Gramps Web MCP Server

Gramps Web MCP MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Gramps Web MCP directly instead of describing what you should do. MCP server for structured access to Gramps Web genealogy data.

What you get

Companion MCP server for the Gramps Web open-source genealogy platform. It gives AI agents structured, tool-based access to family trees through the Model Context Protocol.

• 57 MCP tools — — read, create, update, and delete people, families, events, places,
• Search and browse — — full-text search and paginated object listing
• Kinship tools — — ancestors, descendants, relationships, and timelines
• Composite workflows — — quick-add person, add event to person, find by Gramps ID
• 6 MCP resources — — type vocabularies, input guide, tree metadata, name
• Media safeguards — — size limits, MIME allowlists, and private-record defaults

Setting it up

Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client.

What the assistant can call

Once Gramps Web MCP is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

• Read — only mode** — keep all tools visible while blocking create, update, and delete calls
• Platform — Artifact
• Variable — Description
• GRAMPS_API_URL — Base URL of your Gramps Web instance (no trailing slash)
• GRAMPS_USERNAME — API user name
• GRAMPS_PASSWORD — API password or token
• GRAMPS_TREE_ID — Tree UUID on that server
• GRAMPS_MEDIA_RESOURCES_ENABLED — Enables binary media tools/resources for thumbnails and full files
• GRAMPS_MEDIA_MAX_BYTES — Maximum bytes returned by any media resource
• GRAMPS_MEDIA_ALLOWED_MIME_TYPES — Comma-separated allowlist; exact types and type/* wildcards are supported
• GRAMPS_MEDIA_ALLOW_PRIVATE — Allows bytes for Gramps media records marked private
• MCP_TRANSPORT — Behavior

Configuration and credentials

You will need 6 environment variables: MCP_TRANSPORT, GRAMPS_API_URL, GRAMPS_USERNAME, GRAMPS_PASSWORD, GRAMPS_TREE_ID, GRAMPS_READ_ONLY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

• .NET 8 SDK (for local development) - A running Gramps Web instance with API access - Docker (optional, for container deployment)

Before you rely on it

• It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
• With 14 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Gramps Web MCP.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the gramps web mcp mcp server does with a few real requests.

Choosing this one

This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Gramps Web MCP's toolset — Read, Platform, Variable and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by Scormave; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

This entry was verified against Gramps Web MCP's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.