OpenTargets

The Unofficial Open Targets MCP Server provides a set of GraphQL-backed data access tools for Open Targets platform data, exposing search, association, and detail queries through the MCP Protocol. It includes utilities to search targets and diseases, retrieve target-disease associations with evidence scores, obtain disease-target summaries, and fetch detailed information for targets and diseases. The server is built with TypeScript, uses GraphQL under the hood, and communicates via JSON-RPC in MCP-friendly payloads so clients can easily integrate into their workflows. You can query for targets by gene symbol, search diseases by name or synonym, fetch association evidence, and drill into detailed target or disease entries as part of your research pipelines.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (recommended LTS) and npm installed
• Access to the repository or a built package for the MCP server

1. Install dependencies and build

npm install
npm run build

2. Run the server

# Start the MCP server (ensure the path points to your built entry)
node build/index.js

3. Verify availability

• If configured, send an MCP JSON-RPC request to the server’s endpoint and confirm responses for the available methods (e.g., search_targets, search_diseases, get_target_disease_associations).

Notes:

• The server relies on the Open Targets API; ensure outbound HTTP access is permitted.
• If you deploy behind a reverse proxy, map the appropriate port and path for MCP clients.

Tips and common issues:

• Ensure you have a stable internet connection since many MCP calls fetch data from the Open Targets API.
• If you encounter rate-limiting from the Open Targets API, consider staggering requests or caching results locally.
• No authentication is required for Open Targets API access according to the documented info; if you add API keys or tokens later, document them in the env section.
• Typical environment variables you might add later include OPENTARGETS_API_HOST, REQUEST_TIMEOUT, and LOG_LEVEL to tune behavior and observability.
• Verify that your MCP client is using the correct command and path (as shown in mcp_config) to run the server.