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Vessel Traffic MCP

Resolve a ship from a name, MMSI, IMO or bill of lading, then ask where it is — every live result carries its source.

by tools-mcp ↗Geospatial & Mapping DataCommunity

LABSCO SUMMARY

Fixtures by default is the right default.

Maritime data is expensive and mostly behind commercial terms, so the useful thing here is being able to build and test the whole workflow against deterministic fixtures before deciding whether to buy anything. Two other choices stand out: every live result carries the provider and a landing URL, and the onboarding tool is explicitly read-only — it tells you what a provider requires and does not attempt to sign you up. The project is also direct that it does not bypass provider terms, paywalls or access controls, and that it is not a navigation product.

What it is

A read-only MCP server for maritime data: vessel identity, AIS-style positions and tracks, port calls, carrier and vessel schedules, and delay heuristics, normalised into one tool surface. The default path uses fixtures with no network and no accounts, so you can test a maritime workflow before paying for an AIS or schedule API.

What you get

  • Generic connector-style entry points, search and fetch, for clients that expect that shape
  • Vessel identity — vessel_search, vessel_name_resolve, and document_vessel_lookup for pulling a vessel out of bill-of-lading text
  • AIS-style movement: vessel_position for where it is, vessel_track for where it has been, and vessel_area for which vessels are in a region
  • port_calls for port activity
  • Shipping schedules — carrier_schedule_search by port pair or vessel, vessel_schedule, and schedule_delay_predict
  • Provider setup as its own tools: provider_status, data_sources, credential_profiles, and provider_onboarding, which is read-only and inspects signup URLs, required environment variables, configured profile status and validation steps — it never creates accounts, accepts terms, solves CAPTCHA or issues keys
  • Provenance on every live or public-provider response: source.provider and source.landingUrl, so results route back to the original service rather than being rebranded

Requirements

No account for the default path, which is fixture-only: deterministic data, no network, no keys. Install with npx -y @tools-mcp/vessel-traffic-mcp in any stdio client — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor or VS Code — with VESSEL_MCP_TRANSPORT set to stdio. Public web adapters are opt-in through VESSEL_MCP_ENABLE_PUBLIC_PROVIDERS, which the documented example sets to myshiptracking,tradlinx,aisfriends. Commercial and community APIs are bring-your-own-key, enabled with VESSEL_MCP_ENABLE_BYOK_PROVIDERS plus per-profile variables, and the project states that secrets are redacted from logs, errors and MCP responses. For a remote deployment, set the transport to http for Streamable HTTP at /mcp and use VESSEL_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN for bearer authentication. MIT licensed, and pre-1.0 — the tool surface may change.

Setup effort

One command — npm install -g @tools-mcp/vessel-traffic-mcp

See installation options