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Metmuseum MCP

by mikechao

Search The Met collection, retrieve object details and images, list departments, or browse results in an interactive MCP App.

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Install Metmuseum MCP

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": {
    "mikechao-metmuseum-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "metmuseum-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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

Automated check passed— started and listed 4 tools correctly (1mo ago).

Overview

The mikechao/metmuseum-mcp MCP server connects AI clients to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API. It lists departments, searches objects with optional filters and pagination, retrieves detailed object records, and can return available images. Clients that support MCP Apps can open the Met Explorer interface for interactive searching and filtering. Reach for it when an agent needs collection research, artwork metadata, object IDs, or visual references from The Met.

Use cases

  • Search The Met collection by artwork subject or title
  • Filter objects by department, medium, date, or image availability
  • Retrieve detailed metadata for a known object ID
  • Browse and inspect collection results in the Met Explorer app

Key features

  • Department listing
  • Filtered and paginated object search
  • Detailed object metadata retrieval
  • Optional Open Access image results
  • Interactive Met Explorer MCP App
  • Stdio and Streamable HTTP transports

Tools4

What Metmuseum MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Verified live~1.1k 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 3d ago

Recent health check succeeded.

16/17 checks healthy over the last 77d

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 7d ago via OSV.dev · metmuseum-mcp (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

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

GitHub stars35Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads1.2kPackage downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit6mo agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Availability100%Our rolling endpoint + install checks that succeeded.
Install checkPassedOur sandbox started it and listed its tools.
Tools exposed4Callable tools this server registers over MCP.
Directory activity7 viewsConfig copies, upvotes, and views on AllMCPs.

How Metmuseum MCP works

What mikechao/metmuseum-mcp MCP server does

The mikechao/metmuseum-mcp MCP server gives an AI client access to collection data from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its tools cover department discovery, object search, object retrieval, and an interactive browsing experience. Search results provide a total count and a paginated set of object IDs; detailed metadata requires a follow-up request with a specific ID.

The server is suited to collection lookup and art research workflows. An agent can identify relevant works from a text query, narrow the search by supported criteria, then request the full open-access record for selected objects. Returned records can include artist information, department, credit line, medium, dimensions, tags, image URLs, and an image when one is available and requested.

How it works

The server uses the Met Collection API and exposes its operations through MCP. list-departments returns the department IDs and names that can be used when narrowing searches. search-museum-objects accepts a query and supports title matching, image availability, department, highlights, tags, on-view status, artist or culture, medium, geographic location, and date-range filters. Results use one-based pages, with a default page size of 24 and a maximum of 100 IDs per page.

get-museum-object takes an object ID and defaults to including an image when an Open Access image is available. Setting returnImage controls whether the image is included in the tool result; image content is returned as a base64-encoded JPEG.

The open-met-explorer tool launches the ui://met/explorer.html MCP App in clients that support Apps. It can receive an initial query, image preference, title-only mode, and department filter. Use the app for broad exploration, then use object retrieval for records that need closer inspection.

Setup and configuration

Node.js 18 or newer is listed as a prerequisite. The documented stdio launch command is:

Terminal
npx -y metmuseum-mcp

Stdio is the default transport and is intended for desktop MCP clients such as Claude Desktop. The server also supports Streamable HTTP. Start it with npx -y metmuseum-mcp --http; by default, the endpoint is available at http://localhost:3001/mcp.

MET_API_TIMEOUT_MS sets the outbound Met API timeout and defaults to 10,000 milliseconds. MET_API_DEBUG enables debug messages on stderr for schema validation failures and defaults to false. For HTTP mode, PORT defaults to 3001, HOST defaults to 127.0.0.1, and ALLOWED_HOSTS defaults to localhost,127.0.0.1.

Tools and capabilities

The mikechao/metmuseum-mcp MCP server exposes these tools:

  • List valid Met Museum departments and their IDs.
  • Search collection objects with query, title, image, department, and other documented filters.
  • Paginate search results and receive the total number of matches.
  • Retrieve detailed object data by numeric object ID.
  • Include an available Open Access artwork image in retrieval results.
  • Open the Met Explorer MCP App with optional initial filters.

Limitations and notes

Search returns object IDs rather than complete object records, so detailed workflows generally require a second tool call. Images are conditional: an object must have an available Open Access image, and image inclusion must be enabled for retrieval. The interactive Met Explorer experience depends on MCP App support in the client. HTTP mode binds locally by default; exposing it to another service requires configuring the host, port, allowlist, or an external tunnel.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

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Frequently Asked Questions about Metmuseum MCP

With Node.js 18 or later, run `npx -y metmuseum-mcp`. The command starts the server over stdio without a separate install step.

Yes.

Use `search-museum-objects` with a query and optional filters such as title matching, image availability, department, tags, medium, location, artist or culture, and date range. Results are paginated object IDs.

Yes, when an image is available under Open Access. `get-museum-object` includes an image by default when `returnImage` is true.

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