Skip to main content
Glama

Riksarkivet MCP Server

by AI-Riksarkivet
GitHub
Python
Apache 2.0
3
OverviewInspectNewEndpointsSchemaRelated ServersReviewsScore
Need Help?View Source CodeReport Issue

ra-mcp (WIP)

MCPs for Riksarkivet

A MCP server and command-line tools for searching and browsing transcribed historical documents from the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet).

Features

  • Full-text search across millions of transcribed historical documents

  • Complete page transcriptions with accurate text extraction from historical manuscripts

  • Reference-based document browsing using official archive reference codes

  • Contextual search highlighting to identify relevant content quickly

  • High-resolution image access to original document scans via IIIF

Getting Started

Quick Setup

# Search for anything - uv will auto-install dependencies uv run tools/ra.py search "Stockholm"

How to Use

1. Search for Keywords

Find documents containing specific words or phrases:

# Basic search uv run tools/ra.py search "Stockholm" # Search with full page transcriptions uv run tools/ra.py search "trolldom" --context --max-pages 5 # Search without document grouping uv run tools/ra.py search "vasa" --context --no-grouping --max-pages 3

Options:

  • --max N - Maximum search results (default: 50)

  • --max-display N - Maximum results to display (default: 20)

  • --context - Show full page transcriptions

  • --max-pages N - Maximum pages to load context for (default: 10)

  • --no-grouping - Show pages individually instead of grouped by document

2. Browse Specific Documents

When you find interesting documents, browse them directly:

# View single page uv run tools/ra.py browse "SE/RA/123" --page 5 # View page range uv run tools/ra.py browse "SE/RA/123" --pages "1-10" # View specific pages with search highlighting uv run tools/ra.py browse "SE/RA/123" --page "5,7,9" --search-term "Stockholm"

Options:

  • --page or --pages - Page numbers (e.g., "5", "1-10", "5,7,9")

  • --search-term - Highlight this term in the text

  • --max-display N - Maximum pages to display (default: 20)

3. Get Full Context

See complete pages with surrounding context for better understanding:

# Find pages with keyword and show full transcriptions uv run tools/ra.py show-pages "Stockholm" --max-pages 5 # Include surrounding pages for context uv run tools/ra.py show-pages "trolldom" --context-padding 2 # Show pages individually uv run tools/ra.py show-pages "vasa" --no-grouping

Options:

  • --max-pages N - Maximum pages to display (default: 10)

  • --context-padding N - Include N pages before/after each hit (default: 1)

  • --no-grouping - Show pages individually instead of grouped by document

Output Features

Search Results

  • Grouped by document for better context

  • Institution and date information

  • Page numbers with search hits

  • Snippet previews with keyword highlighting

  • Browse command examples for further exploration

Full Page Display

  • Complete transcriptions from ALTO XML

  • Keyword highlighting in yellow

  • Document metadata (title, date, hierarchy)

  • Direct links to images, ALTO XML, and Bildvisning

  • Context pages marked clearly

Links Provided

  • ALTO XML - Full transcription data

  • IIIF Images - High-resolution document images

  • Bildvisning - Interactive viewer with search highlighting

  • Collections & Manifests - IIIF metadata

Examples

Basic Workflow

  1. Search for a keyword:

    uv run tools/ra.py search "Stockholm"

  2. Get full context for interesting hits:

    uv run tools/ra.py search "Stockholm" --context --max-pages 3

  3. Browse specific documents:

    uv run tools/ra.py browse "SE/RA/123456" --page "10-15" --search-term "Stockholm"

Advanced Usage

# Comprehensive search with context uv run tools/ra.py show-pages "handelsbalansen" --context-padding 2 --max-pages 8 # Targeted document browsing uv run tools/ra.py browse "SE/RA/760264" --pages "1,5,10-12" --search-term "export" # Large search with selective display uv run tools/ra.py search "järnväg" --max 100 --max-display 30

Technical Details

Riksarkivet APIs & Data Sources

This tool integrates with multiple Riksarkivet APIs to provide comprehensive access to historical documents:

Current Integrations

Additional Resources

The Riksarkivet Data Platform Wiki provides comprehensive documentation for building additional MCP integrations.

Experimental Features

  • Förvaltningshistorik - Semantic search interface (under evaluation)

  • AI-Riksarkivet HTRflow - Handwritten text recognition pipeline (PyPI package)

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. No results found: Try broader search terms or check spelling

  2. Page not loading: Some pages may not have transcriptions available

  3. Network timeouts: Tool includes retry logic, but very slow connections may time out

Getting Help

uv run tools/ra.py --help uv run tools/ra.py search --help uv run tools/ra.py browse --help uv run tools/ra.py show-pages --help

MCP Server Development

Running the MCP Server

# Install dependencies uv sync && uv pip install -e . # Run the main MCP server (stdio) cd src/ra_mcp && python server.py # Run with SSE/HTTP transport on port 8000 cd src/ra_mcp && python server.py --http

Testing with MCP Inspector

Use the MCP Inspector to test and debug the MCP server:

# Test the server interactively npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run python src/ra_mcp/server.py

The MCP Inspector provides a web interface to test server tools, resources, and prompts during development.

image

Current MCP Server Implementation

This server provides access to the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet) through multiple APIs. SEARCH-BASED WORKFLOW (start here): - search_records: Search for content by keywords (e.g., "coffee", "medical records") - get_collection_info: Explore what's available in a collection - get_all_manifests_from_pid: Get all image batches from a collection - get_manifest_info: Get details about a specific image batch - get_manifest_image: Download specific images from a batch - get_all_images_from_pid: Download all images from a collection URL BUILDING TOOLS: - build_image_url: Build IIIF Image URLs with custom parameters - get_image_urls_from_manifest: Get all URLs from an image batch - get_image_urls_from_pid: Get all URLs from a collection TYPICAL WORKFLOW: 1. search_records("your keywords") → find PIDs 2. get_collection_info(pid) → see what's available 3. get_manifest_info(manifest_id) → explore specific image batch 4. get_manifest_image(manifest_id, image_index) → download specific image Example PID: LmOmKigRrH6xqG3GjpvwY3

This server cannot be installed

-
security - not tested
A
license - permissive license
-
quality - not tested

How are these scores calculated?

remote-capable server

The server can be hosted and run remotely because it primarily relies on remote services or has no dependency on the local environment.

Enables users to search and access digital collections from the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet) through multiple APIs. Supports searching records by keywords, exploring collections, and downloading historical images and documents.

  1. MCPs for Riksarkivet
    1. Features
      1. Getting Started
        1. Quick Setup
      2. How to Use
        1. 1. Search for Keywords
        2. 2. Browse Specific Documents
        3. 3. Get Full Context
      3. Output Features
        1. Search Results
        2. Full Page Display
        3. Links Provided
      4. Examples
        1. Basic Workflow
        2. Advanced Usage
      5. Technical Details
        1. Riksarkivet APIs & Data Sources
      6. Troubleshooting
        1. Common Issues
        2. Getting Help
      7. MCP Server Development
        1. Running the MCP Server
        2. Testing with MCP Inspector
      8. Current MCP Server Implementation

        New MCP Servers

        MCP directory API

        We provide all the information about MCP servers via our MCP API.

        curl -X GET 'https://glama.ai/api/mcp/v1/servers/AI-Riksarkivet/ra-mcp'

        If you have feedback or need assistance with the MCP directory API, please join our Discord server