LABSCO SUMMARY
The rate limit decides how you use it.
The public API allows one request per 20 seconds, and that budget is shared across every user of the public key — so live querying in a conversation will stall. The maintainer's own advice is the right shape: pull what you need on a periodic job, store it, and refresh weekly. Also note the coverage boundary: the public tier exposes the current schedule and those published in the past 12 months, nothing older.
What it is
A wrapper around the public PBS Data API, the Australian government's record of subsidised medicines. The assistant names an endpoint and parameters; the server handles the subscription key, rate limits and error cases.
What you get
- One tool taking an endpoint, an HTTP method, query parameters, an optional subscription key and a timeout — the whole public API through a single call shape
- Endpoints include prescribers, item-overview, items, schedules, atc-codes, organisations, restrictions, parameters, criteria, copayments, fees, markup-bands, programs and summary-of-changes
- Both stdio and HTTP with SSE, so the same build serves a desktop client and a web one
- A command-line mode with subcommands for listing endpoints, fetching API information, querying prescribers and item overviews, and running an arbitrary endpoint — useful for a scheduled cache refresh
- Error handling that distinguishes rate limiting from authentication failures
Requirements
Node — clone, install and build, then point the client at the compiled entry point; published as pbs-mcp-standalone, version 1.0.0. A PBS API subscription key goes in PBS_API_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY, obtained by registering at the PBS Data API Portal and subscribing to the PBS Public API v3 product.
Setup effort
Build from source — git clone https://github.com/matthewdcage/pbs-mcp-server.git
USE CASES
01
Looking up what the PBS lists for a medicine
Ask by name and get the listing, its code and the current pricing back.
02
Checking who is allowed to prescribe something
Query the prescribers endpoint filtered to the PBS code rather than reading the schedule document.
03
Keeping a local copy current
Run the CLI on a weekly schedule to refresh a cache, instead of querying live against a shared rate limit.
04
Seeing what changed in the latest schedule
Pull the summary of changes rather than diffing two full schedules yourself.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Requires
- node on PATH
- PBS_API_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY in your environment
Where it runs
The documented client runs the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
git clone https://github.com/matthewdcage/pbs-mcp-server.git
cd pbs-mcp-server
npm install
npm run buildMCP Clients
Any MCP client
ANY MCP CLIENT · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"pbs-api": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"<YOUR_PATH_TO_PBS_MCP_SERVER>/build/index.js"
],
"env": {
"PBS_API_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY": "<YOUR_PBS_API_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY>"
}
}
}
}<YOUR_PATH_TO_PBS_MCP_SERVER> is the full path of your clone.