io.github.cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server

Official

by cyanheads · TypeScript

MET Museum collection via MCP — 500K+ artworks, metadata, provenance, open-access images.

Search and browse 500K+ artworks from the MET Museum collection.

Topics

ai-agentsartbuncultural-heritagemcpmcp-servermodel-context-protocolmuseumopen-accesstypescript

README.md11 KBView on GitHub

<div align="center"> <h1>@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server</h1> <p><b>Search the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, fetch full artwork records and open-access images via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.</b> <div>3 Tools</div> </p> </div> <div align="center">

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Public Hosted Server: https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp

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Tools

Three tools for browsing and fetching Metropolitan Museum of Art collection data:

Tool	Description
`met_list_departments`	Return all 19 curatorial departments with their numeric IDs and display names
`met_search_collections`	Search the collection by keyword with filters for department, date range, medium, geography, on-view status, public-domain status, and highlight designation
`met_get_object`	Fetch full records for one or more object IDs — metadata, provenance, artist info, CC0 image URLs, tags, and Wikidata links

`met_list_departments`

Return the 19 curatorial departments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with their numeric IDs and display names.

Live fetch — remains accurate if the Met reorganizes
Use before met_search_collections to discover valid departmentId values

`met_search_collections`

Search the Met collection by keyword and optional filters.

Keyword search across title, artist name, culture, medium, tags, and other text fields
Filter by department ID (use met_list_departments to get valid IDs)
Filter by date range (integer years, negative = BCE)
Filter by medium/classification (e.g., "Paintings", "Sculptures", "Ceramics") — maps to the classification field, not material descriptions
Filter by geographic origin — country, region, or city; multiple values are AND-combined
isPublicDomain=true restricts to CC0 open-access objects (guaranteed usable image URLs)
hasImages=true includes any object with images (includes copyrighted works without reusable URLs)
isHighlight=true restricts to collection highlights designated by the Met
isOnView=true restricts to objects currently on display in a Met gallery
Returns total match count, truncation indicator, and up to limit object IDs (default 20, max 500)
Chain returned IDs to met_get_object in batches of up to 20

`met_get_object`

Fetch full records for one or more Met Museum object IDs.

Accepts 1–20 IDs per call; fetches run in parallel (concurrency-limited)
Partial-success — a single 404 does not fail the whole batch; failed IDs are reported per-ID
Full metadata: title, department, classification, medium, dimensions, date, culture, period, dynasty, accession number, credit line, gallery number
Artist data: display name, biography, nationality, dates, Getty ULAN URL, Wikidata URL
Constituents array for all associated persons (null for anonymous/unattributed works)
Controlled vocabulary tags with Getty AAT and Wikidata URLs
Canonical metmuseum.org URL for human follow-up
CC0 objects return full-resolution and web-display image URLs plus additional image arrays
Object-level Wikidata URL for enrichment via external knowledge graph tools

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches, classifies, and formats
Pluggable auth: none, jwt, oauth
Swappable storage backends: in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1
Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

Metropolitan Museum of Art collection:

500K+ artworks spanning 5,000 years from the Met's public collection API
CC0 open-access data from The Metropolitan Museum of Art — free to use without permission or attribution
Parallel batch fetching with configurable concurrency for met_get_object
Linked data on every object — Getty ULAN and AAT URLs, Wikidata entity URLs for artists, tags, and works

Agent-friendly output:

Provenance on every record — isPublicDomain and hasCC0Image flags distinguish CC0 objects from works with inaccessible images, so agents can reason about what they can actually display
Partial failure reporting — met_get_object returns objects and failed arrays so callers receive successful records alongside structured per-ID error context
Truncation signaling — met_search_collections returns total, returned, and truncated fields so agents know when to refine filters or increase limit

Getting started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. Point any MCP client at it via Streamable HTTP:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosted / Local

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

Bun v1.3.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
No API key required — the Met Collection API is public and unauthenticated.

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server.git

Navigate into the directory:

cd met-museum-mcp-server

Install dependencies:

bun install

Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env as needed (all vars are optional)

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts.

Variable	Description	Default
`MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE`	Transport: `stdio` or `http`	`stdio`
`MCP_HTTP_PORT`	HTTP server port	`3010`
`MCP_AUTH_MODE`	Authentication: `none`, `jwt`, or `oauth`	`none`
`MCP_LOG_LEVEL`	Log level (`debug`, `info`, `warning`, `error`)	`info`
`LOGS_DIR`	Directory for log files (Node.js only)	`<project-root>/logs`
`OTEL_ENABLED`	Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation	`false`
`MET_BASE_URL`	Met Collection API base URL (override for local stubs)	`https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1`
`MET_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS`	Per-request HTTP timeout in milliseconds	`10000`
`MET_BATCH_CONCURRENCY`	Max parallel fetches in `met_get_object`	`5`

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

Build and run:

# One-time build
bun run rebuild

# Run the built server
bun run start:stdio
# or
bun run start:http

Run checks and tests:

bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
bun run test       # Vitest test suite
bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t met-museum-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 met-museum-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/met-museum-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Directory	Purpose
`src/index.ts`	`createApp()` entry point — registers tools and inits the Met service.
`src/config`	Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
`src/mcp-server/tools`	Tool definitions (`*.tool.ts`) — `met_list_departments`, `met_search_collections`, `met_get_object`.
`src/services/met`	Met Collection API client — HTTP, request timeout, response normalization.
`tests/`	Unit and integration tests mirroring `src/`.

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
Register new tools via the arrays in createApp() in src/index.ts
Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

Data from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API (CC0).

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.

Install

Configuration

Environment variables

MCP_LOG_LEVELdefault info

Sets the minimum log level for output (e.g., 'debug', 'info', 'warn').

MCP_HTTP_HOSTdefault 127.0.0.1

The hostname for the HTTP server.

MCP_HTTP_PORTdefault 3010

The port to run the HTTP server on.

MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATHdefault /mcp

The endpoint path for the MCP server.

MCP_AUTH_MODEdefault none

Authentication mode to use: 'none', 'jwt', or 'oauth'.

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server@0.2.2",
        "run",
        "start:stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}