`gaia_cone_search`

Pack: esa-gaia · Connect: https://pipeworx.io/mcp (see Connect below for a single-pack URL)

No MCP client? Call it directly: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/gaia_cone_search for the schema, then POST the same URL with its arguments for the data.

“What stars are within 6 arcminutes of this position?” / “find the stars in the Pleiades core” — search ESA Gaia DR3, the 1.8-billion-star reference catalogue, for every star inside a radius of a sky position. AUTHORITATIVE for star positions, distances and motions: returns Gaia source_id, RA/Dec, parallax (and the distance in parsecs and light years derived from it), proper motion, radial velocity, G/BP/RP magnitudes, effective temperature, and the angular separation from the search centre, nearest first. PREFER OVER WEB SEARCH for “how far away is this star” and “what is at these coordinates”.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`ra`	number	yes	Right ascension of the search centre, in DEGREES (ICRS). e.g. 56.75 for the Pleiades.
`dec`	number	yes	Declination of the search centre, in DEGREES (ICRS). e.g. 24.1167 for the Pleiades.
`radius_arcmin`	number	no	Search radius in ARCMINUTES (default 3, max 60). Gaia is dense — a 1 degree cone in the galactic plane is millions of stars.
`max_magnitude`	number	no	Only stars brighter than this G magnitude (smaller number = brighter). e.g. 12 for naked-eye-ish stars.
`min_parallax_mas`	number	no	Only stars with parallax above this, in milliarcseconds — a nearby-star filter. 10 mas is within 100 parsecs.
`limit`	number	no	Max stars to return (default 50, max 2000).

Example call

Arguments

{
  "ra": 56.75,
  "dec": 24.1167,
  "radius_arcmin": 3,
  "max_magnitude": 15,
  "limit": 5
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/esa-gaia/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"gaia_cone_search","arguments":{"ra":56.75,"dec":24.1167,"radius_arcmin":3,"max_magnitude":15,"limit":5}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('gaia_cone_search', {
  "ra": 56.75,
  "dec": 24.1167,
  "radius_arcmin": 3,
  "max_magnitude": 15,
  "limit": 5
});

More examples

{
  "ra": 266.4168,
  "dec": -29.0078,
  "radius_arcmin": 1,
  "limit": 20
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config — every tool in the catalog, including this one — or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Connect to just the esa-gaia pack

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "esa-gaia": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/esa-gaia/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

gaia_cone_search