Hugging Face MCP: datasets, repos and papers from your AI app

Connect Hugging Face to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

1. 1Click Connect Hugging Face free and sign in with your Hugging Face account.
2. 2All of Hugging Face's tools are available once you connect. Reading datasets and papers changes nothing, but commits can add, update or delete files in a model, dataset or Space repository, so switch off the commit tools if your AI app should only read.
3. 3Add ContextGate to your AI app as a connector or MCP server. The steps for each app are on the Works with page.
4. 4Ask your AI app for the first rows of a Hugging Face dataset and its license, then open Activity to see the calls.

Machine learning work from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

• Preview the first rows of a dataset split with column types, or filter rows using SQL-like conditions.
• Read a dataset's description, license and features before you use it.
• Get the latest AI and ML papers shared on Hugging Face.
• Create a repository, a branch or a commit for a model, dataset or Space.
• Open, comment on and close discussions on a repository.

Control writes to your repositories

• Switch off the commit and branch tools, and your AI app can read datasets and papers without changing a repository.
• Policies check every call, so an access token or other secret inside a file being committed can be blocked.
• Activity records each Hugging Face call, including discussions your AI app opened or closed.

What you get with Hugging Face and ContextGate

• Your AI apps can use Hugging FaceClaude, Cursor, ChatGPT and other AI apps reach Hugging Face through the one ContextGate connection you add to them.
• You choose which tools they can useSwitch off any Hugging Face tool you don't want used. It's hidden from your AI apps and refused if called.
• Every call is checked and recordedYour policies check each call (for example, personal data is hidden and secrets are blocked), and Activity keeps a record of it.

ContextGate sees only the tool calls that go through it, not your AI app's built-in tools or your chats.

Hugging Face tools

Examples of what your AI apps can do in Hugging Face. You'll see the exact list of tools after you connect it.

• Change Discussion StatusTool to change the status of a Hugging Face repository discussion. Use when you need to open or close discussions on models, datasets, or spaces.
• Create Datasets BranchTool to create a new branch in a Hugging Face dataset repository. Use when you need to create a branch for versioning or experimentation with dataset changes.
• Create Datasets CommitTool to create a commit in a Hugging Face dataset repository. Use when you need to add, update, or delete files in a dataset. Supports both regular files and Large File Storage (LFS) for large binary
• Create DiscussionTool to create a new discussion on a Hugging Face repository (model, dataset, or Space). Use when you need to start a conversation, report an issue, or create a pull request discussion.
• Create Discussion CommentTool to create a new comment on a Hugging Face repository discussion. Use when you need to add comments or replies to discussions on models, datasets, or spaces.
• Create models branchTool to create a new branch in a Hugging Face model repository. Use when you need to create a branch for experimenting with model changes, versioning, or creating isolated development environments.
• Create Models CommitTool to create a commit to a Hugging Face model repository. Use when you need to add, update, or delete files in a model repository. Supports both standard JSON and JSON-lines (NDJSON) formats. JSON-l
• Create RepositoryTool to create a new repository (model, dataset, or Space) on Hugging Face Hub. Use when you need to initialize a new repository for uploading models, datasets, or deploying Spaces applications.
• Create spaces branchTool to create a new branch in a Hugging Face space repository. Use when you need to create a branch for experimenting with space changes, versioning, or creating isolated development environments.
• Create Spaces CommitTool to create a commit in a Hugging Face Space repository. Use when you need to add, update, or delete files in a Space. Supports both JSON and NDJSON (recommended) payload formats for commits.
• Filter dataset rowsTool to filter rows in a Hugging Face dataset split based on SQL-like query conditions. Use when you need to search or filter specific rows from a dataset based on column values, or to retrieve sorted
• Generate Chat CompletionTool to generate a response given a list of messages in a conversational context. Supports both conversational Language Models (LLMs) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs). Compatible with OpenAI SDK.
• Generate Text EmbeddingsTool to convert text into vector embeddings for feature extraction, semantic search, and similarity tasks. Use when you need numerical representations of text for ML applications.
• Get Daily PapersTool to retrieve daily papers from Hugging Face. Use when you need to fetch the latest AI/ML research papers shared on Hugging Face.
• Get Dataset First RowsTool to get the first 100 rows of a dataset split along with column data types and features. Use when you need to preview or sample dataset content.
• Get Dataset InfoTool to get general information about a dataset including description, citation, homepage, license, and features (column schemas). Use when you need to understand dataset structure, available splits,
• Get Dataset RowsTool to retrieve a slice of rows from a Hugging Face dataset split at any given location (offset). Returns up to 100 rows at a time with complete feature type information and no truncation. Use when y
• Get Discussion DetailsTool to get detailed information about a specific discussion or pull request on Hugging Face Hub. Use when you need to retrieve all comments, status changes, events, and for PRs, the diff information.
• Get Discussion DetailsTool to retrieve discussion details from a Hugging Face repository. Use when you need to get information about a specific discussion or pull request, including comments, events, and status.
• Check Dataset ValidityTool to check whether a specific dataset is valid on Hugging Face Hub. Use when you need to determine what features (preview, viewer, search, filter, statistics) are available for a dataset.