@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server

v0.1.1 pre-1.0

MCP server for The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection — 500K+ artworks with metadata, provenance, and open-access high-res images.

public 3 tools protocol 2025-11-25 github cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server

claude mcp add --transport http met-museum-mcp-server https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp

codex mcp add met-museum-mcp-server --url https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp

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

gemini mcp add --transport http met-museum-mcp-server https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "met-museum-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "@cyanheads/met-museum-mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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

curl -X POST https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-11-25","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"curl","version":"1.0.0"}}}'

Built on@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core v0.9.19

Tools

met_list_departments

Return the 19 curatorial departments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with their numeric IDs and display names. Use before calling met_search to discover valid departmentId values. The department list is fetched live on each call to remain accurate if the Met reorganizes.

read

invocation

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "met_list_departments",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}

schema

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {},
  "additionalProperties": false
}

view source ↗

met_search

Search the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection by keyword and optional filters; returns total match count and a page of object IDs. Always chain the returned IDs to met_get_object (up to 20 at a time) to retrieve full records. Search relevance is keyword-based, not semantic — use concise terms and apply departmentId or geoLocation filters to sharpen results. The medium parameter maps to the classification field (pass "Paintings", "Drawings", etc., not material descriptions like "Oil on canvas"). isPublicDomain guarantees CC0-licensed images; hasImages also includes copyrighted works.

read

invocation

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "met_search",
    "arguments": {
      "q": "<q>"
    }
  }
}

schema

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "q": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "Keyword query. Searched across title, artist name, culture, medium, tags, and other text fields. Use concise, specific terms — broad queries return large ID sets. Tip: departmentId and geoLocation sharpen results far more than a longer query string."
    },
    "hasImages": {
      "description": "When true, restricts results to objects that have at least one associated image. For freely reusable CC0 images, use isPublicDomain instead — hasImages includes copyrighted works whose images cannot be reproduced.",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "isPublicDomain": {
      "description": "When true, restricts results to objects released under CC0 open access — free to use without permission or attribution. These objects return direct high-resolution image URLs in met_get_object. Can be combined with departmentId but severely restricts results (the search index only indexes a subset of public-domain objects per department); prefer using isPublicDomain alone and filtering by department from the returned object records.",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "isHighlight": {
      "description": "When true, restricts to objects the Met has designated as highlights — major works central to the collection. Use to surface iconic pieces rather than browsing the full corpus.",
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "medium": {
      "description": "Filter by object classification (e.g., \"Paintings\", \"Drawings\", \"Prints\", \"Ceramics\", \"Sculpture\", \"Photographs\", \"Textiles\"). Maps to the classification field on the object, not the materials/medium text field — pass a classification category name, not a material description like \"Oil on canvas\".",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "departmentId": {
      "description": "Restrict results to one curatorial department. Use met_list_departments to get valid IDs (1–21, not all integers are valid). Can be combined with other filters; combining with isPublicDomain works but returns far fewer results than expected — use isPublicDomain alone when CC0 coverage is the goal.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    },
    "geoLocation": {
      "description": "Filter by geographic origin. Each value is matched broadly against geography fields and artist nationality. Multiple values are AND-combined — [\"France\", \"Egypt\"] returns objects associated with both, not either; use a single value for broader results. Works best with the Egyptian Art, Greek and Roman Art, and similar departments that have well-populated geography fields.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "A country, region, or city (e.g., \"France\", \"Egypt\", \"New York\")."
      }
    },
    "dateBegin": {
      "description": "Earliest object date (year, inclusive). Negative integers for BCE (e.g., -500 for 500 BCE). Requires dateEnd.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    },
    "dateEnd": {
      "description": "Latest object date (year, inclusive). Negative integers for BCE. Requires dateBegin.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      "maximum": 9007199254740991
    },
    "limit": {
      "default": 20,
      "description": "Maximum number of object IDs to return from the full result set. The API returns all matches (up to tens of thousands) — this caps what is handed back. Chain the returned IDs to met_get_object in batches of up to 20.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 500
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "q",
    "limit"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

view source ↗

met_get_object

Fetch full records for one or more Met Museum object IDs. Accepts up to 20 IDs per call, fetches in parallel (concurrency-limited), and returns partial-success — a single 404 does not fail the whole batch. Object IDs come from met_search. Non-public-domain objects return empty image URLs. The constituents array is null for anonymous or unattributed works; tags is null for untagged objects.

read

invocation

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "met_get_object",
    "arguments": {
      "objectIDs": "<objectIDs>"
    }
  }
}

schema

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "objectIDs": {
      "minItems": 1,
      "maxItems": 20,
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "integer",
        "exclusiveMinimum": 0,
        "maximum": 9007199254740991,
        "description": "A Met object ID from met_search."
      },
      "description": "One or more Met object IDs to fetch. Maximum 20 per call. IDs come from met_search. Fetches run in parallel (concurrency-limited); partial failures are reported per ID rather than failing the whole batch."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "objectIDs"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

view source ↗