Quickstart

This guide walks through adding mcnoaa-tides to Claude Code and making your first three requests: finding a station, pulling tide predictions, and checking marine conditions.

Prerequisites

Claude Code installed
uv installed (for uvx)

Add the server

Register mcnoaa-tides as an MCP tool server. This tells Claude Code to start it automatically when needed.
Terminal window
```
claude mcp add mcnoaa-tides -- uvx mcnoaa-tides
```
The first launch downloads the package and pre-warms the station cache (takes a few seconds).
Find a station

Ask Claude to search for stations near a location:

Search for tide stations in Seattle

Claude calls search_stations(query="seattle") and returns matching stations. Look for Station 9447130 — Seattle, WA.
```
[
  {
    "id": "9447130",
    "name": "Seattle",
    "state": "WA",
    "lat": 47.6026,
    "lng": -122.3393,
    "is_tidal": true
  }
]
```
Get tide predictions

Ask for the tide schedule at that station:

What are the tide predictions for Seattle station 9447130?

Claude calls get_tide_predictions(station_id="9447130") and returns the next 48 hours of high and low tides:
```
{
  "predictions": [
    { "t": "2026-02-22 03:18", "v": "11.284", "type": "H" },
    { "t": "2026-02-22 10:42", "v": "-1.039", "type": "L" },
    { "t": "2026-02-22 16:54", "v": "10.571", "type": "H" },
    { "t": "2026-02-22 22:36", "v": "3.195", "type": "L" }
  ]
}
```
type: "H" is high tide, "L" is low. Values are in feet relative to MLLW (mean lower low water).

Check conditions

Get a full marine conditions snapshot in a single call:

Get a marine conditions snapshot for Seattle station 9447130

Claude calls marine_conditions_snapshot(station_id="9447130"), which fetches tide predictions, observed water levels, wind, temperature, and pressure in parallel:

{
  "station_id": "9447130",
  "fetched_utc": "2026-02-22T18:30:00+00:00",
  "predictions": { "..." : "high/low tide schedule" },
  "water_level": { "..." : "recent observations" },
  "wind": { "..." : "speed, direction, gusts" },
  "air_temperature": { "..." : "current readings" },
  "air_pressure": { "..." : "current readings" },
  "water_temperature": { "..." : "current readings" }
}

Any products the station does not support appear under an "unavailable" key rather than failing the request.

Next steps

How-To Guides — Plan a fishing trip, run a safety check, deploy SmartPot, generate charts
Reference — Full tool, prompt, and resource documentation
Understanding — How the tidal engine works, station coverage, and data freshness