NASA CMR

NASA Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance metadata system that catalogs Earth science data collections, granules, variables, services, and tools across NASA data centers. It provides REST, GraphQL, STAC, OpenSearch, and CSW interfaces for discovering, searching, and ingesting metadata for satellite and Earth observation datasets spanning decades of NASA missions.

NASA CMR publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Capabilities API, Collections API, Data API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include NASA, Earth Science, Satellite Data, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial.

The NASA CMR catalog on APIs.io includes 2 JSON-LD contexts and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

NASA CMR’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, and 11 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

43.2/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 22/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

9 APIs

NASAEarth ScienceSatellite DataRemote SensingGeospatialOpen DataMetadataCollectionsGranules

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 43.2/100 · developing

Contract Quality 13.3 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20

Commercial Clarity 10.5 / 20

Operational Transparency 6.8 / 13

Governance 7.0 / 12

Discoverability 7.4 / 10

Agent readiness — 22/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/nasa-cmr: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 9

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

GraphQL 1

GraphQL schemas published by this provider.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Nasa Cmr Rate Limits

6 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

JSON Schema 6

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Examples 4

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Login

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrg

GitHubOrg

GitHubRepository

GitHubRepository

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Forums

Forums

StatusPage

StatusPage

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: nasa-cmr
name: NASA CMR
description: 'NASA Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance metadata system that catalogs Earth science data
  collections, granules, variables, services, and tools across NASA data centers. It provides REST, GraphQL, STAC, OpenSearch,
  and CSW interfaces for discovering, searching, and ingesting metadata for satellite and Earth observation datasets spanning
  decades of NASA missions.

  '
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/nasa-cmr.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/nasa-cmr/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
type: Index
tags:
- NASA
- Earth Science
- Satellite Data
- Remote Sensing
- Geospatial
- Open Data
- Metadata
- Collections
- Granules
apis:
- aid: nasa-cmr:cmr-ingest
  name: CMR Ingest API
  description: 'REST API for creating, updating, and deleting metadata records in the Common Metadata Repository. Supports
    collections, granules, variables, services, tools, and subscriptions. Requires EDL Bearer Token or Launchpad SAML token
    authentication. Validates metadata against UMM schemas with revision tracking for all changes.

    '
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/ingest/site/docs/ingest/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/ingest
  tags:
  - Ingest
  - Metadata
  - Collections
  - Granules
  - Providers
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/ingest/site/docs/ingest/api.html
  contact:
  - FN: NASA Earthdata Support
    url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
    email: support@earthdata.nasa.gov
- aid: nasa-cmr:cmr-access-control
  name: CMR Access Control API
  description: 'REST API for managing Access Control Lists (ACLs) and checking user permissions across CMR concepts. Supports
    system, provider, single-instance, and catalog-item identity types. Enables fine-grained access control for NASA data
    providers and their collections.

    '
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/access-control/site/docs/access-control/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/access-control
  tags:
  - Access Control
  - ACL
  - Permissions
  - Security
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/access-control/site/docs/access-control/api.html
  contact:
  - FN: NASA Earthdata Support
    url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
    email: support@earthdata.nasa.gov
- aid: nasa-cmr:cmr-graphql
  name: CMR GraphQL API
  description: 'Unified GraphQL interface for querying the Common Metadata Repository. Provides a single endpoint to search
    collections, granules, variables, tools, services, citations, visualizations, grids, groups, subscriptions, and ACLs.
    Supports optional EDL Bearer Token authentication for accessing restricted resources.

    '
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://graphql.earthdata.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/introduction/
  baseURL: https://graphql.earthdata.nasa.gov/api
  tags:
  - GraphQL
  - Search
  - Collections
  - Granules
  - Unified
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://graphql.earthdata.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/introduction/
  - url: graphql/nasa-cmr-graphql.md
    type: GraphQL
  contact:
  - FN: NASA Earthdata Support
    url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
    email: support@earthdata.nasa.gov
- aid: nasa-cmr:cmr-stac
  name: CMR STAC API
  description: 'SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) compliant API wrapping the CMR Search API. Organizes the full NASA CMR
    catalog by provider and enables discovery of STAC collections and items. CMR-CLOUDSTAC variant provides access only to
    cloud-hosted assets available in AWS S3.

    '
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://github.com/nasa/cmr-stac
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/stac
  tags:
  - STAC
  - Cloud
  - Collections
  - Items
  - Geospatial
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/nasa/cmr-stac/blob/master/docs/usage/usage.md
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/nasa/cmr-stac
  contact:
  - FN: NASA Earthdata Support
    url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
    email: support@earthdata.nasa.gov
- aid: nasa-cmr:cmr-opensearch
  name: CMR OpenSearch API
  description: 'OpenSearch-compliant API wrapper for CMR Search enabling standard OpenSearch client integration. Supports
    collection discovery with spatial and temporal parameters. Complements the native REST search API for clients expecting
    OpenSearch Description Document (OSDD) responses.

    '
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/opensearch/home/docs
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/opensearch
  tags:
  - OpenSearch
  - Discovery
  - Collections
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/opensearch/home/docs
  contact:
  - FN: NASA Earthdata Support
    url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
    email: support@earthdata.nasa.gov
- aid: nasa-cmr:nasa-cmr-capabilities-api
  name: NASA CMR Capabilities API
  description: essential characteristics of this API
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search
  tags:
  - Capabilities
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-cmr-capabilities-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
- aid: nasa-cmr:nasa-cmr-collections-api
  name: NASA CMR Collections API
  description: Collection Search
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search
  tags:
  - Collections
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-cmr-collections-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
- aid: nasa-cmr:nasa-cmr-data-api
  name: NASA CMR Data API
  description: access to data (features)
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search
  tags:
  - Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-cmr-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
- aid: nasa-cmr:nasa-cmr-stac-api
  name: NASA CMR STAC API
  description: Extension to WFS3 Core to support STAC metadata model and search API
  humanURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
  baseURL: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search
  tags:
  - STAC
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-cmr-stac-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/site/docs/search/api.html
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/nasa-cmr-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/nasa-cmr-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/about/esdis/eosdis/cmr
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/earthdata-developer-portal/cmr-api
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/nasa
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/nasa/Common-Metadata-Repository
- type: Forums
  url: https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/
- type: Login
  url: https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.earthdata.nasa.gov/
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news
- type: Plans
  url: plans/nasa-cmr-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/nasa-cmr-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/nasa-cmr-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com