Amazon announced the launch of an open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server on Tuesday that allows AI assistants to locate and inspect datasets hosted on the Registry of Open Data on AWS.
The new MCP server establishes connections between AI tools such as Kiro and Claude Code and a catalog of more than 1,100 datasets contributed by over 400 organizations. The catalog includes collections across satellite imagery, life sciences, climate, and geospatial data from contributors named in the registry, including NASA, NOAA, NIH, and the Allen Institute.
The server is designed to accept natural language queries from researchers and other users, returning datasets, associated metadata, and short previews of the data. According to the description, users can search for specific datasets, examine dataset metadata and related resources, and preview Amazon S3 bucket structures and sample file contents before initiating more detailed analysis.
Functionally, the MCP server exposes three principal capabilities: discovery via natural language searches, exploration of dataset metadata and similar resources, and evaluation through previews of file structures and content samples. The announcement notes that the server can be integrated into MCP-compatible AI assistants using uv configuration commands, enabling the described discovery and preview features within those agents.
The project has been published on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, making the server code available for use and adaptation under that open-source license.
Technical and usage details
- The MCP server links AI assistants to the Registry of Open Data on AWS and its hosted datasets.
- Supported dataset types detailed in the registry include satellite imagery, life sciences data, climate information, and geospatial datasets.
- Preview functionality covers S3 bucket structures and content samples to inform whether deeper analysis is warranted.
Availability
The server's source code is available under an Apache 2.0 license on GitHub, allowing access to the repository and the ability to deploy or adapt the server according to that license.