MET Museum collection via MCP — 500K+ artworks, metadata, provenance, open-access images.
Met MCP server is a hosted integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. MET Museum collection via MCP — 500K+ artworks, metadata, provenance, open-access images.
Once Met is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
met_list_departments — Return all 19 curatorial departments with their numeric IDs and display namesmet_search_collections — Search the collection by keyword with filters for department, date range, medium, geography, on-view status, public-domain status, and highlightmet_get_object — Fetch full records for one or more object IDs — metadata, provenance, artist info, CC0 image URLs, tags, and Wikidata linksPrerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this serverInstallation — The Installation tool exposed by this serverBeing a remote server, there is no local install. You register the endpoint with your client, authorise it once, and the tools appear.
You will need 3 environment variables: MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL, MET_BASE_URL. 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.
This sits in the file and storage access group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Met's toolset — met_list_departments, met_search_collections, met_get_object and 2 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by cyanheads; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
This entry was verified against Met's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| met_list_departments | Return all 19 curatorial departments with their numeric IDs and display names |
| met_search_collections | Search the collection by keyword with filters for department, date range, medium, geography, on-view status, public-domain status, and highlight designation |
| met_get_object | Fetch full records for one or more object IDs — metadata, provenance, artist info, CC0 image URLs, tags, and Wikidata links |
| Prerequisites | The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server. |
| Installation | The Installation tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"met-museum-mcp-server": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://met-museum.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| MET_BASE_URL | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Yes |
Scoped local file access — read, write, search and reorganise files in directories you explicitly allow.
Search and read your Drive — Docs, Sheets and files become context your assistant can actually use.
Query, modify and analyse local SQLite databases in conversation — the fastest way to chat with a data file.
Build a programmable telecommunications stack for connecting telephony services with the Internet via a cloud-based utility.
Chat with your second brain — search, read and write vault notes through the Local REST API.
Connects AI models to an Obsidian knowledge base for direct access and manipulation of notes and folders.