Place-aware nature data for developers. What's happening in nature at these coordinates right now?
Pondlog stitches together free public APIs (iNaturalist, eBird, USA-NPN,
USGS, Mushroom Observer) plus local astronomy computation
(astronomy-engine) and NOAA tides/cloud cover into one data layer
with two interfaces:
- A CLI for humans (
pondlog inat nearby --lat 48.118 --lng -123.43) - An MCP server per source for AI agents (Claude Desktop, Cursor)
8 data sources. 7 MCP servers. 1 unified CLI. A ~1000-crop garden planner with USDA hardiness zones and companion-planting graph.
| Package | npm | What it does |
|---|---|---|
pondlog |
 |
Unified CLI |
@pondlog/core |
 |
Shared types, Result<T>, rate limiter, USDA zones, crop calendar, companions |
@pondlog/source-inaturalist |
 |
iNaturalist API client |
@pondlog/source-ebird |
 |
eBird API client (21 endpoints) |
@pondlog/source-npn |
 |
USA-NPN phenology client |
@pondlog/source-usgs |
 |
USGS Water Services client |
@pondlog/source-nightsky |
 |
Local night-sky briefing (astronomy-engine) |
@pondlog/source-mushroomobserver |
 |
Mushroom Observer (mycology) client |
@pondlog/source-trefle |
 |
Trefle.io plant taxonomy client |
@pondlog/mcp-inaturalist |
 |
iNaturalist MCP server (9 tools) |
@pondlog/mcp-ebird |
 |
eBird MCP server (21 tools) |
@pondlog/mcp-npn |
 |
NPN MCP server (8 tools) |
@pondlog/mcp-usgs |
 |
USGS MCP server (4 tools) |
@pondlog/mcp-mushroomobserver |
 |
Mushroom Observer MCP server (5 tools, mycology-first) |
@pondlog/mcp-garden |
 |
Garden-planning MCP server (8 tools, calendar + zones + companions + Trefle) |
@pondlog/mcp-pondlog |
 |
Aggregate MCP server (5 tools, all eight sources) |
| Source | Library | CLI | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| iNaturalist | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| eBird | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| NPN (phenology) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| USGS (water) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mushroom Observer (mycology) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Garden (USDA zones + ~5,000-crop calendar + companions + Trefle) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Night sky (astronomy-engine) |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ (via mcp-pondlog) |
Aggregate (pondlog today / mcp-pondlog) |
n/a | ✅ | ✅ |
Add to your Claude Desktop config
(~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on
macOS):
{
"mcpServers": {
"pondlog-inaturalist": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pondlog/mcp-inaturalist"]
}
}
}Then ask Claude:
What amphibians have been seen near Port Angeles, WA in the last week?
The same JSON works in ~/.cursor/mcp.json for Cursor. Run any MCP
server in one command:
npx -y @pondlog/mcp-inaturalist # no key
npx -y @pondlog/mcp-garden # offline garden tools
EBIRD_API_KEY=... npx -y @pondlog/mcp-ebird
npx -y @pondlog/mcp-pondlog # aggregate of all eight sourcesnpm install -g pondlog
pondlog config set-location --lat 48.118 --lng -123.4307 --name "Port Angeles"
pondlog today # unified briefing
pondlog inat nearby
pondlog ebird notable
pondlog npn active
pondlog usgs flow --site 12045500
pondlog nightsky # tonight's curated briefing
pondlog garden now # what to plant this week--json works on every command for machine output.
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ @pondlog/core │
│ types, Result<T>, │
│ RateLimiter, withRetry,│
│ USDA zones, crops, │
│ companion graph │
└────────────┬────────────┘
│
┌──────────┬──────────┬────────┼─────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
source-inat source-ebird source-npn source-usgs source-mo source-trefle source-nightsky
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
└──────────┴──────────┴────────┼─────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
│
┌────────────────────┴────────────────────┐
▼ ▼
pondlog (CLI) 7 × @pondlog/mcp-* servers
├─ pondlog today (aggregate) ├─ mcp-inaturalist
├─ pondlog inat/ebird/... ├─ mcp-ebird
└─ pondlog garden/nightsky ├─ mcp-npn / mcp-usgs
├─ mcp-mushroomobserver
├─ mcp-garden
└─ mcp-pondlog ◀── aggregate
Source clients do all the work (Zod validation, rate limiting, retry, normalization). The CLI and MCP servers are thin wrappers around them.
- One data layer, two interfaces. Each source is a typed library
(Zod-validated, rate-limited, returns
Result<T>). The CLI and MCP servers are thin wrappers. No business logic in them. - Degrade gracefully. When a source is down, the aggregate still returns whatever else worked, with errors reported in-band.
- Rate limits respected. Each client throttles itself. Never trust the caller.
- No keys for what doesn't need them. iNaturalist, NPN, USGS, Mushroom Observer, and the night-sky source all run keyless. Only eBird and Trefle require free keys.
- Local computation when the data isn't external. Astronomy is
pure math;
@pondlog/source-nightskyships zero network calls, zero rate limits, zero failure modes. The garden calendar, zones, and companion graph are bundled JSON, all offline.
CropGraph is a sibling HTTP API exposing
the same ~1000-crop planting calendar, USDA hardiness zones, and
companion-planting graph used by @pondlog/core and @pondlog/mcp-garden.
Use CropGraph when you want the data over HTTP from any language. The
schemas are kept in lockstep with this repo.
PRs welcome. The build is pnpm-based:
git clone https://github.com/andrewschristison/pondlog.git
cd pondlog
pnpm install
pnpm typecheck
pnpm build
pnpm test
pnpm smoke # live tests against iNaturalistThe crop calendar (packages/core/src/data/crop-calendar.json) and
companion graph (packages/core/src/data/companions.json) accept
community PRs. Both have JSON Schemas alongside the data:
packages/core/src/data/crop-calendar.schema.jsonpackages/core/src/data/companions.schema.json
When adding a crop entry, include a per-entry source citing a real
extension service (USDA, Cornell, WSU, Oregon State, UMass, UF/IFAS,
etc.). When adding a companion edge, include evidence (strong or
moderate) and a citation URL. Zod validation runs at module load,
so a malformed PR breaks import "@pondlog/core" immediately.
Each package follows a strict pattern documented in
docs/METHODOLOGY.md. Source clients always
ship before the CLI commands or MCP tools that consume them.
MIT. See LICENSE.