Imaging Data Commons

Overview

Query and download public cancer imaging data from the National Cancer Institute Imaging Data Commons (IDC). No authentication required for data access.

Expected network access: IDC metadata is reachable three ways — a local DuckDB index shipped with the idc-index Python package (no network), or the hosted IDC service over MCP or REST (api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov, no authentication). File downloads use public GCS (storage.googleapis.com) and AWS S3 (s3.amazonaws.com) — no authentication required. DICOMweb access uses either the public IDC proxy (proxy.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov, no auth) or the Google Cloud Healthcare API (healthcare.googleapis.com, requires GCP authentication). Optional BigQuery queries (bigquery.googleapis.com) also require GCP authentication. No credentials or environment variables are accessed by this skill.

Current IDC Data Version: v24 (always verify — see Best Practices)

Choose the access path first. There is no single default: the cheapest correct path depends on the session and the task.