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Overview

The Art Institute of Chicago's collection: about 133,000 artworks, plus artists, exhibitions, and audio-guide stops. Search with filters and facet counts, read full records with provenance and IIIF image URLs, and search audio-guide transcripts. No API key required.

Tools

Tool	Description
artic_search_artworks	Search artworks by text and filters, with facet counts and date or acquisition-year sorting
artic_get_artworks	Fetch full records for up to 100 artworks: description, provenance, histories, image URLs with rights status, related media
artic_search_artists	Find artists, cultures, and organizations by name or id, with available Getty ULAN identifiers, life dates, artwork counts, and sample works
artic_search_exhibitions	Search past, current, and upcoming exhibitions by text, date, artwork id, or artist id
artic_search_audio_guide	Search audio-guide stops by text: title, MP3 URL, and transcript
artic_lookup_vocabulary	List the values a search filter accepts, with artwork counts

Resources

Resource	Description
artic://artworks/{id}	One artwork record as JSON, with the API license text and description attribution

artic_get_artworks returns the same record for clients that don't surface resources.

Skills

Skill	Description
art-institute-chicago-guide	Gates and workflows the tool descriptions don't carry: finding works by an artist or culture, a work's exhibition history, counts past the 1,000-match window, provenance research and acquisition years, audio-guide stops versus linked media, accent-exact filter values, and reuse terms per output

The server serves it over MCP as skill://art-institute-chicago-guide/SKILL.md; it also ships in skills/ in the npm package and Docker image.

Capability reference

Searches and vocabulary lookup accept limits up to 1,000, and the response states the cap actually applied: 100 rows for artworks, artists, exhibitions, and the audio guide, and 1,000 values for vocabulary. Defaults are 10 rows (audio guide 2, vocabulary 25). Keep the same requested limit when following next_page; page times applied size must stay within 1,000. At the vocabulary cap, narrow with contains.

artic_search_artworks _tool

• query (every word must match, except common English words such as the and of, which are ignored; "exact phrase", -exclude, and a | b work) plus filters artist, artist_id, department, artwork_type, style, subject, classification, material, technique, theme, place_of_origin, gallery, year_from / year_to (date-span overlap, negative for BCE), acquired_from / acquired_to (fiscal year of acquisition, inclusive; works with no recorded year never match), public_domain_only, on_view_only, and has_image, combined with AND
• Up to 100 rows per page (default 10), within the first 1,000 matches; rows carry main_reference_number and, when recorded, acquisition_fiscal_year. sort is relevance, date_asc, date_desc, acquired_desc (recent acquisitions first), or acquired_asc; works missing the sorted field come last, and sort_applied reports popularity when relevance had no query text
• facets adds the top 15 values for any of 11 fields (the ten vocabularies and artist; artist counts every credited artist and rows carry artist_id); limit: 0 returns counts only

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artic_get_artworks _tool

• ids takes up to 1,000 entries (comma strings up to 100,000 characters); blanks and duplicates are dropped and artwork page URLs are read as ids. The first 100 are fetched; sections chooses from description and provenance (default), exhibition_history, publication_history, and catalogue, and is the size lever: every section on 100 well-documented works comes to about 1.4 MB
• Records return whole, in request order. missing_ids lists ids the museum doesn't have; deferred_ids lists ids past the first 100, to pass to the same tool again
• include_related_media (default on) loads up to 100 linked lectures and audio stops; description_attribution appears whenever CC BY description text is returned

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artic_search_artists _tool

• query (all name words must match) or ids, not both; ids takes up to 1,000 entries (comma strings up to 100,000 characters) and the first 100 are fetched. Query mode adds artists_only (default true), born_from / born_to, and up to 100 agents per page
• Each agent carries artwork_count, up to three sample_works (the museum's highlights first), life years, and alt_names; ids mode reports missing_ids and deferred_ids to pass as ids in the next call
• ulan_id is the Getty ULAN identifier when the museum records one; coverage is sparse, and it is distinct from the museum id used by other tools

---

artic_search_exhibitions _tool

• query, when (current, upcoming, past, or the default any), date_from / date_to (YYYY-MM-DD, matched by run overlap), and exact artwork_id / artist_id filters, combined with AND; up to 100 per page within the first 1,000 matches. query ignores common English words such as the and of
• Relationship filters cover recorded museum links; absent links do not prove an artwork or artist never appeared in a show
• sort is relevance, start_desc, or start_asc, defaulting to relevance with a query and start_desc without; status is the museum's label and doesn't say whether a show is open (when does)
• A missing date is unrecorded, not a run that did not happen: a show with no closing date is past when marked Closed, else current from its opening, and a date window reads it as running on its opening date alone (Closed) or on from it; a show with only a closing date ran on that date alone, and one with no dates matches no window
• Rows carry dates, gallery, summary, web page, image, artist_ids, and the artworks shown, when the museum lists them

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artic_search_audio_guide _tool

• query is required and matches stop titles and transcripts (every word except common English words such as the and of, which are ignored); up to 100 whole stops per page (default 2)
• Each stop has title, audio_url (MP3), and transcript but no artwork id; every response carries license_text and source_citation (content is for noncommercial educational and personal use)

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artic_lookup_vocabulary _tool

• vocabulary is one of department, artwork_type, style, subject, classification, material, technique, theme, place_of_origin, or gallery; optional contains substring (ignoring case and accents, so applique finds appliqué (technique)), public_domain_only, and up to 1,000 values (default 25)
• Values come back most common first with artwork_count, in the exact form the artic_search_artworks filter of the same name accepts; filter_param names that filter

---

artic://artworks/{id} _resource

• { artwork, license_text, description_attribution?, notice? } as application/json, where artwork is the artic_get_artworks record with its default sections and related media
• An unknown id fails as artwork_not_found; ids come from artic_search_artworks

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

Art Institute-specific:

• Keyless access to the Art Institute of Chicago public API (api.artic.edu/api/v1); IIIF image URLs are built from each record (843 px for every image, 1686 px and a IIIF manifest for public-domain works), never fetched
• One shared request pacer under the API's published limit of 60 requests a minute, retries for transient failures inside a 20-second deadline, and an in-process response cache (records 6 hours, searches 15 minutes, vocabularies 24 hours)
• Text search requires every word to match, except common English words such as the and of, which are ignored, so totals are real and a miss reads as zero hits; results keep the museum's relevance order
• Placeholder years in the museum's data (outside −8000 to 2100) are left out of output, year filters, and date sorts; date_display stays the authority. Date and acquisition sorts keep works with no value for the sorted field and list them last

Agent-friendly output:

• Rights travel with the data: image.rights (public_domain / in_copyright) on every image, with the 1686 px URL only where reuse is allowed; the API's license_text verbatim; description_attribution when CC BY text is returned; source_citation on audio-guide results
• Partial results instead of failures: artic_get_artworks reports missing_ids and deferred_ids, and when a secondary lookup (related media, artist counts) fails, the primary records still return with a notice naming what is missing
• Paging that names the next move: totalCount, has_more, next_page, and a notice for the next page, the 1,000-match ceiling, or the filter to loosen after zero hits

Data and licensing

The Art Institute of Chicago licenses its API data by surface, and the server passes the API's own license_text through with every artwork, artist, exhibition, and audio-guide result:

Content	Terms
Artwork metadata, artists, exhibitions, vocabulary terms, related media	CC0
Artwork description text	CC BY 4.0: credit the Art Institute of Chicago and cite the record's web_url
Artwork images	Reusable only for public-domain works (image.rights: "public_domain", CC0); other images need a rights check
Audio-guide content	Noncommercial educational and personal use, with copyright notices kept and the source cited

This server is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Known limitations

• Only the first 1,000 matches of any search are reachable without an authenticated key. Broad questions need filters or facets.
• The API's limit of 60 requests a minute is per egress IP, so every client behind one IP shares it. A call that cannot start within its 20-second budget fails as rate_limited.
• Curatorial text is sparse: about 10% of artworks have a description, and in a general sample 94% lack provenance. About 1% of artists have a biography, and there is no nationality field, only artist_display prose.
• About 15 artworks carry placeholder years and about 4,900 carry no dates; neither matches a year filter.
• About a third of artworks (47,677 of 133,165, 2026-11-03) have no recorded acquisition fiscal year; they never match acquired_from / acquired_to and sort last by acquisition year.
• Some vocabulary titles are stored cut at 40 characters in the museum's data (gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr). Pass values as artic_lookup_vocabulary lists them.
• The API's firewall refuses any request whose text contains markup such as <script>; the call fails as request_blocked.
• About 4% of exhibitions list their artworks. 650 of 6,262 have no recorded closing date (2026-11-03); the date filters read those as described above.
• Audio-guide stops have no artwork link. Some titles are file names, and some transcripts are in Spanish.
• Image URLs can stop resolving when the museum unpublishes or replaces an image, and relevance order follows the museum's ranking, which may shift.

Getting started

Connect to the hosted instance, no install:

claude mcp add --transport http art-institute-chicago-mcp-server https://art-institute-chicago.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Every caller of the hosted instance shares one api.artic.edu request budget of 50 requests a minute. For sustained use, run your own instance.

Or run it locally:

claude mcp add art-institute-chicago-mcp-server -- npx -y @cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server

For other clients, add this to the MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "art-institute-chicago-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

No API key or account is needed. The Art Institute API asks clients to identify themselves: set AIC_CONTACT to an email or URL the museum can reach (see Configuration). For Docker or a source build, see Running the server.

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
AIC_CONTACT	Email or URL the museum can reach, sent in the AIC-User-Agent header. Printable ASCII only; the server refuses to start otherwise. Set your own for any deployment.	https://github.com/cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server
AIC_REQUESTS_PER_MINUTE	Outbound requests per minute to api.artic.edu, 1–600. Stays under the API's published limit of 60; raise it only if the museum grants a higher one.	50
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http.	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	HTTP server port.	3010
MCP_SESSION_MODE	HTTP session mode: stateless, stateful, or auto. Overrides the server's declared posture.	stateless
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth.	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (debug, info, warning, error, etc.).	info
LOGS_DIR	Directory for log files (Node.js only).	<app-root>/logs
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE	Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1.	in-memory
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry.	false

See .env.example for every server setting and the common framework overrides.

Running the server

Local development

Requires Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).

• Clone and install:

  git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server.git
  cd art-institute-chicago-mcp-server && bun install
  cp .env.example .env   # set AIC_CONTACT
  

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http
  

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec
  

Docker

docker run --rm -e AIC_CONTACT=you@example.com -p 3010:3010 ghcr.io/cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server:latest

The image defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server. To run it over stdio from an MCP client, use "command": "docker" with "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "-e", "AIC_CONTACT=you@example.com", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/art-institute-chicago-mcp-server:latest"]. To build locally, docker build -t art-institute-chicago-mcp-server .; OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Directory	Purpose
src/index.ts	createApp() entry point: registers the tools and resource, sets the server instructions, and starts and stops the API service.
src/config	AIC_CONTACT and AIC_REQUESTS_PER_MINUTE parsing and validation with Zod.
src/mcp-server/tools	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts) and the artwork output schema they share.
src/mcp-server/resources	The artic://artworks/{id} resource.
src/services/aic	Art Institute API client: pacing, retries, response cache, HTML-to-text, IIIF URL construction, and the artwork and artist record builders.
skills/	The published art-institute-chicago-guide Agent Skill, served over MCP.
tests/	Unit and integration tests, mirroring the src/ structure.

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for logging, ctx.enrich for paging and notices
• Register new tools and resources in the barrels under src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.