Altmetric MCP

Altmetric MCP Server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI agents to access Altmetric APIs for tracking the attention and reach of research outputs across news outlets, policy documents, social media, and other online platforms.

Altmetric monitors where research is being discussed beyond traditional academic citations - from mainstream media coverage to policy citations, patent references, and social media engagement - providing a comprehensive view of real-world research impact.

There are two ways to connect:

• Hosted server (recommended) - point your AI client at https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp and sign in with your Altmetric account. No API keys to copy or store, and you automatically get the tools for whatever you have access to (Explorer, Details Page, or both). Start here.
• Run locally - run the server on your own machine with your own API keys, over stdio. For offline use or when you'd rather manage keys directly. See *Run locally with your own API keys* below.

What access you need

The server works with access to either one of Altmetric's APIs on its own - the Details Page API or the Explorer API - and gives you the tools for whichever you have. To get the full potential of Altmetric, having both is strongly recommended, because they answer different questions:

• Details Page API - the attention for a specific research output, looked up by identifier (DOI, PubMed ID, etc.), and a search of recent attention by timeframe.
• Explorer API - searching, filtering and aggregating research outputs, mentions, audience demographics and journals across the whole Altmetric database, and across your own institution's outputs.

With only one, you get only that API's tools. See Tools for which tools come with each API, and request API access if you're missing one.

Connect to the hosted server (recommended)

The easiest way to use Altmetric in your AI client is the hosted server at https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp. Point your client at that URL and sign in with your Altmetric account when prompted - the client runs a standard OAuth flow in your browser, so there are no API keys to copy or store. You get exactly the tools your account has access to.

Claude Desktop

1. Open Settings → Customize → Connectors and click Add custom connector.
2. Name it Altmetric and enter the URL https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp.
3. Click Add, then Connect, and sign in when the browser window opens.

Verify by asking Claude: *"Use the Altmetric tools to look up the attention score for DOI 10.1038/nature12373"*

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http altmetric https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp

Then run /mcp inside Claude Code, select altmetric, and authenticate - a browser window opens for sign-in.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per project):

{

"mcpServers": { "Altmetric": { "url": "https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp" } } }

Cursor runs a browser sign-in the first time the server is used.

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code 1.101 or later):

{

"servers": { "Altmetric": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp" } } }

Open the Command Palette, run MCP: List Servers, select Altmetric, and start it; sign in when prompted.

ChatGPT

Open Settings → Connectors → Advanced and turn on Developer mode, then Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, enter https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp, and complete the OAuth sign-in. Requires a paid plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu); custom connectors aren't available on the free tier. All Altmetric tools are read-only, so the read-only restriction on Plus/Pro plans doesn't limit them.

Other MCP clients

Any client that supports the Streamable HTTP transport with OAuth can connect. Point it at https://mcp.altmetric.com/mcp. On the first request the server returns 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header pointing at its discovery document (/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource), which the client uses to run the OAuth flow against Altmetric Explorer automatically.

How sign-in works

The hosted server is an OAuth 2.1 resource server. Your client obtains a bearer token from Altmetric Explorer (the authorization server) for the mcp scope. The server exchanges that token for your account's entitlements and calls the Altmetric APIs on your behalf - your bearer token is never forwarded to those APIs. The advertised toolset reflects your entitlements, so you only ever see the tools for the products you can use.

Example prompts

Once connected, ask in plain language - your client picks the tool. Each of these exercises a different one:

You only see the tools your account is entitled to, so the Explorer prompts need institutional access. The full toolset is in Tools below.

Data sources and licensing

Every tool calls Altmetric's own APIs - the Details Page API and the Explorer API, both first-party Altmetric (Digital Science) services. The server proxies no third-party API and holds no third-party data of its own.

What those APIs return includes attention collected from third-party platforms under Altmetric's own agreements with them, and one of those agreements changes what comes back. Under Altmetric's licence with X (formerly Twitter), mentions from X carry numeric identifiers only: no account handle, display name or post text, at any tier and on either API. Counts, ids and aggregate demographics are available; named accounts are not. See X mentions and X data in Altmetric's APIs.

Every other source - news outlets, blogs, Bluesky, Reddit, podcasts, policy documents, patents - comes back named.

Run locally with your own API keys

Prefer to run the server yourself - offline, or managing API keys directly? Run it over stdio with npx.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20.6.0 or later - an actively-supported LTS release is recommended (download)
• Altmetric API credentials (at least one, both recommended - see *What access you need* above):
• Details Page API key - Free tier or commercial access
• Explorer API key + secret - Institutional access

Don't have keys yet? Request API access

Quick install (Claude Desktop on macOS)

Run the guided installer in Terminal - it checks Node.js, prompts for your API keys, and configures Claude Desktop automatically:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/altmetric/altmetric-mcp/main/install.sh)

Or if you've cloned the repo:

bash install.sh

Prefer to set things up manually? See the per-client instructions below.

Manual configuration

Configure your MCP client to run the server using npx. Include only the API credentials you have access to.

{

"type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "altmetric-mcp"], "env": { "ALTMETRIC_DETAILS_API_KEY": "your_details_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_KEY": "your_explorer_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_SECRET": "your_explorer_api_secret_here" } }

Claude Desktop

1. Open the configuration file at:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

On macOS you can open it from Terminal:

   mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude && open -a TextEdit ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

1. Add the Altmetric MCP server. If the file is empty, paste this (replacing the placeholder keys with your own, and removing any you don't have):

   {

"mcpServers": { "Altmetric": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "altmetric-mcp"], "env": { "ALTMETRIC_DETAILS_API_KEY": "your_details_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_KEY": "your_explorer_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_SECRET": "your_explorer_api_secret_here" } } } }

If the file already has content, add "Altmetric": { ... } inside the existing "mcpServers" block, separated by a comma from the other entries.

1. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q then reopen).

1. Verify by asking Claude: *"Use the Altmetric tools to look up the attention score for DOI 10.1038/nature12373"*

Claude Code

Install directly from the command line:

claude mcp add --transport stdio altmetric-mcp \

--env ALTMETRIC_DETAILS_API_KEY=your_details_api_key_here \ --env ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_KEY=your_explorer_api_key_here \ --env ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_SECRET=your_explorer_api_secret_here \ -- npx -y altmetric-mcp

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to your project .vscode/mcp.json:

{

"servers": { "Altmetric": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "altmetric-mcp"], "env": { "ALTMETRIC_DETAILS_API_KEY": "your_details_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_KEY": "your_explorer_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_SECRET": "your_explorer_api_secret_here" } } } }

Reload VS Code to apply the changes. More information.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{

"mcpServers": { "Altmetric": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "altmetric-mcp"], "env": { "ALTMETRIC_DETAILS_API_KEY": "your_details_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_KEY": "your_explorer_api_key_here", "ALTMETRIC_EXPLORER_API_SECRET": "your_explorer_api_secret_here" } } } }

Other MCP clients

Any MCP-compatible client that supports stdio transport can use this server. Use the generic configuration above, adapting it to your client's config format. The command is always npx with args ["-y", "altmetric-mcp"] plus the environment variables for your API keys.

Deploying the local server safely

The local server runs as a child process of the MCP host (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.). A few things are worth knowing before you wire it into a sensitive workflow.

What the server does

• Read-only proxy to two Altmetric HTTP APIs over outbound HTTPS. The one exception is an idempotent POST to the Explorer identifier_lists endpoint (create-or-find), used internally to scope an Explorer query to a supplied set of identifiers; it creates no user-visible state and is not destructive.
• No inbound network surface; no destructive operations.
• Treats upstream text as untrusted: scans for