MCP Access

Connect AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor directly to the Measurand Taxonomy repository using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources. Instead of copying and pasting taxonomy files into a chat, you can give an AI assistant live access to the Git repository — it can read the catalog XML, search the schema, browse documentation, and check revision history on its own.

This is useful for tasks like asking an assistant to find the right taxon for a calibration service, explain a taxon's required parameters, validate your measurand tagging against the schema, or summarize what changed between taxonomy revisions.

Learn more about MCP

Option 1: GitMCP — No Setup, No Sign-In

Because the taxonomy repository is public, the easiest way to give an AI assistant read access is GitMCP, a free service that exposes any public GitHub repository as a remote MCP server. No account or API token is required.

The MCP server URL for this repository is:

https://gitmcp.io/NCSLI-MII/measurand-taxonomy

Claude (claude.ai web or desktop)

  1. Open Settings → Connectors
  2. Click Add custom connector
  3. Enter a name (e.g. measurand-taxonomy) and the URL above
  4. Save — the taxonomy tools appear in the tools menu of new chats

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add --transport http measurand-taxonomy https://gitmcp.io/NCSLI-MII/measurand-taxonomy

Cursor / VS Code / other MCP clients

Add the server to your client's MCP configuration (e.g. .cursor/mcp.json or VS Code mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "measurand-taxonomy": {
      "url": "https://gitmcp.io/NCSLI-MII/measurand-taxonomy"
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Official GitHub MCP Server — Full Repository Access

GitHub's official remote MCP server gives an assistant full GitHub capabilities — reading files on any branch, searching code, listing commits, browsing issues and pull requests, and (with your permission) contributing changes. It requires signing in with your GitHub account via OAuth.

The server URL is:

https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/

Claude (claude.ai web or desktop)

  1. Open Settings → Connectors
  2. Add the GitHub connector (or a custom connector with the URL above)
  3. Complete the GitHub OAuth sign-in when prompted

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add --transport http github https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/

Then run /mcp inside a session to authenticate with GitHub.

See the GitHub MCP server documentation for other clients and a local (Docker) installation option.

Using the Connection: Example Prompts

Once connected, just ask in plain language — the assistant calls the MCP tools for you. For example:

“Read MeasurandTaxonomyCatalog.xml from the NCSLI-MII/measurand-taxonomy repository and list every taxon in the Torque discipline with its required parameters.”

“What taxon should I use for calibrating a digital pressure gauge? Search the taxonomy repo and explain the difference between the candidates.”

“Check the schema in MeasurandTaxonomyCatalog.xsd and validate whether this taxon entry I wrote is structured correctly.”

“List the most recent commits to the taxonomy repository and summarize which taxons changed.” (GitHub MCP server)

Tip: For quick programmatic access without MCP, the raw catalog is always available at raw.githubusercontent.com/NCSLI-MII/measurand-taxonomy/main/MeasurandTaxonomyCatalog.xml, and this site's REST API serves the parsed taxonomy as JSON.

Additional Resources