PIASO For Agents MCP Server

PIASO-for-agents

Make the PIASO single-cell omics ecosystem first-class for any coding agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Windsurf, Cline, Aider — from one canonical, agent-neutral knowledge pack.

Maintained by The Fishell Laboratory (Harvard Medical School / Broad Institute). Every agent-specific format (Claude skill, Cursor rules, AGENTS.md, llms.txt, MCP server) is a generated artifact built from canonical/ — never a hand-maintained copy. A CI drift check (python build.py --check) fails the build if any dist/ artifact is out of sync with canonical/, and the code-block test suite re-runs on every component release, so the guidance cannot silently rot.

The ecosystem

Independently-installable packages under github.com/genecell:

Each component is independently installable — you can pip install cosg (or laris, or emergene) on its own, so a COSG-only user is a first-class citizen. Note the dependency direction, though: installing piaso-tools (and laris) also pulls in cosg, so a PIASO user always has COSG available. The hub's unique value is documenting how the components compose, and the cross-component choices no single repo can make (e.g. SCALAR vs LARIS for ligand–receptor: spatial data → LARIS, dissociated single-cell → SCALAR).

Inside piaso-tools

The piaso package is itself a toolkit. Full references live in canonical/components/piaso.md. Grouped by what is a PIASO-introduced method vs. a convenience wrapper around a standard step:

Methods introduced by PIASO

Utilities & standard building blocks

Install (per agent)

Users work in their own analysis repos, so drop the right snippet into your setup. All of these are generated from canonical/ and live under dist/.

Claude Code — add this repo as a plugin marketplace and install the piaso skill:

claude plugin marketplace add genecell/PIASO-for-agents
claude plugin install piaso@PIASO-for-agents

Claude.ai (web app) — upload the generated skill as a Skill (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise, with code execution enabled). Download the dist/claude/skills/piaso/ folder, zip it, then in claude.ai go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Create skill and upload the zip:

# from a clone of this repo:
cd dist/claude/skills && zip -r piaso-skill.zip piaso    # -> upload piaso-skill.zip in claude.ai

The local MCP server below is stdio-only, so it does not work in the web app — use the Skill upload (or the llms.txt URL) on claude.ai; use MCP in Claude Code / Cursor / Codex.

Cursor — download the rule into your project's .cursor/rules/:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genecell/PIASO-for-agents/master/dist/cursor/.cursor/rules/piaso.mdc \
  -o .cursor/rules/piaso.mdc

GitHub Copilot — copy the instructions file into your repo:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genecell/PIASO-for-agents/master/dist/copilot/.github/copilot-instructions.md \
  -o .github/copilot-instructions.md

OpenAI Codex — add the AGENTS.md pointer below to your project's AGENTS.md (Codex's primary instructions file), and/or register the MCP server (see the MCP server section below — Codex is covered there).

AGENTS.md (Aider / Zed / Codex / any AGENTS.md-aware agent) — append the hub pointer to your project's AGENTS.md (or copy dist/agents/AGENTS.md):

This project uses the PIASO single-cell omics ecosystem. Agent-neutral, tested docs for every component (Python + R), plus the cross-component decision rules, live at https://github.com/genecell/PIASO-for-agents

llms.txt (any model with web access) — point the tool at:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genecell/PIASO-for-agents/master/dist/llms/llms.txt

(and llms-full.txt alongside it). These can also be served from https://piaso.org/llms.txt.

MCP server

piaso-mcp serves the PIASO ecosystem docs plus the live PIASOmarkerDB — no Python packages required. Tools: search_docs, get_api, compare_implementations, resolve_install, list_datasets, and the live DB proxies query_marker_db, get_markers, list_studies. It is a local stdio server (not a hosted remote endpoint), so it works in Claude Code / Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf / Zed / Codex / Cline, but not in the claude.ai web app — use the Skill upload there.

Prerequisite (all clients): uv

The server runs via uvx, which ships with uv. This is the one thing "no packages needed" doesn't cover — install it once:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh   # macOS / Linux
# or:  pipx install uv   |   pip install --user uv   |   brew install uv   |   winget install astral-sh.uv

Then confirm it's reachable: uvx --version. If that says "command not found", uv's bin dir isn't on your PATH — either add it, or replace "uvx" in the configs below with the absolute path from which uvx (Windows: where uvx). First launch downloads the package (~30 s); later launches are cached.

The MCP config key and file location differ per client — pick your agent below.

Claude Code — key mcpServers

Easiest is the CLI (no hand-editing, and it handles the PATH issue in one line):

claude mcp add piaso --scope user -- uvx piaso-mcp
# uvx not on PATH? use its absolute path:
claude mcp add piaso --scope user -- "$(which uvx)" piaso-mcp

claude mcp get piaso        # verify → Status: ✔ Connected

Or edit ~/.claude.json (user) / project .mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "piaso": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"] } } }

Cursor — key mcpServers

File: ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per project). Same shape as Claude Code:

{ "mcpServers": { "piaso": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"] } } }

Enable it under Settings → MCP.

Windsurf — key mcpServers

File: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (open via Settings → Cascade → MCP Servers → Manage → raw config):

{ "mcpServers": { "piaso": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"] } } }

VS Code (GitHub Copilot, Agent mode) — key servers (note: not mcpServers)

Workspace file .vscode/mcp.json, or user settings.json under "mcp". VS Code also wants a type:

// .vscode/mcp.json
{ "servers": { "piaso": { "type": "stdio", "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"] } } }

Or one-shot from the terminal:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"piaso","command":"uvx","args":["piaso-mcp"]}'

Zed — key context_servers (different shape)

File: ~/.config/zed/settings.json. Zed nests under context_servers and marks custom servers with "source": "custom":

{
  "context_servers": {
    "piaso": { "source": "custom", "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"], "env": {} }
  }
}

Codex (OpenAI Codex CLI) — TOML, table [mcp_servers.<name>] (not JSON!)

Codex is the odd one out: its config is TOML, in ~/.codex/config.toml. Add a table:

[mcp_servers.piaso]
command = "uvx"
args = ["piaso-mcp"]
# uvx not on PATH? give the absolute path from `which uvx`:
# command = "/home/you/.local/bin/uvx"

Or use the CLI (handles the file for you):

codex mcp add piaso -- uvx piaso-mcp
codex mcp list        # verify it's registered

Cline / Continue (VS Code extensions) — key mcpServers

Cline: MCP Servers → Configure (writes cline_mcp_settings.json). Continue: ~/.continue/config (mcpServers). Both use the standard shape:

{ "mcpServers": { "piaso": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["piaso-mcp"] } } }

---

After configuring, restart the client — MCP tools are loaded at startup, so a running session won't see the server until it's relaunched. If it doesn't connect, 99% of the time it's the uv/PATH prerequisite above.

Repository layout

canonical/       # the ONLY hand-written content (agent-neutral markdown + meta.yaml)
build.py         # canonical/ -> all targets (pure text transforms); --check is the CI drift guard
dist/            # ALL GENERATED — never hand-edited (claude/ agents/ cursor/ copilot/ llms/ mcp/)
mcp/             # piaso-mcp source (local stdio server; serves knowledge + public data only)
tests/           # executes every canonical code block (Python + R) against PIASO-data fixtures
.claude-plugin/  # marketplace + plugin manifest (repo root, for `claude plugin marketplace add`)
.github/         # sync-check + test CI (re-runs on component releases + nightly)

Citation

Cite each component by its own paper — see canonical/meta.yaml. PIASO: Wu, S.J., Dai, M. et al. Nature (2026), DOI 10.1038/s41586-025-09996-8.

Maintainers

Developed and maintained by The Fishell Laboratory (Harvard Medical School / Broad Institute). Contact: Min Dai — dai@broadinstitute.org.

License

BSD-3-Clause. See LICENSE.