gwosc = get_gwosc_service() gps_time = gwosc.get_event_gps("GW150914") print(f"GPS time: {gps_time}")

1. Build a REST API: Wrap the services in a FastAPI/Flask server for any LLM that supports function calling via HTTP.

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Available Tools

Tool	Source	Description
search_gw_events	GraceDB	Search events by FAR, GPS time, pipeline
get_event_details	GraceDB	Get full metadata for an event
get_superevent	GraceDB	Get superevent information
get_event_files	GraceDB	List files (skymaps, PSD, etc.)
get_event_labels	GraceDB	Get event labels (DQV, PE_READY, etc.)
get_event_gps	GWOSC	Get GPS time for named event (GW150914, etc.)
get_catalog_events	GWOSC	Query GWTC-1/2/3 catalogs
fetch_strain_data	GWOSC	Get strain time-series by GPS range
fetch_event_strain	GWOSC	Get strain centered on a named event

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For LIGO/Virgo Collaboration Members

If you have LIGO credentials, you can access real-time alerts from the current observing run.

How GraceDB Authentication Works

By default, the ligo-gracedb client searches for credentials in this order:

1. SciToken at /tmp/bt_u${UID} or SCITOKEN_FILE environment variable
2. X.509 credentials from the cred parameter (cert/key pair or proxy file)
3. Environment variables: X509_USER_CERT + X509_USER_KEY
4. Environment variable: X509_USER_PROXY
5. Proxy from ligo-proxy-init: /tmp/x509up_u${UID}
6. Default location: ~/.globus/usercert.pem and ~/.globus/userkey.pem
7. No credentials (public access only)

Option 1: Using Environment Variables (Recommended)

Set these before running the MCP server:

For SciToken

export SCITOKEN_FILE=/path/to/your/scitoken

OR for X.509 certificate

export X509_USER_CERT=/path/to/usercert.pem export X509_USER_KEY=/path/to/userkey.pem

OR for proxy file

export X509_USER_PROXY=/tmp/x509up_u${UID}

Option 2: Modify the Service Code

Edit src/gw_mcp_server/services/gracedb_service.py:

For X.509 cert/key pair:

self._client = GraceDb( cred=('/path/to/cert.pem', '/path/to/key.pem') )

For combined proxy file:

self._client = GraceDb( cred='/path/to/proxy.pem' )

To explicitly use only SciToken:

self._client = GraceDb(use_auth='scitoken')

To explicitly use only X.509:

self._client = GraceDb(use_auth='x509')

Option 3: Force Public Access Only

If you want to explicitly disable authentication attempts:

self._client = GraceDb(force_noauth=True)

Getting Credentials

1. ligo-proxy-init: Run ligo-proxy-init to create a short-lived proxy from your certificate
2. htgettoken: Use htgettoken to obtain a SciToken
3. CILogon: Get certificates from https://cilogon.org

Test Your Authentication

from ligo.gracedb.rest import GraceDb

client = GraceDb() client.show_credentials() # Prints auth type and info

Test access to current run superevents

try: for se in client.superevents('category: Production', max_results=5): print(se['superevent_id']) except Exception as e: print(f"Auth required: {e}")

Useful GraceDb Client Options

GraceDb( service_url='https://gracedb.ligo.org/api/', # Production server # service_url='https://gracedb-playground.ligo.org/api/', # Test server cred=None, # Path to credentials force_noauth=False, # Skip credential lookup fail_if_noauth=False, # Fail if no credentials found reload_cred=False, # Auto-reload expiring credentials reload_buffer=300, # Seconds before expiry to reload use_auth='all', # 'all', 'scitoken', or 'x509' retries=5, # Max retries on server error )

For full documentation: https://ligo-gracedb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

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Data Sources

Source	URL	Auth Required
GWOSC	https://gwosc.org	No
GraceDB	https://gracedb.ligo.org	For current run
GCN	https://gcn.nasa.gov	Yes (Earthdata)

Citation

If you use this software in your research, please cite:

@software{gw_mcp, title={GW MCP Server: Gravitational Wave Data Access for AI Agents}, author={Adam Zacharia Anil}, year={2025}, url={https://github.com/adamzacharia/GW_MCP} }

License

MIT