arena-mcp

A Model Context Protocol server for Are.na — let an AI assistant create channels, save blocks from any URL, browse, and search your visual boards.

Are.na is a quieter, human-curated alternative to Pinterest: channels are boards, blocks are the things you pin (images, links, embeds, or text). This server exposes those primitives as MCP tools so a model can build and fill boards for you.

Tools

Related MCP server: Nemo

Setup

Requires Node 18+.

npm install
npm run build

Authentication

Create a personal access token at dev.are.na (New Application → the app page shows a personal access token) and expose it as an env var:

export ARENA_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-token"

A read-only token can browse; creating channels and blocks needs a write-scoped token.

Register with your MCP client

Claude Code / Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json or .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arena": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/arena-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": { "ARENA_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-token" }
    }
  }
}

Notes on the Are.na API

• Built against the v3 REST API (https://api.are.na/v3). The v2 API is being wound down; authenticated and write endpoints there now return 401/410.

• Channels use visibility (public/closed/private).

• Blocks are created at POST /v3/blocks with { value, channel_ids }. A URL is saved as a pending block and finishes processing (fetching the image/title) a moment later server-side.

• arena_search hits GET /v3/search, which Are.na gates behind Premium.

License

MIT