Pubcrawl

🚀 PubCrawl

An MCP server that provides LLM clients access to PubMed, FDA drug labelling, UK medicines data, and ClinicalTrials.gov. It's like a peer-reviewed pub crawl through the literature, the label, and the trial.

Built by PharmaTools.AI.

✨ Features

Literature

Drug Labelling

Clinical Trials

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.)

Install via npm

npm install -g @pharmatools/pubcrawl

Configure Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json: macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pubcrawl": {
      "command": "pubcrawl"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. PubCrawl will appear under + → Connectors.

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/nickjlamb/pubcrawl.git
cd pubcrawl
npm install
npm run build

Then point the config at the built file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pubcrawl": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/pubcrawl/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

NCBI API key (optional)

Without an API key, requests are rate-limited to 3/second. With one, you get 10/second.

1. Create a free NCBI account at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/
2. Go to Account Settings → API Key Management
3. Add the key to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pubcrawl": {
      "command": "pubcrawl",
      "env": {
        "NCBI_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

💻 Usage Examples

Basic Usage

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "Search PubMed for recent clinical trials on semaglutide"
• "Get the abstract for PMID 38127654"
• "Find papers related to this one and format citations in APA"
• "What are the trending papers on CRISPR gene therapy this month?"
• "Get the full text of that paper from PMC"
• "Get the FDA prescribing information for metformin — just the indications and warnings"
• "Pull the UK SmPC for atorvastatin"
• "Compare US and UK labelling for lisinopril"
• "What drugs are approved for type 2 diabetes?"
• "Find recruiting Phase 3 trials for pembrolizumab in breast cancer"
• "Get details on clinical trial NCT03086486"

🚧 Development

npm run dev    # TypeScript watch mode
npm run build  # Compile to dist/
npm start      # Run the server

📄 License

MIT