Quickstart¶

This walks through a first session in Claude Code¹; other clients work the same way once connected (Clients).

1. Register the server¶

claude mcp add neon -s user -e NEON_TOKEN="$NEON_TOKEN" -- neon-mcp --transport stdio

Leave out -e NEON_TOKEN=… to start without a token; everything except file listing, downloads and sample views works anonymously.

2. Check it¶

Ask the agent to "call neon_ping". The result shows the version, protocol 2026-07-28, whether a token is configured and whether downloads are enabled.

3. Five calls from question to citation¶

The agent normally chains these on its own; the arguments below are what it sends. Results are abbreviated.

1. Find the product

   {"tool": "neon_search_products", "arguments": {"query": "breeding bird point counts"}}
   

   → DP1.10003.001 Breeding landbird point counts, with nextSteps suggesting neon_get_availability(product='DP1.10003.001').

2. Check availability (no token)

   {"tool": "neon_get_availability", "arguments": {"product": "DP1.10003.001", "domain_code": "D01"}}
   

   → one row per site in domain D01 with month ranges such as "2015-05/2024-06", split by release in byRelease (PROVISIONAL months included and counted in notes).

3. List the files (token)

   {"tool": "neon_list_files", "arguments": {"product": "DP1.10003.001", "site_codes": ["Harvard Forest"], "start_month": "2023-06", "kind": "data"}}
   

   → resolved: [{"input": "Harvard Forest", "code": "HARV", ...}] and the brd_countdata, brd_perpoint … CSVs with sizes, MD5s and signed URLs valid for about 7 days.

4. Download (stdio)

   {"tool": "neon_download_files", "arguments": {"product": "DP1.10003.001", "site_codes": ["HARV"], "start_month": "2023-06", "kind": "data"}}
   

   → files under ~/neon-downloads/DP1.10003.001/HARV/2023-06/, MD5-verified, with a pandas.read_csv(...) hint.

5. Cite

   {"tool": "neon_get_citation", "arguments": {"product": "DP1.10003.001"}}
   

   → NEON-format text and BibTeX with the newest release DOI.

The neon://guide/agent-workflow resource carries the same recipe for agents.