Ask the question. MESA finds the data.
MESA — the Multidisciplinary Environment for Scientific Advancement — is an open-source, agentic AI platform that connects scientific data through curated, indexed metadata. A data lakehouse, a federated data mesh, and AI agents that speak both, running on national research infrastructure today.
01
User interface
Laptop · Desktop · K8s container
02
Agentic AI
MCP · RAG · Agents · Reasoning · Sandboxing
03
Data management
Data Lakehouse (DuckLake) · Data Mesh (iRODS)
04
Compute
CyVerse · TACC · ACCESS-CI · NAIRR
05
Object storage
S3 · OSN · VAST · Lustre
01
Open-source data lakehouse
Analytical tables over open formats — DuckLake, Apache Iceberg, Parquet — with time-travel versioning built in. Query five petabytes like a database, and rewind any table to the state it held when the paper was submitted.
02
Federated iRODS data mesh
One policy engine across the CyVerse Data Store and its federated peers, with CILogon, Globus Auth, and ORCID handling identity. The lakehouse and the mesh interoperate — your data stays where it lives, and still shows up where you work.
03
Agentic AI orchestration
Self-hosted LLM serving on vLLM, RAG pipelines over curated metadata, and an MCP server framework with sandboxed, multi-agent orchestration. Agents that find, describe, and move scientific data — with the guardrails written first.
One line. Four servers. No credentials required.
MESA is not a promise — the MCP stack is public and installs now. One command clones, builds, and registers four CyVerse servers in Claude Code; anonymous public access to the Data Store works out of the box.
| Server | Language | Role |
|---|---|---|
| mesa-mcp | Python | iRODS Data Store + OBO/OLS ontology metadata, DataCite, DuckLake history |
| mesa-ducklake | Python | AVU metadata-history library backing mesa-mcp |
| irods-mcp-server | Go | Reference iRODS Data Store server |
| formation-mcp | Go | CyVerse Discovery Environment — launch apps, manage analyses |
Featured connectors. Nothing to install.
The Data Store and Discovery Environment servers also run hosted, as remote MCP connectors — no local build, no toolchain. In Claude Desktop or claude.ai, open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, name the connector, paste its endpoint URL, and authenticate when prompted. A connector added to your claude.ai organization follows you everywhere Claude runs: Claude Desktop, claude.ai, and Claude Code on the web.
| Connector | Server | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| cyverse-irods-shared | irods-mcp-server | CyVerse Data Store — public collections under /iplant/home/shared, anonymous read |
| cyverse-formation | formation-mcp | Discovery Environment — browse data, launch apps, track analyses |
Claude Code registers the same endpoints from the terminal:
Swap in the current endpoint URLs from the docs, which also cover credentialed access, running either server locally in Claude Desktop via claude_desktop_config.json, and self-hosting the endpoints.
Tyson L. Swetnam, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator · UNM
Arthur B. Maccabe, Ph.D.
Co-PI · Arizona site lead
David Ebert, Ph.D.
Co-PI · Chief AI & Data Science Officer · Arizona
Lei Cao, Ph.D.
Co-PI · Lakehouse lead · Arizona
Terrell Russell, Ph.D.
Co-PI · Data Mesh Lead · RENCI Site Lead
Illyoung Choi, Ph.D.
Research Software Engineer · Arizona
Kory Draughn
Chief Technologist · RENCI
Alan King
Senior Software Developer · RENCI
Justin James
Applications Engineer · RENCI
Sarah Roberts
Research Software Engineer · Arizona
Tony Edgin
Data Curator · Arizona
Edwin Skidmore
Cloud Orchestration / Infrastructure · CyVerse
Greg Chism, Ph.D.
EOT Lead · Senior Personnel · Arizona
Jingdi Chen, Ph.D.
5G/6G Networking · Arizona
CK Chan, Ph.D.
Astronomer · Arizona
Wolfgang Jentner, Ph.D.
Human-Computer Interaction · Arizona
Junjia Guo
PhD Student · Arizona
Pengxin Wang
PhD Student · Arizona
Junyong Zhao
PhD Student · Arizona
Linan Zheng
PhD Student · Arizona
MESA kicks off with NSF IDSS, July 2026.
The project team convenes with the NSF Integrated Data Systems & Services program for the MESA kick-off meeting — the University of New Mexico, the University of Arizona, and UNC-CH/RENCI, setting the two-year prototype baseline in motion.
Creating new simulations of black holes, with OpenAI.
Co-investigator CK Chan, Ph.D. worked with OpenAI on creating new simulations of black holes — a look at agentic coding against Event Horizon Telescope science.