<img src="scenef-mark.png" alt="SceneF" width="72" />

# SceneF — Movie Showtimes for California, Florida & Hawaii (MCP server)

Built by movie lovers, for movie lovers and their assistants.

SceneF started in San Francisco — one of the last great moviegoing cities:
single-screen neighborhood houses from the 1920s, repertory calendars that
change nightly, 35mm and 70mm prints, midnight movies, and yes, the
multiplexes too. It now runs **56 regional boards across California, Florida and
Hawaii** — Los Angeles to Sacramento, San Diego to Maui, Miami to Pensacola — and more states
are soaking. Each board brings venue schedules and licensed showtime feeds
together, with source confidence and freshness so callers can see what the
listings are based on.

Remote MCP server, streamable HTTP, no API key, read-only — and a local
stdio server in this repo, running the same ten tools.

**Every tool except `scenef_resolve_board` takes a `region`** — `"sf"`, `"la-central"`, `"oahu"`,
`"sacramento"`, … — and omitting it means the default board (`sf`), never a
guess from where you are. Use `scenef_resolve_board` for a named place and
`scenef_now` for the current list of boards.
Times are each theatre's own wall clock: Hawaii runs two or three hours off Pacific
and keeps no DST, and each board reports its timezone with its data.

```
https://scenef.com/mcp
```

## Connect

**Claude Code**

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http scenef https://scenef.com/mcp
```

**Claude Desktop / any MCP client** (`.mcp.json` / client config)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scenef": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://scenef.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

Also listed in the official MCP registry as `com.scenef/showtimes`.

## Or run it locally

This repo is also a **local MCP server** — Node, stdio, no proxy. It speaks
the protocol itself and reads the same board over SceneF's public REST API.
The same ten public tools and matching rules are available on either
transport. REST caching can make the two responses differ briefly.

```bash
npx -y github:speedwarnsf/scenef-mcp
```

**Claude Desktop / any stdio client**

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scenef": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:speedwarnsf/scenef-mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```

**From a clone, or Docker**

```bash
npm install && npm start
```

```bash
docker build -t scenef-mcp . && docker run --rm -i scenef-mcp
```

No API key, no account, no configuration. It sends `User-Agent:
scenef-mcp-local/1.1`, issues nothing but `GET`, and has no write path
anywhere in it.

`npm test` first runs offline regressions against the saved hosted schema
contract and fixture feeds. `test/contract.js` calls all ten tools against
the live board and validates every payload against the output schema the
server advertises, and `test/parity.js` diffs this server's tool definitions
against the hosted endpoint's. For a local preview, set both
`SCENEF_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3017` and
`SCENEF_MCP_URL=http://localhost:3017/mcp`. No external schema refresh is
claimed by a successful offline run. If that preview has a limited dataset,
set `SCENEF_PARITY_REGION=oahu` (or another populated nondefault board) for
the regional probes; the default is `la-central`.

## Tools

| Tool | What it answers |
| --- | --- |
| `scenef_whats_playing` | Ranked films for tonight / tomorrow / the weekend / a date — opens with **Notable tonight**: scarcity facts with receipts (measured seat counts, final nights, lone 35/70mm prints, posted discounts, live events) |
| `scenef_search_showtimes` | Showtimes for one film or theater, with date and hard time filters |
| `scenef_theater_info` | One theater: address, neighborhood, standing discounts, upcoming board |
| `scenef_film_details` | Year, runtime, ratings, cast, trailer, every upcoming showtime |
| `scenef_plan_movie_night` | Constraints in (time window, genres, formats, theaters), a plan out |
| `scenef_discounts` | The cheap nights, board-wide |
| `scenef_coming_soon` | What's opening next |
| `scenef_resolve_board` | A city, ZIP, neighborhood or alias to the board that covers it — or a refusal that says which kind of no |
| `scenef_now` | Right-now snapshot: what's catchable at this hour |
| `scenef_accuracy` | Our own verification record — checks run, failed, and unreachable |

Board-reading tools answer for one regional board at a time — pass `region`
to pick it. Preserve every returned ticket, calendar and film URL exactly,
including regional paths and `?region=` hints. Invalid hard date/time filters
return a refusal and warnings, never an unfiltered success. No ads or paid
ranking. The repertory houses get the same billing as the chains — a lone
35mm print at a neighborhood house is exactly the kind of thing this server
exists to surface, whether that house is in the Richmond or in Hilo.

`scenef_whats_playing` in concise mode returns the total `showtime_count`
and just the next screening in `showtimes`. Check `showtimes_complete` before
treating that array as exhaustive; detailed mode returns all selected rows.

## Why trust it

- Showtimes come from venue schedules and licensed feeds. Every returned
  screening carries `confidence`, `source_tier`, `sources`, and `verified_at`
  in both concise and detailed modes.
- `data_as_of` is the dataset publication time. `verified_at` and `freshness`
  describe a screening's source evidence; a fresh dataset can retain older
  rows. Freshness measures recency, not correctness. Confirm stale or retained
  listings with the theater before relying on them.
- The verification record is public — including the checks that failed:
  [scenef.com/api/accuracy](https://scenef.com/api/accuracy).

The local `scenef_now.sources` summary counts distinct reporting sources
verified within 24 hours; the hosted server counts venue ingest health.
The local payload states that basis. Per-screening freshness comes directly
from the canonical REST feed on both transports.

## Prefer plain HTTP?

The same data is served REST-style — see
[scenef.com/agents](https://scenef.com/agents) for the full contract:
[`/api/listings`](https://scenef.com/api/listings?when=tonight&compact=1) ·
[`/ask`](https://scenef.com/ask?q=what+is+playing+on+35mm+tonight) ·
[OpenAPI](https://scenef.com/openapi.json) ·
[llms.txt](https://scenef.com/llms.txt)

## Contact

info@scenef.com · [scenef.com](https://scenef.com)