mcarchive-org 2026.4.21

MCP server for searching and downloading files from the Internet Archive (archive.org)

mcarchive-org

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets an LLM search, inspect, and download content from the Internet Archive.

Built on FastMCP + httpx. No API key required — archive.org's read endpoints are public.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
search_items	Small Solr-style search via advancedsearch.php (1–200 rows, paginated)
scrape_items	Bulk cursor-paginated search via Scrape API (count ≥ 100)
get_item_metadata	Metadata for one item; skips the (possibly huge) files list by default
list_files	Files array with optional format / glob filtering — includes download_url per file
get_file_url	Build a canonical download URL without hitting the network
download_file	Stream a file to disk with resume support and optional MD5 verification

Also exposes an MCP resource template: archive://item/{identifier}.

Install & run

# From a checkout:
uv sync
uv run mcarchive-org

# Or from PyPI (once published):
uvx mcarchive-org

Register with Claude Code:

claude mcp add archive-org -- uvx mcarchive-org
# or, from a local checkout:
claude mcp add archive-org -- uv run --directory /path/to/mcarchive-org mcarchive-org

Environment

Variable	Default	Purpose
MCARCHIVE_DOWNLOAD_ROOT	./downloads	Base directory for download_file

Example flow

search_items(query='mediatype:audio AND creator:"Grateful Dead"', sort=['downloads desc'])
  → identifier 'gd77-05-08.sbd.hicks.4982.sbeok.shnf' (among others)

list_files(identifier='gd77-05-08.sbd.hicks.4982.sbeok.shnf', formats=['VBR MP3'])
  → [{ name: 'gd1977-05-08d1t01.mp3', size: 6342912, md5: '…', download_url: '…' }, …]

download_file(identifier='gd77-…', filename='gd1977-05-08d1t01.mp3', verify_md5='…')
  → { path: './downloads/gd77-…/gd1977-…mp3', bytes: 6342912, md5_ok: True }

Query syntax notes

archive.org uses a Solr/Lucene dialect:

• mediatype:(audio OR movies) — restrict to media types
• collection:etree — items in a specific collection
• date:[1977-01-01 TO 1977-12-31] — date ranges
• creator:"Grateful Dead" — phrase match
• -subject:bootleg — exclusion
• Sort by downloads desc, date asc, addeddate desc, etc.

See archive.org's search docs for the full grammar.

License

MIT