Open Waters AIS

Name: Open Waters AIS
Author: openwatersio

by openwatersioversion 0.18.0i★ –iRuns in the cloud

Registry nameio.openwaters/ais

Install

Overview

Description from the maker (original English)

Live AIS vessel positions by MMSI, name, area, or radius, plus coverage. No sign-in, no key.

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

These three are never merged into one score: opinions, measurements and popularity are different things.

User voiceiNo reviews yetReviews open together with accounts in a later step
Our basic checksi1 of 1 passedChecked from public information; code not scanned yet
UsageiNot measured yet★ –

What you can do with it

We have not written a plain-language summary for this one yet. Below are the facts we read from the registry.

Connection: Runs in the cloud
Transport: Streamable HTTP
Category: Other

Install

Pick the AI app you use, then copy the settings.

Before you install

Basic checks: 1 of 1 passed
Runs on the maker’s server: what you ask it goes through their server.
The registry lists no key to fill in.

You need

Runs in the cloudNothing to install; it connects over the internet

Which app do you use?

ClaudeClaude CodeCursorVS CodeChatGPT

Pick your app above. We remember it, so next time the button says “Install in …”.

Works in Claude on the web, desktop and mobile:

Open Settings → Connectors
Press Add custom connector
Paste the address below and press Add
If it asks you to sign in, sign in with the maker

https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp

Run this in your terminal

claude mcp add --transport http ais https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp

Open in Cursor

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ais": {
      "url": "https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

Open in VS Code

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "ais": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

ChatGPT connects only to servers on the internet:

Open ChatGPT on the web → Settings → Connectors (Apps)
Press Create or Add (some plans need Developer mode under Advanced first)
Paste the address below, give it a name and save
If it asks you to sign in, sign in with the maker

https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp

Menu names can differ slightly by plan and over time.

Your choice stays on this device in a cookie; no account needed.

These settings are generated from the maker’s registry entry. If the README says otherwise, follow the README.

What it can do

We have not read this server’s tool list yet; we check endpoints in rotation.

Basic checksi

We check information anyone can see; we have not read the code. Checks that do not apply are left out of the count. · Checked Nov 6, 2026

✓ Pass
Maker matches the repo
The registry name was verified against the domain openwaters.io (the registry checks domain ownership)
… Not checked yet
Still maintained
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Has a licence
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Endpoint responds
Not checked yet; we check endpoints in rotation
… Not checked yet
Sign-in with OAuth
Not checked yet; we check endpoints in rotation
… Not checked yet
No hidden instructions in tool descriptions
Not checked yet; we read the tool list when we check the endpoint

Compared with others in Otheri

More stars than 0% of the other 32484 servers in this category
Published to the registry more recently than 72% of the other 32484 servers in this category
Basic checks equal to or better than 100% of the other 32484 servers in this category

Compared with every active server in this category in the registry. Stars count only when the publisher owns the repo.

Common questions

Is Open Waters AIS safe?

It passed 1 of 1 applicable basic checks. We have not read the code. Before adding a key or token, see what access the server asks for and use a key with only the permissions you need.

What keys or codes does it need?

The registry does not list a required key, though some servers ask you to sign in on first use.

Does it run on my computer or in the cloud?

It runs in the maker’s cloud. Connect over the internet with nothing to install, but what you send passes through the maker’s servers.

Is it still maintained?

The GitHub repo last changed –, and the latest version (0.18.0) reached the registry 14 days ago.

Which apps can use it?

Apps that support MCP, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. It connects by URL, so apps that accept remote MCP servers work too, such as ChatGPT in developer mode.

What can I use instead?

In the same category: Spec Driven Development, Remote Desktop Commander, Recta

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README from the maker

Open the README

Copied from the maker’s repo as written. PopNx MCP has not reviewed or endorsed it. HTML, images and scripts are removed. Links lead off this site.

aiscast

Live AIS vessel traffic, streamed by bounding box, from community networks, open government feeds, and volunteer receivers. Part of Open Waters. The public instance is ais.openwaters.io. A live map is at openwaters.io/ais/vessels.

This is a beta. There is no SLA. Coverage is uneven. The terms for re-serving some sources are still unsettled (see Coverage). Live status and uptime history are at status.openwaters.io.

Usage

aisstream.io clients. aiscast speaks aisstream.io's protocol on wss://ais.openwaters.io/v0/stream: the same subscribe message, the same MessageType / MetaData / Message frames. Change the hostname and use your aiscast token as the APIKey. Existing code keeps working: aisstream-ts, the official Go/Python/JS examples, and signalk-aisstream.

Native API (full reference).

wss://ais.openwaters.io/v1/stream: send {"type":"subscribe","bbox":[[minLat,minLon,maxLat,maxLon]]} or {"type":"subscribe","mmsi":[368168720]} (or both). Feeder and partner tokens can also follow vessels by IMO number with "imo":[9241061]. You receive one JSON event per decoded AIS message. Each event carries its source, station, receive time, raw sentence, and the decoded fields. Add "snapshot":true to get the last known messages for every vessel already tracked in the subscription first, then live traffic. Subscribing needs no token.
GET https://ais.openwaters.io/v1/vessels?bbox=minLat,minLon,maxLat,maxLon (or ?mmsi=a,b,c): GeoJSON of every vessel currently in view. Each vessel carries its last position, name, type, course, speed, heading, flag, and when and from where aiscast last heard it, plus IMO number, call sign, destination, ETA, draught, length, beam, and the AIS antenna's distances to bow, stern, port, and starboard once its static data has been heard. No token.
GET https://ais.openwaters.io/v1/stations: every source aiscast is hearing, with message counts and age.

AI assistants. https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with five read-only tools: vessels by MMSI, vessels in an area, vessels near a point or another vessel, search by name, and coverage. No sign-in. Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http open-waters-ais https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp. Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Cursor, and VS Code take the URL as a custom connector or mcp.json entry; setup for each is in the API reference. A token in an Authorization: Bearer header raises the anonymous limits.

Tokens. /v0/stream needs a token. A personal token is self-serve and never expires. Use the token page, or generate an Ed25519 keypair and POST https://ais.openwaters.io/v1/keys with {"pubkey":" "}, signed with that key as the API reference shows. The response is your token. It carries the personal tier: 2 streams, 50 messages/s, and a 20°×20° area. Feed data from the same token and it becomes a feeder token by itself.

Tiers and limits are in docs/limits.md. For more than the feeder tier, or for commercial use, write to hello@openwaters.io.

Events carry a source, so you can tell a live volunteer receiver from a government feed or an aggregate. synthesized: true marks messages that aiscast re-encoded from a non-NMEA source.

Contributing data

If you run an AIS receiver, send its data here. aiscast re-serves it to everyone, deduplicates it against the open feeds and every other station, and shares volunteer receptions with AISHub as part of our contribution to its community network. Only data received directly by volunteer stations goes to AISHub; public feeds and synthesized messages stay out. You are welcome to keep contributing to other networks too. The terms for contributing are the contributor agreement.

AIS-catcher (preferred: authenticated, realtime, works behind any NAT): get a token at openwaters.io/ais/token (one click, stays in your browser), then AIS-catcher ... -Q wssmqtt://x: @ais.openwaters.io:443/v1/stream MSGFORMAT NMEA. Each message is sent as it is decoded, over MQTT on the same WebSocket address the JSON stream uses. Your data appears as source: station: . Name your station on the token page; until you do, it is labeled by the town nearest the traffic it hears. AIS-catcher's HTTP output works too: -H https://ais.openwaters.io/v1/receive USERPWD x: GZIP on INTERVAL 5 posts a batch every five seconds under the same station.
UDP (no token): AIS-catcher -u udp.ais.openwaters.io 10110, docker-shipfeeder with host udp.ais.openwaters.io port 10110, or any NMEA forwarder sending plain !AIVDM / !AIVDO sentences (TAG blocks welcome). Your station appears as udp: , a keyed hash of your address, never the address itself. If a sender's !AIVDO sentences identify the vessel, aiscast keys the station by that MMSI instead.
Signal K: add a UDP target udp.ais.openwaters.io:10110 in ais-forwarder (forward AIVDM and AIVDO). Or install the signalk-aiscast plugin. It needs no token. It shares what your receiver hears, and your own position, taken from the transponder or built from Signal K when an AIS transponder is not available. It shows aiscast traffic when you have no receiver.

Your station page is https://openwaters.io/ais/stations/ , and the station list links every station. It shows the station's uptime, its messages per hour over the last week, the vessels it heard in the last day by type and how many no other station heard, and the cells it heard over the last week on the map. GET /v1/stations/{id} and /v1/coverage/tiles.json?station= return the same figures. Feeders get the deduplicated raw stream back on wss://ais.openwaters.io/v1/nmea.

Coverage

Source	Where	Freshness
Kystverket	Norwegian coast, 40–60 nm out	live
BarentsWatch	Norwegian EEZ, Svalbard, Jan Mayen (satellite + offshore receivers)	live
Fintraffic Digitraffic	Finnish waters	live
Volunteer receivers	wherever they are (Buzzards Bay / Vineyard Sound as of the first station)	live
AISHub aggregate	worldwide terrestrial, ~50k vessels	about a minute behind
aisstream.io	worldwide, when it is up	live, but frequently down

AISHub and its contributors make much of our worldwide terrestrial coverage possible. We contribute volunteer receptions in return and credit AISHub on every event from its aggregate.

/v1/stats reports each source's current delay from broadcast to arrival (delay.p50 and delay.p99, in seconds).

Every event names the source it came from. docs/policy.md lists the sources this project leaves out on purpose, and why.

Licensing and attribution

Licensing is per source. aiscast does not relicense the aggregate. aiscast re-serves each event under the terms of the source it came from. That is why source is on every event, every vessel, and every archived hour, and why every /v1 event carries a license tag and an attribution credit line. Every attribution opens with "Open Waters AIS (https://openwaters.io/ais/)"; sources with their own terms add their credit after it. If you display or redistribute the data, display the attribution message included with each event. /v1/vessels carries the same credits as a top-level attribution member on the feature collection, one entry per source present. The table below is the same information as reference.

Source	License	What you must do
Kystverket	NLOD 2.0	Credit: "Contains data under the Norwegian licence for Open Government data (NLOD) distributed by the Norwegian Coastal Administration." NLOD is not sublicensable, so it binds you directly.
BarentsWatch	NLOD per the BarentsWatch API terms	Credit: "Data delivered by BarentsWatch." It is the same AIS Norge data as Kystverket, so the Kystverket credit applies too.
Fintraffic Digitraffic	CC BY 4.0	Credit: "Source: Fintraffic / digitraffic.fi, license CC 4.0 BY."
Volunteer receivers	The contributor agreement dedicates receptions to the public domain under CC0 and publishes the aggregate under ODbL	Credit "Open Waters AIS (https://openwaters.io/ais/)". Individual receptions are CC0. The aggregate carries ODbL.
AISHub aggregate	AISHub terms and any applicable written agreement	Credit AISHub contributors and keep `source: aishub`. Reuse and redistribution must follow the applicable terms.
aisstream.io	no published terms	Best effort, may disappear. `source: aisstream`.
Wikidata particulars	CC0 1.0	Nothing. The `wikidata` object on `/v1/vessels/{mmsi}` and in MCP `get_vessels` says so with `license: CC0-1.0`. The Commons photos its `image` and `commons_category` link to carry their own licenses.

| US Coast Guard PSIX | Public domain (U.S. government work) | Nothi

Only the beginning is shown; read the rest in the repo

Open Waters AIS

Overview

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

What you can do with it

Install

Before you install

What it can do

Basic checksi

Maker matches the repo

Still maintained

Has a licence

Endpoint responds

Sign-in with OAuth

No hidden instructions in tool descriptions

Compared with others in Otheri

Common questions

Alternatives

Spec Driven Development

Remote Desktop Commander

Recta

README from the maker

aiscast

Usage

Contributing data

Coverage

Licensing and attribution