Annalist

What Annalist MCP server does

Annalist MCP server documents an append-only archive for crowd-state data intended for AI agents. Its public GitHub repository acts as a ledger: once per day, it records a fingerprint of the files written by the archive on the previous day. The record is signed and timestamped so an external party can check when the archive contained particular data.

Daily records are stored under ledger/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.json. Each record contains the manifests produced that day and a root hash derived from those manifest hashes in their listed order. The repository also stores public signing keys under keys/.

How it works

Every archive run has a manifest. That manifest identifies the files written during the run, including each file's SHA-256 hash and size, and is signed with the current Ed25519 key. The daily ledger entry then includes the hashes of those manifests and a combined root hash.

The entry itself is signed over canonical JSON: keys are sorted, whitespace is omitted, and the content is encoded as UTF-8. Annalist API data responses are also described as carrying signatures. This gives a verifier multiple checks: the signature can establish authenticity, while file hashes can connect an archived file to a recorded manifest and date.

Each daily JSON entry has a matching .ots file. The OpenTimestamps proof begins in a pending state and is later upgraded to a Bitcoin attestation, generally within a day or two. Verification can use the OpenTimestamps client and a Bitcoin block source, or the OpenTimestamps website.

Setup and configuration

The supplied material does not provide installation instructions, an MCP transport, startup command, configuration file, or environment variables for the Annalist MCP server. It describes the repository layout and verification process instead.

To inspect a timestamp proof, the README gives the form ots verify ledger/2026/10/2026-10-13.json.ots. Signature checks require the public key corresponding to the entry, such as the current key identified as 187e49f200625a2f, and the canonical representation of the signed entry.

Tools and capabilities

The README does not enumerate MCP tools or their input schemas. The documented capabilities are:

• Recording daily archive manifests in a public ledger.
• Computing SHA-256 hashes for manifests and archived files.
• Signing ledger entries and manifests with Ed25519.
• Providing OpenTimestamps proofs for daily entries.
• Supporting independent checks of signatures, timestamps, and file presence.

The Annalist MCP server's agent-facing tool surface cannot be determined from the supplied excerpt. Consult the repository's current implementation before depending on a particular operation or client integration.