OSF CLI Go

osf-cli-go

A Go command-line client for the Open Science Framework (OSF).

Features

• osf auth whoami — Identify the authenticated OSF account
• osf auth login — Guided personal-access-token bootstrap for username/password users
• osf projects list|get — List and inspect projects
• osf components list — List project components
• osf files list|download|upload|mkdir|rm — Browse, download, upload, create folders, and delete OSF Storage files
• osf search, osf search --bibtex, osf preprints list|search, and osf resolve — Search/export OSF literature metadata, discover preprints, and resolve OSF DOI destinations
• osf registrations create — Create draft registrations for an existing node
• osf export — Export a node snapshot as JSON or a summary table
• osf validate — Check OSF node metadata with deterministic research-output or preregistration profiles
• osf-mcp — Stdio MCP server exposing read-only OSF tools for agent clients
• osf completion bash|zsh|fish|powershell — Shell completion scripts
• JSON and human-readable output modes
• Safe, atomic file downloads with conflict policy (fail/skip/overwrite)

Install

Requirements:

• Go 1.26 or newer

go install github.com/edithatogo/osf-cli-go/cmd/osf@latest
go install github.com/edithatogo/osf-cli-go/cmd/osf-mcp@latest

Or from a local checkout:

go build -o bin\osf.exe ./cmd/osf
go build -o bin\osf-mcp.exe ./cmd/osf-mcp
.\scripts\build.ps1

Authentication

Set OSF_TOKEN in your shell session. Do not commit the token or write it into project files. OSF_USERNAME and OSF_PASSWORD are supported as an opt-in fallback credential source, but personal access tokens remain preferred for automation and for accounts using SSO or two-factor authentication.

$env:OSF_TOKEN = '<your-token>'

For guided token setup:

osf auth login

Quick Start

osf --help
osf auth whoami
osf projects list
osf projects get https://osf.io/abc12/
osf components list abc12
osf files list abc12
osf files download --file <file-id> ./output/
osf files download --tree abc12 ./output/
osf files upload --node abc12 ./report.pdf
osf search "open science"
osf search "open science" --bibtex
osf preprints list
osf preprints search "open science" --provider osf
osf resolve 10.1234/example
osf registrations create abc12 --schema <schema-id> --title "Analysis plan"
osf export abc12 --json

MCP Server

osf-mcp runs a stdio MCP server with read-only tools: osf_whoami, osf_projects_list, osf_project_get, osf_components_list, osf_files_list, osf_contributors_list, osf_search, osf_preprints_list, osf_preprints_search, and osf_doi_resolve.

The parity discovery tools are bounded and deterministic: osf_search requires a non-empty query and accepts a limit from 1 to 100, while osf_preprints_list accepts an optional provider and the same bounded limit. osf_preprints_search requires a title query, accepts an optional provider, and returns publication date, published state, DOI, and OSF HTML URL with a limit from 1 to 100. These tools return structured JSON through the MCP server and never perform writes.

OSF search results include stable IDs, title, abstract, keywords, year, and URL. Use osf search <query> --bibtex to emit deterministic BibTeX records for literature-review workflows. The command does not resolve contributor names or download PDFs automatically.

For DataLad workflows, OSF CLI Go provides the general-purpose OSF API and safe file primitives used around a dataset, including osf export and osf files download --tree. It does not install or configure DataLad, Git remotes, or git-annex special remotes; those integrations remain a separately scoped interoperability boundary.

Local development configs are included for GitHub Copilot, VS Code, Claude, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Qwen Code. Public registry metadata is in server.json and registry/.

Related MCP Servers

Other maintained servers in the same Glama portfolio:

• FYI MCP for freedom-of-information request workflows.
• Healthpoint MCP for licensed health-service directory data.
• SourceRight for reference and citation verification.

Related OSF ecosystem servers:

• OSF connector by pipeworx-io for hosted OSF connectivity.
• Paperclip for multi-provider scholarly and OSF Preprints search.

Output Modes

All commands support --output table|json and --json shorthand:

osf projects list --json
osf auth whoami --output json

Project Status

The CLI is offline-tested for read-only operations, file downloads, WaterButler write primitives, search, preprint listing, draft registration creation, project create/update/delete operations, and node export. All Conductor tracks are reconciled against their per-track plans with closeout review evidence; live OSF validation remains opt-in because it requires credentials and network access.

Documentation

• Release checklist
• Documentation site source
• Install guide
• Usage guide
• Command reference
• Examples
• Architecture
• Developer guide
• MCP roadmap
• Contributing

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.

Citation

If you use this software in your research, please cite it using the metadata in CITATION.cff.