CORE MCP Server

CORE MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server for the CDISC CORE Rules Engine.

This MCP server is built with Python FastMCP.

Support CORE Rules Engine

• Validate clinical datasets (XPT, JSON, NDJSON, XLSX) against CDISC conformance rules
• Browse all 981+ validation rules with filtering by standard, authority, sensitivity
• Inspect individual rule details (conditions, actions, authority references)
• List supported standards, versions, and Controlled Terminology packages
• Manage engine updates from GitHub

Architecture

CORE MCP  ──→  CORE Rules Engine Cache + CLI  (rules, validation)

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.12 and UV installed on your device.
• A CDISC Library API key (needed to build the rules cache).

Installation

Step 1: Set up CDISC CORE Rules Engine

If you don't already have the CORE Rules Engine, clone it and build the rules cache:

git clone https://github.com/cdisc-org/cdisc-rules-engine.git
cd cdisc-rules-engine
pip install -r requirements.txt
python core.py update-cache --apikey YOUR_CDISC_LIBRARY_API_KEY

This downloads all validation rules and controlled terminology into a local cache. It only needs to be done once.

Step 2: Install CORE MCP Server

git clone https://github.com/kusy2009/core-mcp-server.git
cd core-mcp-server
uv sync

Set the path to your CORE Rules Engine as an environment variable:

export CORE_DIR=/path/to/cdisc-rules-engine

Configure MCP Client

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "core-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/core-mcp-server", "run", "core-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CORE_DIR": "/path/to/cdisc-rules-engine"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "core-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/core-mcp-server", "run", "core-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CORE_DIR": "/path/to/cdisc-rules-engine"
      }
    }
  }
}

You need to replace /path/to/core-mcp-server and /path/to/cdisc-rules-engine to match your own environment.

MCP Tools

Validation

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | validate_dataset | Validate datasets against CDISC rules with standard, version, CT, and rule filters |

Rule Browsing

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_rules | List rules with optional filters (standard, version, authority, sensitivity, status) | | get_rule_details | Get full details for a specific CORE rule ID | | search_rules | Search rules by keyword in description or message |

Standards & Configuration

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_rule_sets | List all supported standards and versions with rule counts | | list_ct_packages | List available Controlled Terminology packages | | get_engine_version | Get CORE version, git commit info, cache statistics |

Engine Management

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | check_for_updates | Check if CORE has new commits on GitHub | | update_engine | Pull latest CORE from GitHub |

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.