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 9 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Capabilities API, Collections API, Data API, and 6 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 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.4/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 17/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

2 published contracts

NASA Earth Science Satellite Data Remote Sensing Geospatial Open Data Metadata CollectionGranules

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 33.4/100 · thin

Contract Quality 11.8 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 2.8 / 17

Access Clarity 2.5 / 17

Operational Transparency 4.9 / 11

Contract Governance 1.0 / 10

Discoverability 5.6 / 9

Regulatory Posture 1.6 / 15

Agent readiness — 17/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

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

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Show this score on your site.

It updates itself when the score changes. Paste this where you link to your API docs:

<a href="https://apis.io/providers/nasa-cmr/"><img src="https://apis.io/badge/nasa-cmr/card.svg" alt="NASA CMR on APIs.io — Kin Score by API Evangelist"></a>

Other styles, a README pill and a shields.io endpoint are on the badge page.

Raise your score.

Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Machine-Readable Auth +10 pts — a served openid-configuration/oauth-authorization-server carrying `issuer` (served), else the securitySchemes class in the provider OpenAPIs — bound (mutualTLS, DPoP, Signature) > negotiable (oauth2 authorizationCode/clientCredentials, openIdConnect) > bearer (http bearer, apiKey)
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link

10 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 14.5 — up to +17.1 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 16.7 — up to +16.7 composite points
Contract Quality scores 55.7 — up to +11.1 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/nasa-cmr/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/nasa-cmr to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Space and Satellite (operators, earth observation, ground segment)	undeclared	-	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 9

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

CMR Ingest API

REST API for creating, updating, and deleting metadata records in the Common Metadata Repository. Supports collections, granules, variables, services, tools, and subscriptions. ...

CMR Access Control API

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....

CMR GraphQL API

Unified GraphQL interface for querying the Common Metadata Repository. Provides a single endpoint to search collections, granules, variables, tools, services, citations, visuali...

CMR STAC API

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 item...

CMR OpenSearch API

OpenSearch-compliant API wrapper for CMR Search enabling standard OpenSearch client integration. Supports collection discovery with spatial and temporal parameters. Complements ...

NASA CMR Capabilities API

essential characteristics of this API

NASA CMR Collections API

Collection Search

NASA CMR Data API

access to data (features)

NASA CMR STAC API

Extension to WFS3 Core to support STAC metadata model and search API

Scroll for all 9

Open Collections 4

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

CMR Search Capabilities API

OPEN COLLECTION

CMR Search Capabilities Collections API

OPEN COLLECTION

CMR Search Capabilities Data API

OPEN COLLECTION

CMR Search Capabilities STAC API

OPEN COLLECTION

GraphQL 1

GraphQL schemas published by this provider.

NASA CMR GraphQL API

The NASA Common Metadata Repository (CMR) GraphQL API provides a unified interface for querying and managing Earth science metadata across NASA data centers. It exposes collecti...

GRAPHQL

NASA CMR API pricing

Not yet checked against NASA CMR's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist; confirm before you rely on a figure.

Plan	Price
Public Search (Anonymous)	—
Authenticated Search (EDL Token)	—
Provider Ingest Access	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Nasa Cmr Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Nasa Cmr Rate Limits

6 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

NASA CMR

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Nasa Cmr Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 2

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Nasa Cmr Context

0 classes · 22 properties

JSON-LD

Nasa Cmr Dataset Context

0 classes · 0 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

NASA CMR — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 6

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

NASA CMR STAC Collection

7 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NASA CMR STAC Featurecollectiongeojson

6 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NASA CMR STAC Featuregeojson

5 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NASA CMR STAC Landingpage

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Link

6 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NASA CMR STAC Searchbody

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 4

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Nasa Cmr Ingest Collection Request

10 fields

EXAMPLE

Nasa Cmr Search Collections Response

3 fields

EXAMPLE

Nasa Cmr Search Granules Response

3 fields

EXAMPLE

Nasa Cmr Stac Landing Page

7 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Nasa Cmr Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Nasa Cmr Agentic Access

10 operations

10 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

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 5

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

IssueTracker

Releases

Forums

StatusPage

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.

  '
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  license_evidence:
    not_product:
    - nasa/cmr-stac
    - nasa/common-metadata-repository
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: low
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  - repository-not-product
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  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: '0.23'
type: Index
tags:
- NASA
- Earth Science
- Satellite Data
- Remote Sensing
- Geospatial
- Open Data
- Metadata
- Collection
- Granules
tags_raw:
- 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
  - Collection
  - Granules
  - Providers
  tags_raw:
  - 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
  - Collection
  - Granules
  - Unified
  tags_raw:
  - 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
  - Collection
  - Item
  - Geospatial
  tags_raw:
  - 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
  - Collection
  tags_raw:
  - 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:
  - Collection
  tags_raw:
  - 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: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/nasa/cmr-stac/issues
- type: Releases
  url: https://github.com/nasa/cmr-stac/releases
- 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
x-parent: nasa
x-relationship: product

NASA CMR API — frequently asked questions

Does NASA CMR have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 9 APIs from NASA CMR, including CMR Ingest API, CMR Access Control API and CMR GraphQL API, and 6 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the NASA CMR API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for NASA CMR, each linked for download from this page.

How much does the NASA CMR API cost?

APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for NASA CMR, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the NASA CMR API ready for AI agents?

NASA CMR has a Kin Score of 33.4 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 17.2 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

curl for this page

This provider

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/nasa-cmr"

All providers

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers?limit=25"

Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/nasa-cmr/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/nasa-cmr/evidence"

Calls without X-API-Key need no key. Calls with it need a paid plan — get a key.

Get an API key

Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.