NARA MCP Server

Read-only Model Context Protocol server for the US National Archives Catalog API.

The server uses the public National Archives Catalog API and expects an API key in the NARA_API_KEY environment variable. Do not commit your key.

Data attribution: API responses come from the US National Archives Catalog. Follow the National Archives API Terms of Service and attribution guidance: https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/help/api-terms-of-service

Tools

• search_records: Search National Archives Catalog records.

• get_record: Fetch a single record by National Archives Identifier.

• get_child_records: Fetch records under a parent National Archives Identifier.

• get_record_extracted_text: Fetch extracted text for a record.

• get_record_comments: Fetch comments for a record.

• get_record_tags: Fetch tags for a record.

• catalog_request: Advanced read-only GET request for supported Catalog API paths.

Related MCP server: Earthdata MCP Server

Setup

npm install
npm run build

Set your API key:

export NARA_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Optional:

export NARA_API_BASE_URL="https://catalog.archives.gov/api/v2"

Run

npm start

Claude Desktop Example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nara": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/nara-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "NARA_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

npm run check
npm run dev

Notes

This project intentionally exposes read-only operations. National Archives contribution endpoints require additional policy care and a key with write permissions, so they are not included.