Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller MCP Server

Let an AI agent read gas flow, pressure and temperature, set flow or pressure setpoints, switch the gas calibration, tare, and hold or close valves on Alicat Scientific mass flow meters and controllers and pressure controllers through Alicat's documented ASCII serial protocol. Its 14 documented tools cover flow, valve, log, tare.

People who work with flow, valve and log and want it reachable from Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in Python.

One of 32 MCP servers published from k-dense-ai/lab-instrument-mcps. Stars and repository activity are shared across all of them. See all 32 →

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-09-26 · VERIFIED 2026-09-30

Apache-2.0 · Python servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller

Claude Code

claude mcp add k-dense-ai-lab-instrument-mcps-servers-e -- uvx labmcp-alicat

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "k-dense-ai-lab-instrument-mcps-servers-e": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "labmcp-alicat"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.

Using another client? Same JSON, different key

Claude Desktop · mcpServers

Cursor · mcpServers

VS Code · servers

Windsurf · mcpServers

Zed · context_servers

Cline · mcpServers

Roo Code · mcpServers

Continue · mcpServers

LibreChat · mcpServers

Gemini CLI · mcpServers

Codex CLI · mcp_servers

Full setup guides: every client.

02 · Evidence

Security posture

What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.

runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions

repo age created 2026-09-25 - young repo, little track record yet

license Apache-2.0 - declared in the repository

pypi package labmcp-alicat - check the name against the project README before installing (PyPI has no namespace ownership)

registry namespace io.github.K-Dense-AI is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner

03 · What Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller can do

Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.

What you can build

An agent gets 14 documented tools spanning flow, valve, log, tare, including close_valve, get_command_log, get_connection_info, get_device_info.

Capability map

Tools grouped from the project's README - what Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller lets an agent do.

read & search

4 tools - e.g. Return the most recent raw commands sent to / replies received from the instrument (newest last). Useful for debugging and for recording what was done.; Report which instrument is connected (identity…

get_command_log · get_connection_info · get_device_info · list_gases

Flow

4 tools - e.g. Record a time series of data frames (e.g. to check flow stability, settling after a setpoint change, or pressure drift). Returns every point plus mean/stdev/min; Read the live data frame: mass flow…

log_flow_series · read_flow · set_flow_setpoint · tare_flow

1 tool - e.g. Stop the flow: set the flow setpoint to 0 and hold all valves closed (Alicat HC). Safe to call at any time. On pressure controllers the pressure setpoint is lef

close_valve

Hold

1 tool - e.g. Freeze the controller's valve(s) at their current position (HLD): closed-loop control stops, so flow will drift if upstream pressure changes. Use resume_control

hold_valve

Reconnect

1 tool - e.g. Close and re-open the connection to the instrument (e.g. after it was power cycled or a cable was re-plugged).

reconnect

Resume

1 tool - e.g. Cancel any valve hold and resume closed-loop control to the current setpoint. Flow restarts immediately if the setpoint is not 0 (check it with read_flow first)

resume_control

update

1 tool - e.g. Select the gas calibration the mass flow device uses (Gas Select). This changes how flow is computed, so do it with the setpoint at 0. Only gases installed on t

set_gas

Tare

1 tool - e.g. Tare a pressure reading. Requires no flow and the device OPEN TO ATMOSPHERE (gauge), or no flow and an unpressurised process line (absolute, barometer-equipped

tare_pressure

Limitations (from the README)

- Data frame parsing. On connect the server asks the device for its data-frame definition (??D) and parses every poll against it, so field names, order and engineering units come from the device itself (both the 6v+ column table and the older pre-6v table are understood). If a device does not answer ??D, frames are parsed by position using the default layouts in the Serial Primer (p. 8) and the manual; layout_source

04 · Who maintains Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller

Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller is maintained by k-dense-ai. We track 32 MCP servers from k-dense-ai - 32 actively maintained, 9 combined GitHub stars, oldest repo from Sep 2026. Full record: all servers from k-dense-ai.

05 · Facts

repository: github.com/k-dense-ai/lab-instrument-mcps
website: https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/lab-instrument-mcps/tree/main/servers/engineering/alicat-flow-controller
category: other - actively maintained as of 2026-09-30.
registry: io.github.K-Dense-AI/labmcp-alicat (active, first published 2026-09-26 · 3 versions)
packages: pypi:labmcp-alicat

06 · Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller FAQ

Is Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-09-30, its last commit was 2026-09-26. We re-verify nightly.

What can Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller do?

An agent gets 14 documented tools spanning flow, valve, log, tare, including close_valve, get_command_log, get_connection_info, get_device_info.

How do I install Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller?

Run `uvx labmcp-alicat`. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller run locally?

Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via uvx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.

07 · Alternatives to Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller

Alternatives to Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller

Maintained other servers if Alicat Mass Flow & Pressure Controller isn't the fit.

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