About Civic
Civic provides access to CIViC's expert-curated clinical interpretations of cancer variants. It is intended for users exploring actionable alterations, associated therapies, and graded evidence from published sources.
Key features
- 01Search cancer genes and fusions
- 02Retrieve gene variants and linked therapies
- 03Filter evidence by disease or therapy
- 04View clinical assertions and guideline flags
Use cases
- 01Review evidence for a cancer variant
- 02Explore therapies associated with a gene variant
- 03Check clinical assertions for a disease or therapy
MCP support
Exposes CIViC gene, variant, evidence, and assertion queries as tools for MCP clients. It supports gateway access and local stdio operation.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http pipeworx-io-civic https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-civic":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"pipeworx-io-civic":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-civic":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-civic":{"serverUrl":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
Details
From the project README@pipeworx/civic
Expert-curated clinical interpretation of cancer variants from CIViC — which somatic alterations are clinically actionable, in which disease, with which therapy, and the graded published evidence behind each claim.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1875+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.
Tools
civic_search_genes(query, limit?)— cancer genes and fusions by name, with variant / evidence / assertion counts and the CIViC feature id.civic_gene_variants(gene, variant_name?, limit?)— the curated variants of a gene, with associated diseases and therapies.civic_variant_evidence(molecular_profile | variant_id, evidence_type?, disease?, therapy?, limit?)— individual evidence items with type, level A-E, direction, significance, 1-5 star rating and the PubMed/ASCO source.civic_assertions(molecular_profile? | disease? | therapy?, limit?)— the AMP/ASCO/CAP-tiered rollups, with FDA companion-test and regulatory-approval flags, ACMG codes and NCCN guideline.
Auth
Keyless. Public GraphQL endpoint; CIViC's content is CC0.
Data sources
- https://civicdb.org/api/graphql — POST,
{query, variables}.
Things that will otherwise cost you an afternoon:
- An explicitly null variable is a FILTER, not an absent filter — and it
returns HTTP 200. Measured 2026-09-17:
evidenceItems(molecularProfileName: "BRAF V600E")reports 249 matches; addingvariantId: nullreports 0,diseaseName: nullreports 245,therapyName: nullreports 313. Unset filters must be omitted from the variables map entirely.omitNulls()insrc/index.tsexists for exactly this and removing it produces a silent zero. browseVariants.totalCountandbrowseFeatures.totalCountignore their own filter arguments.browseVariants(featureName: "BRAF")and an unfilteredbrowseVariantsboth report 5029, the whole catalogue.evidenceItemsandassertionsDO filter their totalCount. This pack only reports the count for the two that mean it.descriptionon theBrowseFeaturetype 500s the entire query. It is in the schema and it is not callable. The gene summary lives on theGenetype, which is whycivic_search_genesmakes a second call.genestakesentrezSymbols/entrezIds, notname. Free-text gene search isbrowseFeatures(featureName:)(substring, unranked — this pack re-ranks exact matches first) orfeatureTypeahead(queryTerm:).- Evidence and assertion
statuscan beSUBMITTEDas well asACCEPTED; a submitted item has not been through CIViC review yet.
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"civic": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp"
}
}
}
What this endpoint actually serves
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/civic/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1875+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
No MCP client? Call it over HTTP
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/civic_search_genes \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"query":"BRAF","limit":5}'
No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/civic_search_genes. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.
Standalone (no gateway account)
This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:
{
"mcpServers": {
"civic": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-civic"]
}
}
}
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-civic
It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call
for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway
connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.
Using with ask_pipeworx
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Civic data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.