Open Waters AIS MCP Server

Live AIS vessel traffic, streamed by bounding box, from open government feeds and volunteer receivers. Part of Open Waters. The public instance is ais.openwaters.io. A live map is at openwatersio.github.io/aiscast. It is available as a remote MCP endpoint.

Teams that work with ais, aishub and aisstream and want a hosted endpoint instead of running a local process. The project is written in Go.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-09-29 · ★ 7 · #725 OF 998 MAINTAINED OTHER · VERIFIED 2026-09-30

MIT · Go servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Open Waters AIS

before you install - you'll need

The README does not document required environment variables for a basic install.

Claude Code

claude mcp add openwatersio-aiscast --transport http https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openwatersio-aiscast": {
      "url": "https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

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

https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp

transport: streamable-http

endpoint alive - responded to MCP initialize · probed 2026-09-30

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 remote - your agent's requests go to ais.openwaters.io

endpoint auth accepted our unauthenticated MCP initialize - no credentials needed to connect

repo age created 2026-08-20 - young repo, little track record yet

license MIT - declared in the repository

registry vendor namespace io.openwaters - domain-verified with the official MCP registry

03 · What Open Waters AIS can do

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

Latest releases

signalk-plugin-v0.5.2 · 2026-09-26

Works with aiscast's new names for contributing stations. aiscast now files every contribution as station:<key>, which 0.5.1 does not recognize, so it took its own reports coming back from the server for traffic from…

signalk-plugin-v0.5.1 · 2026-09-21

Chartplotters now show names, call signs, and dimensions for aiscast targets. aiscast sends a vessel's static data only when it changes, so for most aggregated targets the only copy arrives in the snapshot on connect…

signalk-plugin-v0.5.0 · 2026-09-21

New Receive setting, on by default: Send aiscast traffic to NMEA 0183 output. Targets injected from aiscast are re-emitted as !AIVDM on the nmea0183out event, so chartplotters and tablet apps reading the server's NMEA…

04 · Who maintains Open Waters AIS

Open Waters AIS is maintained by openwatersio. It's the only MCP server we track from this author; the repo dates to Aug 2026.

05 · Facts

repository: github.com/openwatersio/aiscast
website: https://openwaters.io/ais/
category: other - ranked #725 of 998 actively-maintained other servers as of 2026-09-30.
release cadence: 10+ releases in the last 90 days (latest 2026-09-26)
registry: io.openwaters/ais (active, first published 2026-09-18 · 7 versions)

06 · Open Waters AIS FAQ

What is Open Waters AIS?

Is Open Waters AIS still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-09-30, its last commit was 2026-09-29 and it shipped 10+ releases in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.

How do I install Open Waters AIS?

Run `claude mcp add openwatersio-aiscast --transport http https://ais.openwaters.io/mcp`. The README does not document required environment variables for a basic install. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Open Waters AIS require authentication?

No - the endpoint accepted our unauthenticated MCP initialize when probed on 2026-09-30; you can connect without credentials.

07 · Alternatives to Open Waters AIS

Alternatives to Open Waters AIS

Maintained other servers if Open Waters AIS isn't the fit.

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