exodata

Terminal client for the Exoplanets Catalog — a queryable mirror of the NASA Exoplanet Archive's stellar hosts and exoplanets tables.

exodata runs SQL SELECT queries, browses rows, inspects schemas, and runs curated insights against the live API or a downloaded local dataset. Output is table, JSON, or CSV.

Install

cargo install exodata
exodata --help

First Commands

# Live API, default table output
exodata schema exoplanets
exodata rows exoplanets --columns pl_name,hostname,disc_year --limit 10
exodata query "SELECT pl_name, hostname FROM exoplanets ORDER BY disc_year DESC LIMIT 10"

# Curated insights
exodata insights list
exodata insights run nearest-stellar-hosts

Backends

--backend auto   use local dataset if present, otherwise API   (default)
--backend api    always hit https://exodata.space
--backend local  require a complete local dataset

Selection precedence: --backend flag > EXO_BACKEND env > config file > default auto.

Offline Mode

exodata download all          # downloads parquet + metadata into ~/.exodata
exodata --backend local schema exoplanets
exodata --backend local --data-dir /path/to/bundle query "SELECT ..."

Local mode expects all four files in one directory:

stellarhosts.parquet
exoplanets.parquet
stellarhosts-metadata.toml
exoplanets-metadata.toml

Output Formats

exodata schema exoplanets --output table   # default, pretty-printed
exodata schema exoplanets --output json    # for scripts and agents
exodata schema exoplanets --output csv

Configuration

exodata config path
exodata config get default_backend
exodata config set default_backend local

Persistent config lives at the platform config directory (e.g. ~/.config/exodata/config.toml). Environment overrides: EXO_BACKEND, EXO_API_BASE_URL, EXO_DATA_DIR, EXO_DOWNLOAD_DIR.

Agent Integration

The catalog also exposes a hosted MCP server at https://exodata.space/mcp (Streamable HTTP, stateless JSON) with five read-only tools: health, list_insights, run_insight, describe_catalog, query_catalog. Most MCP-aware agents can connect natively — for example, Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http exodata https://exodata.space/mcp

See the MCP docs for Crush, OpenCode, and Codex CLI snippets.

If you prefer the CLI as an agent surface, install the bundled skill so coding agents pick up exodata usage instructions:

exodata skill install local    # writes .agents/skills/exodata/SKILL.md
exodata skill install global   # writes ~/.agents/skills/exodata/SKILL.md

Repository Commands

Maintenance and data-preparation commands (raw-file conversion, sample views, local SQL against data/, etc.) are grouped under exodata dev. These are not aimed at end users; see the CLI spec for the full list.

More

• Web UI: https://exodata.space
• REST API: https://exodata.space/swagger-ui
• Source: https://github.com/oiwn/exoplanets-catalog
• Full CLI docs: https://github.com/oiwn/exoplanets-catalog/blob/main/docs/cli.md

License

AGPL-3.0-only.