Colour meaning, history and evidence for AI: 45,000+ source-graded colour records and 91 tools.
Connect Remote server
claude mcp add --transport http colour-memory https://api.colourmemory.com/mcp --header "X-Api-Key: <X_API_KEY>"
{
"mcpServers": {
"colour-memory": {
"url": "https://api.colourmemory.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"X-Api-Key": "<X_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}
{
"servers": {
"colour-memory": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.colourmemory.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"X-Api-Key": "<X_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}
Settings > Connectors > Add custom connector
URL: https://api.colourmemory.com/mcp
Replace the values in angle brackets with your own. Keys stay on your machine; we never see them.
Tools 80 found in our last check
query_conceptualAnswers a cultural, historical or material colour question. Returns named archive colours with provenance and cultural context. Works for abstract queries like 'grief' (returns Ophelia Violet, Titan's Grief), 'toxic Victorian pigments' (returns Nightshade Poison Berry Purple, Vi…
extract_image_coloursExtract dominant colours from a photograph using Colour Memory's proprietary k-means++ algorithm. Requires either a public image_url, or an image_id. A raw uploaded file with no public URL (e.g. a local file path or a ChatGPT file attachment without a usable download_url) is acc…
query_hexFind the closest named archive colours to a hex value using CIEDE2000 perceptual distance.
palette_specifyGenerate a complete interior specification from 2-8 hex values. Returns surface assignments, 60-30-10 proportions, lighting behaviour, and archive colour names. The result already carries the rendered palette and its PNG, PDF, ASE, JSON and CSS downloads, ready to show the custo…
colour_metricsReturns numeric metrics derived from a single display colour: an estimated light reflectance value (LRV) and band, relative luminance, CIELAB lightness, chroma and hue angle, and Bradford corresponding colours under two standard illuminants. It also lists what a hex cannot suppo…
colour_harmoniesReturn complementary, triadic, analogous, and split-complementary harmonies matched to named archive colours. Also available: 'hay_contrast' -- D.R. Hay's (1838) documented contrast pairing between six named hues (yellow/purple, orange/blue, red/green), with Field's proportional…
accessibility_checkEvaluates contrast for a single foreground/background pair. For palettes or multiple colours, use accessibility_matrix instead, it replaces multiple accessibility_check calls in one response.
accessibility_matrixAccept a palette array and return every foreground/background combination with contrast ratio, AA normal, AA large, AAA normal, AAA large pass/fail grades, and a summary. One call replaces repeated accessibility_check calls for a palette.
accessibility_rulesConvert a palette WCAG matrix into actionable design-system rules. Returns safe pairs, AA-only pairs, large-text-only pairs, decorative-only pairs, best text colour per background, and component usage rules. Deterministic, no LLM cost.
colour_slugsReturn every developer token format for a hex value: CSS variable, kebab-case, camelCase, PascalCase, Tailwind class, TypeScript const, SCSS variable. Archive-grounded name source with dE2000 distance.
palette_light_darkGenerate light-mode and dark-mode role maps from a palette. Analyses LRV, assigns background/surface/text/accent roles for each mode, checks body text contrast safety, and flags missing neutrals. The result already carries the rendered palette and its PNG, PDF, ASE, JSON and CSS…
accessibility_fontGiven a background hex and a palette of candidate foreground colours, return them ranked by contrast ratio with WCAG grades and specific recommendations for body text, large text, and UI components.
archive_searchFull-text keyword search across all archive colour names and notes. Find colours by name fragment, material, cultural reference, pigment type, or historical period. Complements conceptual embedding search with exact keyword matching. Examples: 'cerulean' (28 matches, e.g. Bourto…
colour_combinationAssess 2-5 colours as a combination for a given context (UI, data viz, fashion, interior, print, branding). Returns harmony type, clash warnings, contrast summary, and specific deployment rules for the context.
palette_strictLike palette_concept but with archive filtering and relevance controls. Use allowed_archives to restrict results to specific cultural traditions e.g. ['Japan'] for Japanese only. Use min_relevance to filter weak concept matches. Fixes cross-archive drift when cultural specificit…
archive_report_documentCreate a designed, full-colour Word (.docx) report from Colour Memory records. Builds a document, report, write-up, handout or Word file from archive findings. Records are passed by the record_id or slug exactly as archive_search (or another tool) returned them, grouped into sec…
palette_pdfGenerates a premium branded PDF specification sheet from a palette of archive entries: full-bleed colour panels, archive names, provenance notes, RAL nearest match, LRV, chroma, WCAG contrast data and Colour Memory branding. Suited to client deliverables, specification sheets an…
palette_auditFull palette quality audit. Scores on accessibility, cultural risk, tonal balance, colour diversity, and archive naming strength. Returns overall score 0-100, grade, and prioritised fix list. Enterprise quality gate -- use before shipping any palette. Deterministic, no LLM cost.…
brand_systemComplete brand colour system in one call. Returns colour roles with archive names, light and dark mode role maps, typography guidance, usage rules per colour, design tokens (CSS, Tailwind, Figma), and citation cards. Deterministic. No LLM cost. The result already carries the ren…
brand_asset_packComplete brand asset pack. Returns CSS variables, Tailwind config, Figma tokens JSON, citation cards, and a Markdown brand guide. Everything a brand team needs to ship. Deterministic. No LLM cost.
accessibility_simulateReturn simulated hex values for full-severity protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia only, using the Machado, Oliveira & Fernandes (2009) model (severity 1.0, linear sRGB), with a flag when a simulated colour had to be clipped to sRGB. Anomalous trichromacy and partial severiti…
colour_match_paintFind the nearest named colour in commercial paint systems including Farrow and Ball and Little Greene.
colour_cardLook up a named colour and return its hex, archive, provenance, and cultural notes.
meta_capabilitiesReturn a live inventory of all active endpoints and MCP tools. Use this first to discover what the API can do before making calls. Returns tool count, endpoint list, MCP-exposed tools, and usage notes. Deterministic -- no LLM cost.
system_statusZero-argument diagnostic call: returns exactly what build is live right now (build_sha, schema_version, schema_hash, archive_revision, tool_count, generated_at, server_environment). The schema_hash identifies the deployed tool list, so two connections can be compared: a mismatch…
colour_storyGiven a hex value, returns a rich narrative about that colour's cultural journey: where it has appeared in history, what it has meant to different civilisations, and what archive names it carries. Essential for image generation prompts, brand storytelling, and creative briefs. E…
palette_conceptGenerate a historically grounded colour palette from a cultural concept or theme. Returns 4-6 coordinated archive colours with hex values, proportions, and provenance. Examples: 'Victorian mourning', 'Ottoman court', 'Japanese wabi-sabi', 'Scandinavian winter', 'West African ken…
colour_mixSimulate perceptually modelled subtractive mixing of two colours in CIE Lab space (not RGB screen blending). Returns the resulting mixed hex value and its nearest archive match with cultural context. Uses CIE Lab subtractive model for perceptual accuracy. Example: mixing Prussia…
colour_timelineGiven a concept or colour name, traces its documented appearances across cultures and centuries in chronological order. Returns a dated sequence of archive entries showing when and where the colour appeared, with primary sources. Use for historical research, provenance chains, a…
image_paletteUpload an image (base64 encoded) and extract its dominant colour palette, with each colour matched to its nearest named archive entry with full cultural provenance. Uses K-means++ extraction; sRGB pixels are read as D65 CIELAB for matching. Returns up to 5 dominant colours, each…
colour_compareDeep perceptual and semantic comparison between any two hex values. Returns quantified differences in LRV, chroma, hue angle, warmth, and CIEDE2000 distance, plus cultural context on both: which is more authoritative, more saturated, more stable under different illuminants, and…
colour_cultural_riskCultural risk assessment for a hex value or palette (symbolic weight, regional taboos, religious associations, market flags). This is one component of colour_passport for single colours. Use colour_passport for a general profile; call this directly for palette-level risk checks…
design_sessionOne-call compound tool. Submit a concept, medium, audience, and constraints; receive a complete design package: historically grounded palette, cultural narrative, commercial paint matches, WCAG accessibility check, illuminant behaviour, and a ready-made image generation prompt.…
image_personalUpload a portrait photo and receive a full personal colour analysis. Determines your seasonal type (Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter), colour depth (light, medium, or deep), and undertone (warm, cool, or neutral). Returns a curated palette of archive colours that genuinely suit…
style_matchThe colour question every stylist gets asked: does this bag go with this outfit? Submit your outfit items as hex values with labels (dress, bag, shoes, coat, belt, scarf, etc.) and receive a verdict on what works, what clashes, what is missing, and what to add. Pairs are judged…
interior_specifyGenerate a complete interior colour specification from a concept or brief. Takes a room concept, type and style and returns a professionally structured colour scheme with 60/30/10 surface assignments, archive colour names with full cultural provenance, Farrow and Ball and Little…
house_specifyGenerate a complete multi-room house colour scheme from a single archive. Where the retrieved evidence supports it, rooms are grouped by documented provenance (same object, same pattern colourway, same source citation, same designer, same period+institution); where it does not,…
palette_generateSend a palette of up to 12 slots, locking some with hex values and leaving others empty. Empty slots are filled with the nearest CIEDE2000 archive match, interpolated from the locked anchors. Optional archive filter restricts fills to one archive. Returns full citation (name, ar…
palette_gradientGenerate a perceptually smooth gradient between 2-5 archive anchor colours. Each interpolated stop snaps to the nearest real archive colour by CIEDE2000. Anchor stops are kept true to their source. Choose linear (physically accurate Lab interpolation) or chroma_preserved (LCh in…
palette_translateMap any list of hex values into a target archive using CIEDE2000 nearest-neighbour matching. Each input hex is matched to the closest named colour in the chosen archive, with a delta-e relevance band (exact / close / approximate / loose) and full provenance. Use to translate a c…
archive_clicheFind the most surprising archive colour for a concept and generate a memorable one-liner subverting the obvious expectation. Supply a concept (e.g. 'love', 'grief', 'luxury', 'power') and optionally the expected colour (e.g. 'red' for love). The archive finds the contradiction a…
colour_verdictEvaluate a hex colour for a specific use case, market, and medium. Returns a decisive verdict: use_with_confidence, use_with_caution, or avoid. Includes strengths, risks, avoid-if scenarios, and better alternatives where needed. Backed by CIEDE2000 archive matching and Claude cu…
palette_verdictEvaluate a palette of 2-8 hex values for a use case, market, and medium. Returns a verdict (strong / strong_with_adjustment / weak / avoid), a score 0-100, the role of each colour, the single biggest weakness, and a concrete suggestion for what to add to fix it. Each colour is m…
agent_briefGenerate a complete colour direction package for another AI agent or image generation model. Fetches a historically grounded archive palette from the concept, then produces: an agent brief (colour direction in prose), colour tokens with hex values and roles, a model-specific ima…
colour_strategySingle-call commercial colour strategy report. Combines archive grounding, verdict, brand fit, market risk, category cliche check, material behaviour, copy hooks, and usage rules. Input: hex + brand_context (category, positioning, audience, channels) + constraints (avoid, must_w…
archive_report_briefOne-call complete archive research package for a document, PDF, or editorial brief. Input: title, audience, themes, archives to draw from, things to avoid, number of colours. Output: ranked colour cards with full provenance, story order, source confidence flags, pull quote, CTA…
palette_heritageGiven a legacy palette, generate an archive-grounded premium support system. For each existing colour: identifies its historical archive anchor, names it, and scores its provenance confidence. Detects palette gaps and fills them from the archive. Returns full palette with roles,…
archive_coverage_gapGiven a list of themes, report which are well-evidenced in the archive and which are under-evidenced or missing. Returns a coverage matrix: for each theme, entries found, coverage grade (strong/moderate/weak/missing), best match with claim strength, and what source type would be…
archive_cultural_anachronismCheck a list of colour entries for anachronism risk. Detects whether the primary source date falls outside the requested period, whether the archive is a known modern source (RacingSilks, FootballStrips), and returns a period_relevance score and safe phrasing. Essential for hist…
session_briefSingle-call forensic colour brief generator. Runs coverage gap analysis, pulls best archive colours, checks for anachronisms, scores claim roles (anchor/support/analogue/provocation/reject), auto-rejects stubs, generates editorial argument, act structure, pull quote, closing lin…
index_resonanceColour Memory's proprietary semantic metric. Score how tightly the material origin of a colour aligns with its social consequence. 1.00 = material and consequence are indistinguishable (blood as prognosis, ash as finality). 0.80 = institution mediates the colour (paint as deterr…
archive_evidence_gapGiven a hex value and a proposed claim about it, return whether the archive supports that claim, what is missing, what kind of source would be needed, and safe agent wording. This is Colour Memory's anti-hallucination endpoint. It turns the absence of evidence into a forensic fi…
brand_collisionCan this brand own this colour against these competitors in this market? Input: brand hex, brand name, competitor hexes and names, market, region. Returns CIEDE2000 distance to each competitor, archive context for each colour, a distinctiveness score (0-100), an ownership verdic…
brand_reportOne-call complete brand colour intelligence report. Input: hex + brand context + markets + medium + product type. Output: archive anchor, cliche contradiction, colour DNA, strategy verdict, commercial signals, market reading per market, usage rules, palette roles, ecommerce copy…
brand_auditFast, fully deterministic brand colour audit. Accepts a palette array plus market, use_case, medium and brand_category. COMPUTED SYNCHRONOUSLY, no model call of any kind: colour roles with archive names, the full WCAG accessibility matrix, cultural risk per colour, CSS variables…
agent_verifyVerify that an AI-generated image actually used the colours specified in an agent_brief call. Supply the generated image (URL or base64) and the target palette from agent_brief colour_tokens. Returns a fidelity score 0-100, dE2000 distance per colour, match quality per colour (a…
colour_passportCanonical single-call colour truth object. Returns everything known about a hex value: colour science (Lab, LCh, hue, chroma, depth, temperature, LRV), archive anchor with dE2000, claim_strength, do_not_say and evidence grade, hex provenance (status, confidence, spectrophotometr…
colour_passportsBatch version of colour_passport. Submit up to 20 hex values in one call. Returns a full Colour Passport for each unique hex: colour science, archive anchor, evidence grade, do_not_say constraints, hex provenance, accessibility, and physics. Deduplicates hex values automatically…
colour_dnaCompact semantic fingerprint for a single hex colour. This is one component of colour_passport. Returns the fingerprint format alone; colour_passport returns the general colour profile that includes it. The result already carries the rendered palette and its PNG, PDF, ASE, JSON…
ecommerce_copyGenerate complete ecommerce product copy for any colour. Input: hex + product type + tone + channel. Output: colour name, product title, short description, long description, SEO title, meta description, alt text, Instagram caption, and cross-sell suggestion. Every piece of copy…
colour_hooksGenerate a hook sentence, three-sentence story, tweet, image prompt, and follow-up questions for any hex colour. Backed by the nearest archive colour's cultural provenance. Tunable by audience (general public, designers, historians, children) and tone (dinner party, academic, so…
archive_provenanceExplains the provenance of a named archive colour: documented fact vs computational derivation vs cultural interpretation, with confidence and citation format. This is one component of colour_passport, but also a standalone research tool for deep provenance work (museum, documen…
colour_forensicsAssess whether a hex colour can be safely specified for a physical application. Returns: specification_safe verdict (yes / conditional / avoid), risks, required actions, light behaviour under three illuminants (north daylight, warm artificial, direct sun), substrate-specific not…
palette_iterateRefine an existing palette using natural language feedback. Submit your current palette and feedback such as more melancholic, too corporate add warmth, or better for Gen Z luxury. Returns a refined palette with archive grounding and change rationale. The result already carries…
colour_variantsFor any named archive colour, return historical variants, lighter and darker versions with archive matches, and cultural siblings. Essential for designers exploring around a colour. The result already carries the rendered palette and its PNG, PDF, ASE, JSON and CSS downloads, re…
palette_exportExport a palette to CSS custom properties, Figma design tokens, Tailwind config, ASE hex list, or JSON. Each colour is automatically named from the archive. Embeds Colour Memory directly into design workflows.
palette_compareDeep perceptual, cultural, and commercial comparison between two palettes. Returns timelessness scores, commercial strength, cultural depth, emotional difference, and a winner verdict for the stated use case. The result already carries the rendered palette and its PNG, PDF, ASE,…
ecommerce_namerGenerate archive-grounded colour names for up to 40 product SKUs. Input: list of hex values, product category, brand name, naming style. Output: for each hex -- archive name, source citation, one-line product description, dE2000 match distance, match quality, and confidence scor…
ui_statesGenerate a complete WCAG-compliant UI state palette from a brand hex. Returns colours for: brand, hover, active, disabled, focus ring, success, warning, error, info, surface subtle, surface strong. All states computed for contrast against your background colour. Returns hex, con…
colour_namerGenerate memorable, archive-verified colour names for any hex value. Choose from naming styles: geographical, poetic, material, literary, botanical, industrial, or mixed. Every name is grounded in a real archive source. The core of the Shopify product naming use case.
palette_swatchGenerate a clean, text-free PNG swatch image from hex colours. Returns a URL to the PNG. Use for Midjourney --sref style references or design mood boards. Supports photo-proportional weights from palette extraction, equal distribution, grid layout, a true smooth LCh-interpolated…
palette_analyseAnalyse a palette of hex colours against the Colour Memory archive. For each colour returns the nearest named archive entry with cultural name, source, claim_strength (A-E), do_not_say guardrails, and alternatives when confidence is low. Palette-level deduplication ensures no tw…
ingest_imageUpload an image to Colour Memory for ephemeral processing. Returns image_id valid 5 minutes. Pass image_id to palette_extract or extract_image_colours. Use for any image over 50 KB.
palette_extractExtract dominant colours from an image using k-means++ clustering. Accepts a public image URL or base64-encoded image. Returns hex values with proportional weights sorted by luminance. Optionally runs palette_analyse on the results. Returns hex values with proportions, the input…
image_briefCompound endpoint: one image in, full creative brief out. Extracts dominant colours, matches them to the Colour Memory archive with coherent cultural naming, understands the scene, identifies the style period, suggests product directions by category (textiles, interiors, fashion…
project_getRetrieve summary metadata for a durable house project you own -- title, project type, current version number, schema/archive revision, created/updated timestamps, and the content hash of the requested version. Requires an API key; the project must belong to the calling key. Does…
project_listList durable house projects owned by the calling API key, most recently updated first. Anonymous (keyless) calls always return an empty list -- temporary anonymous projects are never listable, only resolvable directly by their house_ref. Requires an API key.
project_versionsList every stored version of a durable house project you own, oldest first, with each version's content hash, build/schema/archive revision, and creation time. Version 1 is always immutable and always present. Earlier versions remain renderable via palette_pdf's project_version…
project_deleteSoft-delete a durable house project you own. Idempotent -- deleting an already-deleted, unknown, or not-owned project_id returns the same successful-shaped response either way, and never discloses which case occurred. Version rows are never physically erased. Once deleted, a pro…
project_exportExport the same house-flagship content palette_pdf renders as a genuinely editable Word document or Excel workbook -- for a client who needs to annotate the scheme, or a contractor building a materials/procurement schedule from it. Accepts exactly one of house_ref or project_id…
Headers
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
X-Api-KeyOptional, secret | Optional. Many tools work without a key. A free key (colourmemory.com/start) gives 750 archive calls a month and 25 Intelligence credits. |
Details
| Endpoint | https://api.colourmemory.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP) |
| First published | 6 Oct 2026 |
| Last updated | 6 Oct 2026 |
| Registry name | io.github.DigbyO/colour-memory |
More ai and media servers See all
Listing data from the official MCP registry. Status and tools from NestDaddy's daily check. Browse all MCP servers.
