NARA Catalog

io.github.ianderso/nara-catalog-mcp · v1.1.0

Genealogical research in the US National Archives Catalog: records, transcriptions, page images.

Source code Set it up

Connect Runs on your machine

Terminal

claude mcp add nara-catalog-mcp -e NARA_API_KEY=<NARA_API_KEY> -e NARA_CACHE_DIR=<NARA_CACHE_DIR> -e NARA_TIMEOUT=<NARA_TIMEOUT> -e NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET=<NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET> -- uvx nara-catalog-mcp==1.1.0

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nara-catalog-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nara-catalog-mcp==1.1.0"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NARA_API_KEY": "<NARA_API_KEY>",
        "NARA_CACHE_DIR": "<NARA_CACHE_DIR>",
        "NARA_TIMEOUT": "<NARA_TIMEOUT>",
        "NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET": "<NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET>"
      }
    }
  }
}

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nara-catalog-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nara-catalog-mcp==1.1.0"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NARA_API_KEY": "<NARA_API_KEY>",
        "NARA_CACHE_DIR": "<NARA_CACHE_DIR>",
        "NARA_TIMEOUT": "<NARA_TIMEOUT>",
        "NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET": "<NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET>"
      }
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "nara-catalog-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nara-catalog-mcp==1.1.0"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NARA_API_KEY": "<NARA_API_KEY>",
        "NARA_CACHE_DIR": "<NARA_CACHE_DIR>",
        "NARA_TIMEOUT": "<NARA_TIMEOUT>",
        "NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET": "<NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace the values in angle brackets with your own. Keys stay on your machine; we never see them.

Tools

This server runs locally, so its tools are listed by your MCP client once it starts.

Environment variables

Name	Description
`NARA_API_KEY` Required, secret	Catalog API key, requested from the National Archives Catalog API team.
`NARA_CACHE_DIR` Optional	Directory for the on-disk response cache.
`NARA_TIMEOUT` Optional	HTTP timeout in seconds.
`NARA_MONTHLY_CALL_BUDGET` Optional	Calls per month the key allows, reported by api_budget.

Details

Package	`[email protected]` (PYPI, stdio)
First published	6 Oct 2026
Last updated	6 Oct 2026
Registry name	`io.github.ianderso/nara-catalog-mcp`

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Local install

Installed and run on your own machine, so there is no public endpoint to check.

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