Northwestern Digital Collections API MCP Server

dc-api-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes Northwestern University Library's Digital Collections as tools for AI assistants. It provides tools for searching, browsing, and retrieving metadata and IIIF manifests for digitized library materials.

Available Tools

Tool	Description
`search`	Search for works using field-based and/or natural language queries
`similarity-search`	Find works visually or semantically similar to a given work
`get-work`	Retrieve full metadata for a single work by ID
`view-work`	View a work's IIIF manifest for display in compatible viewers
`list-collections`	List available digital collections
`view-collection`	Browse a specific collection's IIIF manifest
`view-search-results`	Retrieve results from a previous search
`view-similar-works`	Retrieve results from a previous similarity search

Using the Remote Endpoint

The server is available as a hosted remote at:

https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp

No local installation is required. Configure your MCP client to connect to this URL using the streamable HTTP transport.

Claude Desktop

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file.

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dc-api": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http dc-api https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp

Development

Requirements

Node.js 24+ (see .tool-versions)
mise (used by bin/run.sh to activate the correct runtime)

Setup

npm install

Configuration

The server reads the following environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
`DC_API_BASE`	`https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2`	Base URL for the Digital Collections API
`DC_IIIF_BASE`	`https://iiif.dc.library.northwestern.edu/iiif/3`	Base URL for the IIIF server
`SECRETS_PATH`	(none)	Base path for AWS Secrets Manager config

Running locally

stdio (for Claude Desktop / Claude Code)

bun run stdio

Or via the wrapper script (activates the correct Node.js version via mise):

bin/run.sh

HTTP (Streamable HTTP transport, port 3000)

bun run http

Configuring Claude Desktop (local build)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dc-api": {
      "command": "/path/to/dc-api-v2/mcp/bin/run.sh"
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/dc-api-v2/mcp with the absolute path to this directory. Restart Claude Desktop after editing.

Tests

Command	Result
`bun run test`	Run the test suite
`bun test:watch`	Run the test suite, watching for changes
`bun test:coverage`	Run the test suite and calculate coverage
`bun test:record`	Run the test suite against live data and record new fixtures

By default, the test suite uses pre-recorded HTTP fixtures. Set MSW_MODE=live to run against live data.
bun test:record records new fixtures (requires mitmproxy: pip install mitmproxy).