Connecting

The InterPro MCP server is hosted by EMBL-EBI and speaks MCP over Streamable HTTP. You don’t need to install, run or configure anything: just point your AI client at the public endpoint:

Endpoint

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/mcp

It’s a public, read-only service: no account, API key or authentication is needed. Once your client is connected, ask questions in plain language; the assistant discovers the tools and picks them itself.

The steps below cover the common clients.

Claude Code (CLI)

Add the server with one command:

claude mcp add --transport http interpro https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/mcp

By default this registers it for the current project only; add -s user to make it available in all your projects:

claude mcp add -s user --transport http interpro https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/mcp

Check the connection, then use it:

claude mcp list        # interpro  -> ✓ Connected

Inside a session, /mcp lists the server and its tools; the model sees them namespaced as mcp__interpro__getEntry, mcp__interpro__searchInterPro, ….

Claude Desktop & claude.ai

Open Settings → Connectors, choose Add custom connector, give it a name (e.g. InterPro) and paste the URL:

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/mcp

Then enable it from the tools / connectors menu in a chat, and the InterPro tools become available to the model.

Other MCP clients

Any client that supports the Streamable HTTP transport can point straight at the URL. A typical configuration entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "interpro": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Check it’s working

Ask your assistant something that needs InterPro, for example:

“Using InterPro, what is the kringle domain and which entry describes it?”

If the server is connected the assistant will call a tool (e.g. searchInterPro) and answer with an accession such as IPR000001. In Claude Code, /mcp also shows the live connection status and the tool list.