VCE Institutional Knowledge MCP Server

This is an independent/open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation designed to retrieve publicly available information from the Vardhaman College of Engineering (VCE) website (https://vardhaman.org/).

Disclaimer: This project is not officially endorsed by Vardhaman College of Engineering. It serves as a read-only AI knowledge layer based on publicly accessible data.

Features

• Web Crawler: Configurable crawler to index VCE's official website and subdomains, respecting robots.txt.

• Intelligent Chunking: Extracts text from HTML and PDFs, splitting them logically for search.

• Hybrid Retrieval: Local semantic search via ChromaDB and Sentence-Transformers.

• Source Attribution: Every retrieved fact contains metadata (Source URL, page number, date).

• Read-Only: Strictly designed to read public data. No database writes or unsafe code execution exposed to the AI.

• 15+ MCP Tools: Tools for searching departments, admissions, placements, faculty, IQAC info, and more.

Related MCP server: Meta MCP Search

Architecture

flowchart TD
    A[MCP Client] --> B[VCE MCP Server]
    B --> C[Retrieval Engine]
    C --> D[Local Index (SQLite + ChromaDB)]
    D --> E[VCE Official Website]

Installation

You need Python 3.12+ installed.

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/KabirSpeaks/vce-mcp.git
cd vce-mcp
uv pip install -e .

Remote MCP Deployment (Cloud)

The server supports remote deployment via the official MCP Streamable HTTP transport, which can be connected to ChatGPT and other clients.

Docker

docker build -t vce-mcp .
docker run -p 8000:8000 -e PORT=8000 vce-mcp

Endpoints

• MCP Endpoint: https://YOUR-DOMAIN/mcp

• Health Endpoint: https://YOUR-DOMAIN/health

Architecture

AI Client (ChatGPT)
   |
   | MCP Streamable HTTP
   v
https://DOMAIN/mcp
   |
   v
VCE MCP Server
   |
   +---- SQLite & ChromaDB

Important: ChatGPT connects to the remotely deployed MCP endpoint (e.g., https://YOUR-DOMAIN/mcp). The GitHub repository itself is the source code and cannot be directly linked to ChatGPT.

Please refer to:

• Remote Deployment Guide

• ChatGPT Connection Guide

• Marketplace Deployment Guide

Usage (Local Stdio)

Run the local stdio MCP server:

vce-mcp server

Edit .env if necessary (e.g., to change crawl depth).

Initial Setup (Indexing)

This repository does not contain pre-crawled institutional data. You must generate your own local index:

# Crawl the website and index documents
vce-mcp setup

(Alternatively, you can run vce-mcp crawl followed by vce-mcp index)

Running the Server

To start the MCP server using standard input/output (for Claude Desktop or Antigravity):

vce-mcp server

MCP Client Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vce-mcp": {
      "command": "path/to/vce-mcp/.venv/bin/vce-mcp",
      "args": ["server"]
    }
  }
}

Antigravity

You can load this server in Antigravity by pointing to the executable in the virtual environment.

Updating

To refresh the index and pull new/changed pages:

vce-mcp refresh

Limitations

• Information strictly depends on the official VCE website.

• The local index may become outdated if not refreshed.

• Private institutional data (ERP, student portals) is explicitly excluded.

• Always verify important institutional claims against the official source URL provided by the AI.