clinical-trial-design MCP server

TypeScript MCP server that exposes the ClinicalTrialDesign R package as 9 trial-design tools over stdio (3 endpoint + 3 multi-hypothesis + 3 meta). One Rscript subprocess per tool call, JSON roundtrip, ~300 ms per call + R compute. Covers Phase 2 and Phase 3 confirmatory designs.

Published to npm as clinical-trial-design and to the official MCP registry as io.github.wei-ai-lab/clinical-trial-design.

Tools

See the top-level README for the full tool surface, SMOKE.md for the 18-prompt smoke matrix, and PUBLISH.md for the npm + registry publish steps.

Build

npm install                  # pulls dev dependencies (esbuild, typescript)
npm run build                # esbuild bundle → dist/index.js (the publish artifact)
npm run build:dev            # tsc → build/*.js per-file (used by the smoke script)

The server is wired from the top-level .claude-plugin/plugin.json:

"mcpServers": { "clinical-trial-design": { "command": "node", "args": ["mcp-server/dist/index.js"] } }

Smoke pass

npm run build:dev            # required: smoke imports from build/r-bridge.js
node scripts/smoke.mjs

Expected: 18 pass / 0 fail / 18 total. The R sources are loaded directly by r/inst/launcher.R (or ../r-package/ClinicalTrialDesign/inst/launcher.R in dev); no remotes::install_local step required.

Environment

• DESIGNR_RSCRIPT — full path to Rscript if not on PATH.
• DESIGNR_LAUNCHER — full path to launcher.R if you need to override the default. Wire-format identifier preserved as a stability commitment (see API_STABILITY.md).

Layout

src/
  index.ts                         # McpServer + stdio transport; registers 9 tools
  r-bridge.ts                      # spawns Rscript, JSON roundtrip, 60s timeout
  tools/
    common-schemas.ts              # shared zod fragments + ReasoningChainSchema
    design-binary.ts               # endpoint design (3 tools)
    design-continuous.ts
    design-survival.ts
    design-co-primary.ts           # multi-hypothesis (3 tools)
    design-multi-population.ts
    design-graphical-multiplicity.ts
    validate-benchmark.ts          # meta (3 tools)
    verify-design.ts
    design-report.ts
scripts/
  smoke.mjs                        # programmatic 18-prompt smoke pass
r/                                 # R sources staged for the npm tarball
  R/*.R
  inst/launcher.R
  DESCRIPTION
  NAMESPACE