Openarchieven MCP Server

MCP server for the Open Archives genealogical search engine.

Quick Install

Automated & IDE Setup

Copy the AI prompt to install this server into Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent — or use 1-click editor setup below.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code

Manual Client & Custom JSON ConfigExpand JSON ▾

Client Config & Setup

Choose your client or environment

Target File:~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openarchieven-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "openarchieven-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

💡 Paste the JSON block into your client's configuration file under mcpServers, then restart the application.

Documentation Overview

Open Archives MCP Server

Production-grade hybrid MCP + HTTP + SSE server generated from the Open Archives OpenAPI specification. Covers genealogical records (births, deaths, marriages, censuses), archive statistics, historical weather, and full-text page transcriptions of historical documents.

OpenAPI source used to generate tools:

Code

../api/openapi.yaml   (local)
https://api.openarchieven.nl/openapi.yaml   (remote)

Overview

A schema-aware server that automatically converts the OpenAPI specification into callable tools and exposes them through multiple transports:

MCP Remote (JSON-RPC over StreamableHTTP)
HTTP JSON API
SSE streaming with auto-pagination
Chunked HTTP streaming with auto-pagination
Redis caching (optional)
Health checks

Use with Claude

Add as a custom connector

A hosted endpoint is available — no installation required.

In claude.ai or Claude Desktop:

Open Settings → Connectors.
Click Add custom connector.
Enter the URL: https://mcp.openarchieven.nl/
Save and approve when prompted.

No authentication is required — Open Archives is a public dataset.

Example queries

Once the connector is added you can ask Claude, for example:

"Who are the ancestors of Johannes Gregorius Marinus Coret? Give me an overview, including source citations in markdown format with the links to the original archives if possible, otherwise provide the Open Archieven links and provide a tree in SVG."
"Did Johannes Coret and Antonia Uphus have descendants? Give me an overview, including source citations in markdown format with the links to the original archives if possible, otherwise provide the Open Archieven links, include thumbnails from scans from archival sources if available and provide a tree in SVG."
"Provide me with a list of sourcetypes per archive(name) where I can find information about the Coret family. Show the result in a markdown document including links to the search pages on Open Archieven. Instead of the archive code use the ISIL if available."
"What was the weather in Amsterdam on 1953-02-01?"
"What does the 1850 census say about Utrecht?"

Claude will call the matching tool (search_records, show_record, get_marriages, get_historical_weather, get_census_data, …) and return links to the corresponding record pages on https://www.openarchieven.nl.

Self-hosted

The server speaks MCP over Streamable HTTP; there is no stdio distribution. To run your own instance:

bash

git clone https://github.com/coret/openarchieven-mcp-server.git
cd openarchieven-mcp-server
npm install
npm run generate      # builds generated/tools.json from openapi.yaml
npm run build:viewer  # builds dist/viewer.html (the MCP App)
npm start             # listens on http://localhost:3001/

Point your MCP client at http://localhost:3001/ (or your own public URL) the same way as the hosted endpoint above.

Core Features

OpenAPI Auto-Generation

Every API operation becomes a tool automatically via generate.ts.

All 21 operations:

Tool Name	Description
`search_records`	Search genealogical records
`show_record`	Show a single genealogical record
`match_record`	Match a person to birth and death records
`get_births_years_ago`	List births from N years ago
`get_births`	Find birth records
`get_deaths`	Find death records
`get_marriages`	Find marriage records
`get_archives`	List all archives with statistics
`get_record_stats`	Record count per archive
`get_source_type_stats`	Record count per source type
`get_event_type_stats`	Record count per event type
`get_comment_stats`	Comment count statistics
`get_family_name_stats`	Family name frequency
`get_first_name_stats`	First name frequency
`get_profession_stats`	Profession frequency
`get_breakdown`	Cross-tabulation grouped by archive, source type, event type, place or year
`get_historical_weather`	Historical weather from KNMI
`get_census_data`	Dutch census data 1795–1899
`search_transcriptions`	Full-text search across page transcriptions of historical documents
`browse_transcriptions`	Hierarchically browse transcriptions by source archive, archive number or inventory
`show_transcription`	Retrieve a single page transcription by id

Note: The callback (JSONP) parameter present in the upstream API is excluded from all tools — it is irrelevant in an MCP/JSON-RPC context.

Interactive Transcription Viewer (MCP App)

Beyond the 21 auto-generated tools, the server registers one hand-written tool — view_transcription — that opens transcribed pages in an interactive IIIF deep-zoom viewer (OpenSeadragon) with the transcription text alongside, using the MCP Apps extension (io.modelcontextprotocol/ui).

Tool Name	Description
`view_transcription`	Open one or more transcribed pages (`ids: ["NL-SdmGA_1504889_11", …]`) in a deep-zoom IIIF viewer with the transcript; optional `highlight_term`

Apps-capable hosts (Claude web/desktop, paid custom connectors) render the viewer (ui://openarchieven/viewer.html) in a sandboxed iframe that loads images directly from the transcription image hosts (CSP-allowlisted as *.transkribus.eu, *.archief.nl, *.archieven.nl, *.memorix.nl). Transkribus and the archief.nl iipsrv server provide true IIIF deep zoom; the preserve*.archieven.nl thumbnail hosts render as flat images.
Plain hosts receive a graceful fallback: a text summary with the IIIF/source URLs plus a few inline preview images.

The viewer is a single self-contained dist/viewer.html, bundled at build time with npm run build:viewer (vite + vite-plugin-singlefile); it is not listed by the REST GET /tools endpoint, only via MCP tools/list.

Schema-Perfect Validation

Uses actual OpenAPI parameter schemas. Validates:

required parameters
integer fields
number fields
enum values
minimum / maximum constraints

Multiple Interfaces

MCP Remote (StreamableHTTP)

text

POST /       ← canonical public endpoint (mcp.openarchieven.nl)
POST /mcp    ← local / legacy alias

Stateless JSON-RPC transport — a new MCP server instance is created per request.

Origin validation: Browser requests must come from claude.ai, claude.com, or any domain listed in ALLOWED_ORIGINS. Requests with no Origin header (native MCP clients, curl, server-to-server) are accepted. Unknown origins receive HTTP 403.

HTTP JSON

text

GET  /tools
POST /tools/:name

SSE Streaming (auto-paginating)

text

GET /events/:name

Chunked HTTP Streaming (auto-paginating)

text

POST /stream/:name

Discovery Metadata (`/.well-known`)

Static, hand-editable JSON files served verbatim from well-known/:

text

GET /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json   ← SEP-1649 MCP Server Card
GET /.well-known/mcp.json               ← alias of the server card
GET /.well-known/agent-card.json        ← A2A v0.3 Agent Card
GET /.well-known/agent.json             ← alias of the agent card

Edit well-known/mcp-server-card.json and well-known/agent-card.json directly — no restart required (files are read on each request). Responses are sent with Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 and Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600.

Pagination

Streaming endpoints (/events/:name, /stream/:name) automatically paginate through results for endpoints that support a start offset:

Increments start by number_show per page
Stops when results are exhausted or after 20 pages (safety cap)
SSE sends a : heartbeat comment every 10 seconds to keep connections alive

Redis Cache

Optional Redis support.

If Redis is running, upstream responses are cached with a per-tool TTL tuned to the data's volatility:

Category	TTL	Tools
Immutable historical	never expires	`get_historical_weather`, `get_census_data`
Slowly-changing metadata	7 days	`get_archives`
Stats aggregations	1 day	`get_record_stats`, `get_source_type_stats`, `get_event_type_stats`, `get_comment_stats`, `get_family_name_stats`, `get_first_name_stats`, `get_profession_stats`, `get_breakdown`
Individual record lookups	1 day	`show_record`, `show_transcription`
Search-style	6 hours	`search_records`, `match_record`, `get_births`, `get_deaths`, `get_marriages`, `search_transcriptions`, `browse_transcriptions`
Date-bound	next UTC midnight	`get_births_years_ago`

CACHE_TTL (default 3600) is the fallback for any tool not in the map above.

If Redis is unavailable:

server still runs normally (degraded mode)

Rate Limiting

The upstream API enforces 4 requests per second per IP. The server queues all upstream calls through a token-bucket rate limiter (configurable via RATE_LIMIT_RPS).

Health Checks

text

GET /health

Project Files

text

generate.ts
server.ts
tsconfig.json
package.json
.env.example
generated/
  tools.json
  spec.json

Requirements

Node.js 18+
npm
optional Redis server

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust:

bash

cp .env.example .env

Read the full README →View source on GitHub →

Related MCP Servers

View all in Developer Tools View all alternatives

Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions about Openarchieven MCP Server

Add the following block to your claude_desktop_config.json under mcpServers: "mcpServers": { "openarchieven-mcp-server": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "openarchieven-mcp-server"] } }

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Technical Specs & Signals

CategoryDeveloper Tools

25Quality signal: Emerging · 25/100How this signal is calculated ▾

Server availabilityNot measured

Not scored for repo-hosted servers — we can't reach the running server, only its GitHub page. Hosted MCP endpoints are health-checked live.

Verified ownership8/20

Documentation & tools10/30

Adoption & activity1/15

Community engagement0/10

A guidance signal from public completeness & health data — not a user rating. New listings start lower and rise as they add docs, get verified, and grow adoption. Signals we can't observe for a listing are skipped, not counted against it.

★ Featured

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MCP & Agent Skills for Automated Documentation, and codebase conventions + context

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More in 💻 Developer Tools →Best MCP servers for Developers →Alternatives to Openarchieven MCP Server →Install in Claude Desktop Install in Cursor Install in VS Code

Openarchieven MCP Server

MCP server for the Open Archives genealogical search engine.

Quick Install

Automated & IDE Setup

Copy the AI prompt to install this server into Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent — or use 1-click editor setup below.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code

Manual Client & Custom JSON ConfigExpand JSON ▾

Client Config & Setup

Choose your client or environment

Target File:~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openarchieven-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "openarchieven-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

💡 Paste the JSON block into your client's configuration file under mcpServers, then restart the application.

Documentation Overview

Open Archives MCP Server

OpenAPI source used to generate tools:

Code

../api/openapi.yaml   (local)
https://api.openarchieven.nl/openapi.yaml   (remote)

Overview

A schema-aware server that automatically converts the OpenAPI specification into callable tools and exposes them through multiple transports:

MCP Remote (JSON-RPC over StreamableHTTP)
HTTP JSON API
SSE streaming with auto-pagination
Chunked HTTP streaming with auto-pagination
Redis caching (optional)
Health checks

Use with Claude

Add as a custom connector

A hosted endpoint is available — no installation required.

In claude.ai or Claude Desktop:

Open Settings → Connectors.
Click Add custom connector.
Enter the URL: https://mcp.openarchieven.nl/
Save and approve when prompted.

No authentication is required — Open Archives is a public dataset.

Example queries

Once the connector is added you can ask Claude, for example:

"Who are the ancestors of Johannes Gregorius Marinus Coret? Give me an overview, including source citations in markdown format with the links to the original archives if possible, otherwise provide the Open Archieven links and provide a tree in SVG."
"Did Johannes Coret and Antonia Uphus have descendants? Give me an overview, including source citations in markdown format with the links to the original archives if possible, otherwise provide the Open Archieven links, include thumbnails from scans from archival sources if available and provide a tree in SVG."
"Provide me with a list of sourcetypes per archive(name) where I can find information about the Coret family. Show the result in a markdown document including links to the search pages on Open Archieven. Instead of the archive code use the ISIL if available."
"What was the weather in Amsterdam on 1953-02-01?"
"What does the 1850 census say about Utrecht?"

Self-hosted

The server speaks MCP over Streamable HTTP; there is no stdio distribution. To run your own instance:

bash

git clone https://github.com/coret/openarchieven-mcp-server.git
cd openarchieven-mcp-server
npm install
npm run generate      # builds generated/tools.json from openapi.yaml
npm run build:viewer  # builds dist/viewer.html (the MCP App)
npm start             # listens on http://localhost:3001/

Point your MCP client at http://localhost:3001/ (or your own public URL) the same way as the hosted endpoint above.

Core Features

OpenAPI Auto-Generation

Every API operation becomes a tool automatically via generate.ts.

All 21 operations:

Tool Name	Description
`search_records`	Search genealogical records
`show_record`	Show a single genealogical record
`match_record`	Match a person to birth and death records
`get_births_years_ago`	List births from N years ago
`get_births`	Find birth records
`get_deaths`	Find death records
`get_marriages`	Find marriage records
`get_archives`	List all archives with statistics
`get_record_stats`	Record count per archive
`get_source_type_stats`	Record count per source type
`get_event_type_stats`	Record count per event type
`get_comment_stats`	Comment count statistics
`get_family_name_stats`	Family name frequency
`get_first_name_stats`	First name frequency
`get_profession_stats`	Profession frequency
`get_breakdown`	Cross-tabulation grouped by archive, source type, event type, place or year
`get_historical_weather`	Historical weather from KNMI
`get_census_data`	Dutch census data 1795–1899
`search_transcriptions`	Full-text search across page transcriptions of historical documents
`browse_transcriptions`	Hierarchically browse transcriptions by source archive, archive number or inventory
`show_transcription`	Retrieve a single page transcription by id

Note: The callback (JSONP) parameter present in the upstream API is excluded from all tools — it is irrelevant in an MCP/JSON-RPC context.

Interactive Transcription Viewer (MCP App)

Tool Name	Description
`view_transcription`	Open one or more transcribed pages (`ids: ["NL-SdmGA_1504889_11", …]`) in a deep-zoom IIIF viewer with the transcript; optional `highlight_term`

Apps-capable hosts (Claude web/desktop, paid custom connectors) render the viewer (ui://openarchieven/viewer.html) in a sandboxed iframe that loads images directly from the transcription image hosts (CSP-allowlisted as *.transkribus.eu, *.archief.nl, *.archieven.nl, *.memorix.nl). Transkribus and the archief.nl iipsrv server provide true IIIF deep zoom; the preserve*.archieven.nl thumbnail hosts render as flat images.
Plain hosts receive a graceful fallback: a text summary with the IIIF/source URLs plus a few inline preview images.

Schema-Perfect Validation

Uses actual OpenAPI parameter schemas. Validates:

required parameters
integer fields
number fields
enum values
minimum / maximum constraints

Multiple Interfaces

MCP Remote (StreamableHTTP)

text

POST /       ← canonical public endpoint (mcp.openarchieven.nl)
POST /mcp    ← local / legacy alias

Stateless JSON-RPC transport — a new MCP server instance is created per request.

Origin validation: Browser requests must come from claude.ai, claude.com, or any domain listed in ALLOWED_ORIGINS. Requests with no Origin header (native MCP clients, curl, server-to-server) are accepted. Unknown origins receive HTTP 403.

HTTP JSON

text

GET  /tools
POST /tools/:name

SSE Streaming (auto-paginating)

text

GET /events/:name

Chunked HTTP Streaming (auto-paginating)

text

POST /stream/:name

Discovery Metadata (`/.well-known`)

Static, hand-editable JSON files served verbatim from well-known/:

text

GET /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json   ← SEP-1649 MCP Server Card
GET /.well-known/mcp.json               ← alias of the server card
GET /.well-known/agent-card.json        ← A2A v0.3 Agent Card
GET /.well-known/agent.json             ← alias of the agent card

Pagination

Streaming endpoints (/events/:name, /stream/:name) automatically paginate through results for endpoints that support a start offset:

Increments start by number_show per page
Stops when results are exhausted or after 20 pages (safety cap)
SSE sends a : heartbeat comment every 10 seconds to keep connections alive

Redis Cache

Optional Redis support.

If Redis is running, upstream responses are cached with a per-tool TTL tuned to the data's volatility:

Category	TTL	Tools
Immutable historical	never expires	`get_historical_weather`, `get_census_data`
Slowly-changing metadata	7 days	`get_archives`
Stats aggregations	1 day	`get_record_stats`, `get_source_type_stats`, `get_event_type_stats`, `get_comment_stats`, `get_family_name_stats`, `get_first_name_stats`, `get_profession_stats`, `get_breakdown`
Individual record lookups	1 day	`show_record`, `show_transcription`
Search-style	6 hours	`search_records`, `match_record`, `get_births`, `get_deaths`, `get_marriages`, `search_transcriptions`, `browse_transcriptions`
Date-bound	next UTC midnight	`get_births_years_ago`

CACHE_TTL (default 3600) is the fallback for any tool not in the map above.

If Redis is unavailable:

server still runs normally (degraded mode)

Rate Limiting

The upstream API enforces 4 requests per second per IP. The server queues all upstream calls through a token-bucket rate limiter (configurable via RATE_LIMIT_RPS).

Health Checks

text

GET /health

Project Files

text

generate.ts
server.ts
tsconfig.json
package.json
.env.example
generated/
  tools.json
  spec.json

Requirements

Node.js 18+
npm
optional Redis server

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust:

bash

cp .env.example .env

Read the full README →View source on GitHub →

Related MCP Servers

View all in Developer Tools View all alternatives

Reviews

No reviews yet — be the first to share how this listing worked for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Openarchieven MCP Server

Add the following block to your claude_desktop_config.json under mcpServers: "mcpServers": { "openarchieven-mcp-server": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "openarchieven-mcp-server"] } }

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Showcase your server listing on GitHub or your project documentation. Embed this dynamic SVG badge to highlight official listing status and live engagement.

Badge Style:

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Markdown (GitHub README)

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HTML Embed

<a href="https://allmcps.com/mcp/openarchieven-mcp-server"><img src="https://allmcps.com/api/badge/openarchieven-mcp-server?style=directory" alt="Openarchieven MCP Server on AllMCPs" /></a>

Technical Specs & Signals

CategoryDeveloper Tools

25Quality signal: Emerging · 25/100How this signal is calculated ▾

Server availabilityNot measured

Not scored for repo-hosted servers — we can't reach the running server, only its GitHub page. Hosted MCP endpoints are health-checked live.

Verified ownership8/20

Documentation & tools10/30

Adoption & activity1/15

Community engagement0/10

★ Featured

Moxie Docs MCP

MCP & Agent Skills for Automated Documentation, and codebase conventions + context

Explore Server →

Own this project?

Free dofollow backlink: add your website and place the AllMCPs badge on it — no claim needed. We detect it automatically and keep it verified as long as the badge stays live.

Claim & get free dofollow

Share & Embed

Add our SVG badge (dark/light directory styles) or embeddable widget to your site.

Explore more

More in 💻 Developer Tools →Best MCP servers for Developers →Alternatives to Openarchieven MCP Server →Install in Claude Desktop Install in Cursor Install in VS Code

Openarchieven MCP Server

Quick Install

Client Config & Setup

Documentation Overview

Open Archives MCP Server

Overview

Use with Claude

Add as a custom connector

Example queries

Self-hosted

Core Features

OpenAPI Auto-Generation

Interactive Transcription Viewer (MCP App)

Schema-Perfect Validation

Multiple Interfaces

MCP Remote (StreamableHTTP)

HTTP JSON

SSE Streaming (auto-paginating)

Chunked HTTP Streaming (auto-paginating)

Discovery Metadata (/.well-known)

Pagination

Redis Cache

Rate Limiting

Health Checks

Project Files

Requirements

Configuration

Related MCP Servers

Reviews

Frequently Asked Questions about Openarchieven MCP Server

AllMCPs Directory Badge

Technical Specs & Signals

Moxie Docs MCP

Own this project?

Share & Embed

Explore more

Openarchieven MCP Server

Quick Install

Client Config & Setup

Documentation Overview

Open Archives MCP Server

Overview

Use with Claude

Add as a custom connector

Example queries

Self-hosted

Core Features

OpenAPI Auto-Generation

Interactive Transcription Viewer (MCP App)

Schema-Perfect Validation

Multiple Interfaces

MCP Remote (StreamableHTTP)

HTTP JSON

SSE Streaming (auto-paginating)

Chunked HTTP Streaming (auto-paginating)

Discovery Metadata (/.well-known)

Pagination

Redis Cache

Rate Limiting

Health Checks

Project Files

Requirements

Configuration

Related MCP Servers

Reviews

Frequently Asked Questions about Openarchieven MCP Server

AllMCPs Directory Badge

Technical Specs & Signals

Moxie Docs MCP

Own this project?

Share & Embed

Explore more

Discovery Metadata (`/.well-known`)

Discovery Metadata (`/.well-known`)