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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

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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

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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:

{
  "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.

{
  "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):

{
  "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:

{
  "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

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd met-museum-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. 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.