MaBoSS Boolean Network Simulator

MCP Bio-Modelling Servers

This package provides four stateful Model Context Protocol servers for mechanistic and systems-biology modelling:

All four servers use MCP over stdio and are distributed together as mcp-biomodelling-servers.

Publication

For more details, please check the related article:

"Intelligent tool orchestration for rapid mechanistic model prototyping: MCP servers as AI-biology interfaces"

Marco Ruscone, Miguel Vazquez & Alfonso Valencia, npj Systems Biology and Applications (2026)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-026-00767-3

Requirements

• Python 3.10–3.15.
• MCP Python SDK 2.x, installed automatically with this package.
• The modelling-package dependencies declared in pyproject.toml, installed automatically by pip or uvx.

No system software is needed. MaBoSS simulations use the compiled cmaboss engine that ships with pyMaBoSS, so the separate MaBoSS executable is not required. NeKo history diagrams and BioMASS graphs render with PyGraphviz, whose wheels bundle Graphviz, so the external dot program is not required either. Prebuilt wheels cover Linux, macOS and Windows.

Installation

Install with pip

python -m pip install mcp-biomodelling-servers

This installs every server's modelling dependencies, including NeKo (nekomata 1.10.2 or newer, below 2.0), PhysiCell-settings 0.6.3 or newer (below 0.7), the bundled MaBoSS engine and PyGraphviz. To reproduce a specific release, pin it, for example mcp-biomodelling-servers==2.5.1.

The MaBoSS engine package, cmaboss, has no stable release yet: every build on PyPI is a 1.0.0b* pre-release. The dependency cmaboss>=1.0.0b32,<2 names a pre-release, so pip and uv accept these builds without --pre/--prerelease flags, and a stable 1.x will satisfy the same range once it is published. A resolver configured to reject all pre-releases cannot install the package.

The installation provides four console entry points:

mcp-neko-server
mcp-maboss-server
mcp-physicell-server
mcp-biomass-server

Each one serves MCP over stdio, so when run in a terminal it waits for a client on standard input. Pass --help for usage and environment variables, or --version to print the installed release; both exit without starting the server.

Run in an isolated environment with uvx

uvx --from mcp-biomodelling-servers mcp-neko-server
uvx --from mcp-biomodelling-servers mcp-maboss-server
uvx --from mcp-biomodelling-servers mcp-physicell-server
uvx --from mcp-biomodelling-servers mcp-biomass-server

Conda is optional. It remains useful when you want one explicitly managed environment for local development or additional native scientific software, but it is not required for the packaged entry points.

Install as an agent plugin

Claude Code, Codex, and Agent Plugins 1.0 clients such as Visual Studio Code can install each server as a plugin, with one install per server. A plugin starts its server with uvx (so uv must be installed) and pins it to the matching published mcp-biomodelling-servers release, so no client configuration file needs to be written by hand. Install only the servers you need.

In Claude Code, add the marketplace once, then install each plugin you want:

claude plugin marketplace add marcorusc/mcp-biomodelling-servers
claude plugin install neko@marcorusc

Add --scope project to the marketplace command to declare it in the repository's own .claude/settings.json instead of your user settings.

In Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add marcorusc/mcp-biomodelling-servers
codex plugin add neko@marcorusc

Agent Plugins 1.0 clients (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, VS Code, Kiro) define the plugin package, plugin.json and mcp.json, and leave installation to the client. Each plugin here is the plugins/<name> directory of this repository. In VS Code, open the Command Palette, run Chat: Install Plugin from Source, choose a git repository, and enter marcorusc/mcp-biomodelling-servers.

All four plugins work fully as installed, including BioMASS graph rendering: uv is the only prerequisite, and no MaBoSS executable or Graphviz installation is needed. The first start of a plugin downloads and caches the package environment (about 1 GB), which can take a minute or more on a slow connection; later starts reuse the cache and take a few seconds.

Enabling a plugin connects its MCP server to the whole client session, so every agent and subagent in that session sees its tools. A project that must give specific agents their own servers, for example one modelling specialist per agent, should leave the plugin disabled and start the same command (uvx --from mcp-biomodelling-servers==<version> mcp-<server>-server) from that agent's own MCP configuration instead. In Codex, codex mcp list shows plugin-provided servers next to configured ones.

Configure an MCP client

The following example uses uvx and works with clients that accept the common mcp.json stdio configuration:

{
  "servers": {
    "neko": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "mcp-biomodelling-servers",
        "mcp-neko-server"
      ]
    },
    "maboss": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "mcp-biomodelling-servers",
        "mcp-maboss-server"
      ]
    },
    "physicell": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "mcp-biomodelling-servers",
        "mcp-physicell-server"
      ]
    },
    "biomass": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-biomodelling-servers", "mcp-biomass-server"]
    }
  }
}

If the package is already installed in the client environment, each entry can instead use its console script directly:

{
  "servers": {
    "neko": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "mcp-neko-server"
    },
    "maboss": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "mcp-maboss-server"
    },
    "physicell": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "mcp-physicell-server"
    },
    "biomass": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "mcp-biomass-server"
    }
  }
}

Refer to your MCP client's documentation for its configuration-file location and reload procedure. For Visual Studio Code, see Use MCP servers in VS Code.

ODE models with BioMASS

NeKo's export_biomass_handoff preserves the curated network's references and available mechanism metadata for BioMASS. The calling agent reads the literature, records evidence and assumptions, and authors Text2Model reactions. BioMASS supports standalone text too, along with graph rendering and bounded exploratory simulation. Calibration and sensitivity analysis are deferred.

Graph rendering is included in the standard installation. See the BioMASS manual for an MCP client configuration, the 22 tools, graph interpretation limits, and a runnable example.

Sessions, artifacts, and errors

Each server can maintain multiple isolated modelling sessions. Tools that create or load a model return a session identifier; pass that identifier to subsequent operations when more than one session is active.

Generated models, configuration files, plots, and other outputs are kept in session-scoped artifact directories. Artifact-listing tools return the paths needed to inspect or hand files to another modelling server.

Under MCP SDK 2.x, failures to execute a tool are returned as tool errors so the client and model can distinguish them from successful scientific results. Validation tools may still return a successful result describing an invalid model or configuration when validity itself is the requested result.

Run from source

Clone the repository and install it with its development dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/marcorusc/mcp-biomodelling-servers.git
cd mcp-biomodelling-servers
python -m pip install ".[dev]"

You can then run the same console entry points or invoke a server module directly with the selected Python interpreter:

python MaBoSS/server.py
python NeKo/server.py
python PhysiCell/server.py
python -m BioMASS.server

Repository layout

MaBoSS/                     MaBoSS server, manual, and Registry manifest
NeKo/                       NeKo server, manual, and Registry manifest
PhysiCell/                  PhysiCell server, manual, and Registry manifest
BioMASS/                    ODE construction, visualization, and simulation server
mcp_biomodelling_servers/   Installed package namespace and entry points
tests/                      Protocol, runtime, concurrency, and package tests

The server-specific READMEs describe the modelling workflows and exposed tool families in more detail.

MCP SDK and protocol compatibility

The package uses the stable MCP Python SDK 2.x API. The SDK negotiates the appropriate MCP protocol revision with the connected client; the protocol revision is independent of the MCP Registry schema used by each server.json.

Releasing

The release.yml workflow runs the full CI and compatibility suites, builds and checks the wheel and source archive, publishes to PyPI, then publishes all four server manifests to the official MCP Registry. Both publishing steps use GitHub OIDC; no API token is needed.

Before the first automated release, configure a GitHub trusted publisher on the PyPI project's Publishing settings:

• Owner: marcorusc
• Repository: mcp-biomodelling-servers
• Workflow filename: release.yml
• Environment: pypi

Create the matching pypi environment in the repository's GitHub settings. See the PyPI trusted publishing guide and MCP Registry GitHub Actions guide.

For each release, synchronize the version in pyproject.toml, the source fallback in mcp_biomodelling_servers/__init__.py, all four server.json files, including their pinned --from arguments, and every plugin under plugins/<name>/: the version in plugin.json and .claude-plugin/plugin.json and the --from pin in mcp.json and .claude-plugin/mcp.json. Add an entry to CHANGELOG.md. Build with python -m build, check with python -m twine check --strict dist/*, and run python scripts/check_release.py --tag v<version> using Python 3.12+. Start with a clean dist/ directory. Commit and push the reviewed changes before creating and pushing the matching v<version> tag to trigger publication.

If PyPI succeeds but MCP registration fails, manually dispatch the release workflow on the same release tag, with publish_pypi disabled. This retries registration without trying to upload the existing PyPI version again.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 only (GPL-3.0-only). See LICENSE for the full terms.

The wrapped modelling packages retain their own licenses; consult their upstream projects for details.

Artifact storage and ordinary import provenance

All four servers write to $MCP_BIOMODELLING_ARTIFACT_ROOT/<server>/<session_id>/ when the environment variable is set to an absolute directory. Otherwise they use ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-~/.cache}/mcp-biomodelling/artifacts/<server>/<session_id>/. Server namespaces are NeKo, MaBoSS, PhysiCell, and BioMASS. Set the variable before starting a server and keep it stable for that process. The default never writes into the package installation. The root-level artifact_manager import remains available as a compatibility shim for the packaged shared helper.

Listings also discover existing <server package>/artifacts/<session_id>/ directories. Each session listing includes artifact_directory and legacy; identical session IDs at different locations remain separate entries. No legacy files are moved or deleted, and cleanup applies only to the current write root. BioMASS restore reads snapshots from the current root; legacy snapshots remain available for inspection but are not automatically restored or migrated. Discovery scans the current installation's legacy directory, not other checkouts or previously configured cache roots.

NeKo.create_network(..., sif_file=..., parent_manifest=None, derived_from=None) and MaBoSS.bnet_to_bnd_and_cfg(..., parent_manifest=None, derived_from=None) accept optional provenance arguments. Existing calls remain valid and now record the imported source's SHA-256 digest. Successful imports retain an active source record, a session import history, and a unique source-import.<id>.json record on disk before reporting success. Import records preserve historical digests even if a later export replaces a mutable sidecar. Replacing the model clears its active source record; history retains the original import evidence. MaBoSS conversion provenance becomes active only when its generated BND/CFG model is loaded.

• parent_manifest is a path to a validated source-lineage sidecar or, for BNET, a NeKo-to-MaBoSS handoff manifest. The referenced artifact's size and SHA-256 must still match. Arbitrary parent labels are rejected.
• With only parent_manifest, the input must be byte-identical to a matching parent artifact. For edited copies, also supply derived_from as the exact path of the original artifact recorded by that parent. Keep the original bytes intact and import an edited copy at a separate path. Equal bytes remain classified as byte-identical even if derived_from is supplied.
• Ordinary NeKo SIF/BNET exports and MaBoSS BND/CFG exports write sibling <filename>.lineage.json files. NeKo BNET handoff exports also carry this sidecar; MaBoSS handoff exports with an active ordinary import write a sidecar alongside the handoff JSON. The independent mcp-biomodelling-source-lineage schema records source/parent digests, standalone, byte-identical, or edited-derivative relationships, and UTC ISO8601 timestamps. Historical digests are retained even if old inputs later change; using an export as a new parent verifies its current exported bytes. New sidecars use version 2.1 when they bind a NeKo curation companion (curation_file) and 2.0 otherwise; version 1.0 sidecars remain readable. See the version table below.

Source lineage is provenance, not approval or evidence of biological equivalence. The required handoff v1 fields, accepted lineage rules, and approval checks are unchanged; the shared artifact vocabulary adds neko_sif for source sidecars, while existing Boolean handoff slots still require BNET. Source sidecars do not grant or replace acceptance. Mutable Network.*/output.* files remain mutable, and retained handoff snapshots keep existing overwrite protection. This extension does not validate SIF ancestry through Boolean or ODE handoff contracts, does not add BNET import to NeKo, and does not propagate ordinary source sidecars through BioMASS or PhysiCell imports. Existing aware timestamps and numeric session clocks retain their formats.

Boolean NeKo/MaBoSS handoff exports now use v2 portable source ancestry while retaining v1 reading and exact stage-parent validation. See Boolean lineage v2 for derivative semantics, approval boundaries, offline verification and safe capture helpers.

Versions written by this release (nekomata 1.10.2 or newer always provides the NeKo history that a curation companion needs):