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Harvard Art

Searches the Harvard Art Museums collection and retrieves detailed artwork records through MCP tools.

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Install Harvard Art

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harvard-art": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

We couldn’t confirm it starts correctly

The install command started, but didn't respond the way we expected when we tried to talk to it.

npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art

initialize succeeded but no response to tools/list.

This is an experimental automated check and can have false negatives — missing environment variables, a slow cold install, etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean something’s wrong. Last checked 6d ago.

Overview

The Harvard Art MCP server searches the Harvard Art Museums collection and retrieves full records for individual objects. Its `search` tool returns IDs, titles, creators, dates, and image links; `object` uses a numeric ID to fetch more detail. Use the hosted Pipeworx endpoint for MCP clients or run the package locally over stdio. The hosted endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, while the local server provides only the two Harvard Art tools.

Use cases

  • Search museum records by artwork keyword
  • Retrieve full details for a museum object
  • Find creators, dates, and image links
  • Connect an agent to Harvard Art Museums data

Key features

  • Keyword search across the Harvard Art Museums collection
  • Object lookup by numeric museum ID
  • Titles, creators, dates, and image links in search results
  • Hosted MCP access through Pipeworx
  • Local stdio execution through npm

Tools2

What Harvard Art lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Self-reported~69 tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked 2d ago

Recent health check succeeded.

4/4 checks healthy over the last 39d

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 13d ago via OSV.dev · @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars2Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads416Package downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit26d agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Install checkInconclusiveStarted but did not complete the MCP handshake in our test.
Tools exposed2Callable tools this server registers over MCP.
Directory activity2 viewsConfig copies, upvotes, and views on AllMCPs.

How Harvard Art works

What Harvard Art MCP server does

The Harvard Art MCP server gives an MCP-compatible agent access to the Harvard Art Museums collection. It supports two collection operations: keyword search and lookup by object ID. Search results can include an item’s numeric ID, title, creator, date, and image links. The returned ID can then be passed to the object tool to retrieve the full details for that item.

This server fits workflows that need to find museum collection records from natural-language agent interactions or from direct MCP tool calls. It does not describe general museum research, image analysis, or collection changes; the documented capabilities are read-only search and object retrieval.

How it works

The hosted option uses the Pipeworx gateway at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/harvard-art/mcp. An MCP client connects to that URL and can discover and call the Harvard Art tools. The same gateway connection also lists shared Pipeworx meta-tools, including routing and discovery functions. As a result, the hosted endpoint may show more tools than the two specific to Harvard Art. Its initialization response is the authoritative source for the tools available at a given time.

The gateway also provides an HTTP tool-call interface. For example, a POST request to the documented Harvard Art search endpoint can send a JSON query such as {"query":"rembrandt"}.

A local package is available through npm. In this mode, the Harvard Art MCP server communicates over stdin and stdout and exposes only its own collection tools, without the gateway’s shared meta-tools or cross-catalog routing.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted MCP connection, add the Pipeworx URL as the server URL in a compatible client. Alternatively, configure a local server with the command npx and the argument -y @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art.

You can start the local process directly with npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art to confirm that it launches. The provided setup does not specify environment variables or API keys. The local mode is documented as requiring no Pipeworx account.

Tools and capabilities

  • search: searches the Harvard Art Museums collection by keyword and returns matching item data, including IDs, titles, creators, dates, and image links.
  • object: retrieves full details for one item using its numeric Harvard Art Museums object ID, normally obtained from search.

The gateway’s scoped endpoint additionally includes shared Pipeworx tools. Those tools are part of the gateway layer rather than the Harvard Art collection interface itself.

Limitations and notes

The object tool requires a numeric Harvard Art Museums object ID; a search result is the documented way to obtain one. The hosted and local modes expose different tool lists even though they use the same source and Harvard Art capabilities. Hosted access includes shared gateway tools, while local stdio access does not. The project is licensed under MIT.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions about Harvard Art

Harvard Art is an MCP server that connects AI agents to the Harvard Art Museums collection. Its main tools are `search`, which finds records by keyword and returns identifiers and summary fields, and `object`, which retrieves full details for an item using its numeric Harvard Art Museums object ID.

Install it as a local MCP server with `npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art`. Add that command to your client’s MCP configuration with `npx` as the command and `-y @pipeworx/mcp-harvard-art` as its argument. No Pipeworx account is required for the documented local mode.

Yes, Harvard Art works with Cursor through the hosted MCP endpoint shown in the README. Configure the server URL as `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/harvard-art/mcp`; the hosted connection exposes the Harvard Art tools and shared Pipeworx gateway tools.

Call the `object` tool with the item’s numeric Harvard Art Museums object ID. The ID normally comes from the `search` tool, which searches by keyword and returns matching collection records with identifiers and summary information.

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