usda-mcp-server: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

usda-mcp-server CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from cyanheads/usda-mcp-server. It costs 5,909 tokens per session, scanned A, a copy of obsidian-mcp-server AGENTS.md, Apache-2.0.

Project-specific instructions for Claude Code working on the USDA MCP server, a service that lets other programs access USDA food data. They describe the server's conventions, development process, and available next steps.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when maintaining this USDA data server, deciding what to do next, or adding tools, resources, prompts, services, and tests.
Why use it?
They give Claude Code the project's rules and structure so it can make changes that fit the existing codebase instead of guessing.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents.

This is cyanheads/usda-mcp-server's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on usda-mcp-server itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything usda-mcp-server configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to cyanheads/usda-mcp-server. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cyanheads/usda-mcp-server/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cyanheads/usda-mcp-server

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

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README.md
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<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/cyanheads/usda-mcp-server/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/cyanheads/usda-mcp-server/claude-md.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 5,909 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 5,909 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 73% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.05909 $0.05909
Opus 5 $0.02955 $0.02955
Sonnet 5 $0.01182 $0.01182
Haiku 4.5 $0.00591 $0.00591

Measured 7d ago against content hash b227e1495456, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

usda-mcp-server CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 7d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

73% identical to obsidian-mcp-server AGENTS.md — 316 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

CLAUDE.md · 381 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 381 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Developer Protocol

Server: usda-mcp-server Version: 0.1.9 Framework: @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core ^0.12.3 Engines: Bun ≥1.3.0, Node ≥24.0.0 MCP SDK: @modelcontextprotocol/server ^2.0.0 Zod: ^4.4.3

Read the framework docs first: node_modules/@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core/CLAUDE.md contains the full API reference — builders, Context, error codes, exports, patterns. This file covers server-specific conventions only.


What's Next?

When the user asks what's next or needs direction, suggest options based on the current project state. Common next steps:

  1. Re-run the setup skill — ensures CLAUDE.md, skills, structure, and metadata are populated and up to date with the current codebase
  2. Run the design-mcp-server skill — if the tool/resource surface hasn't been mapped yet, work through domain design
  3. Add tools/resources/prompts — scaffold new definitions using the add-tool, add-app-tool, add-resource, add-prompt skills
  4. Add services — scaffold domain service integrations using the add-service skill
  5. Add tests — scaffold tests for existing definitions using the add-test skill
  6. Field-test definitions — exercise tools/resources/prompts with real inputs using the field-test skill, get a report of issues and pain points
  7. Run devcheck — lint, format, typecheck, and security audit
  8. Run the security-pass skill — audit handlers for MCP-specific security gaps: output injection, scope blast radius, input sinks, tenant isolation
  9. Run the polish-docs-meta skill — finalize README, CHANGELOG, metadata, and agent protocol for shipping
  10. Run the maintenance skill — investigate changelogs, adopt upstream changes, and sync skills after bun update --latest

Tailor suggestions to what's actually missing or stale — don't recite the full list every time.


Core Rules

  • Logic throws, framework catches. Tool/resource handlers are pure — throw on failure, no try/catch. Plain Error is fine; the framework catches, classifies, and formats. Use error factories (notFound(), validationError(), etc.) when the error code matters.
  • Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging. No console calls.
  • Use ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage. Never access persistence directly.
  • Need input the caller didn't supply? return ctx.requestInput(...) and read ctx.inputs when the handler is re-entered. Never await for user input mid-handler.
  • Secrets in env vars only — never hardcoded.
  • Close the loop on issues. When implementing work tracked by a GitHub issue, comment on the issue with what landed and close it. Do both — a comment without a close leaves stale issues open; a close without a comment leaves no record of what shipped. The comment is for future readers — state the concrete changes, not the conversation that produced them.

Read the full file on GitHub · 381 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 7d ago First seen · 381 lines · 5,909 tokens per session scan A b227e1495456

Subscribe to this mod's changes

usda-mcp-server CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository cyanheads/usda-mcp-server (1 stars, last pushed 14d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 5,909 tokens to every session, about $0.0295 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 73% identical to obsidian-mcp-server AGENTS.md, differing in 316 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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