Wikipedia Mcp Server

@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server Search Wikipedia articles, read summaries and full text, target sections, find nearby pages, and list language editions via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP. 6 Tools

[](./CHANGELOG.md) [](./LICENSE) [](https://github.com/users/cyanheads/packages/container/package/wikipedia-mcp-server) [](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) [](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server) [](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) [](https://bun.sh/)

[](https://github.com/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server/releases/latest/download/wikipedia-mcp-server.mcpb) [](https://cursor.com/en/install-mcp?name=wikipedia-mcp-server&config=eyJjb21tYW5kIjoibnB4IiwiYXJncyI6WyIteSIsIkBjeWFuaGVhZHMvd2lraXBlZGlhLW1jcC1zZXJ2ZXIiXX0=) [](https://vscode.dev/redirect?url=vscode:mcp/install?%7B%22name%22%3A%22wikipedia-mcp-server%22%2C%22command%22%3A%22npx%22%2C%22args%22%3A%5B%22-y%22%2C%22%40cyanheads%2Fwikipedia-mcp-server%22%5D%7D)

[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core)

---

Tools

Six tools for working with Wikipedia across all language editions:

| Tool | Description | |:---|:---| | wikipedia_search | Full-text search across Wikipedia, returning ranked results with plain-text snippets and page IDs. | | wikipedia_get_summary | Lead-section summary for any article — plain text, Wikidata QID, description, thumbnail URL, and page type. | | wikipedia_get_article | Full article or a targeted section as clean plain text, with section markers preserved. | | wikipedia_get_sections | Table of contents with section_index values for targeted section reads. | | wikipedia_search_nearby | Geotagged Wikipedia articles within a radius of a WGS 84 coordinate, sorted by distance. | | wikipedia_get_languages | All language editions available for an article, with titles and URLs. |

wikipedia_search

Search Wikipedia articles by full-text query.

• Returns ranked results with plain-text snippets (HTML stripped), page IDs, and word counts
• Use when the exact article title is unknown or to discover multiple articles on a topic
• Supports all Wikipedia language editions via the language parameter

---

wikipedia_get_summary

Fetch the lead-section summary for a Wikipedia article.

• Returns the 2–4 paragraph intro, Wikidata QID for cross-referencing, short description, and thumbnail URL
• Surfaces page_type: "disambiguation" — a signal to follow up with wikipedia_search using a more specific query
• Redirect pages followed automatically
• Right tool for 90% of encyclopedic lookups

---

wikipedia_get_article

Fetch article content as clean plain text.

• Without section_index: returns the full article (40–100 KB for major articles) with == Section == markers
• With section_index (from wikipedia_get_sections): returns just that section (1–10 KB)
• Section path uses wikitext stripping via wtf_wikipedia

---

wikipedia_get_sections

Fetch the table of contents for a Wikipedia article.

• Returns section titles, heading levels, section numbering (e.g. "2.1"), and section_index values
• section_index is the integer to pass to wikipedia_get_article for targeted reads
• Call this before wikipedia_get_article when only a specific section is needed

---

wikipedia_search_nearby

Find Wikipedia articles about places near a geographic coordinate.

• Results sorted ascending by distance in meters
• Only articles with geographic coordinates in their Wikidata record are returned
• Radius capped at 10,000 meters; up to 50 results per call

---

wikipedia_get_languages

List language editions available for a Wikipedia article.

• Returns language codes, article titles in each language, and full URLs
• Use for cross-language research or to discover a non-English title before switching editions

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

• Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
• Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches, classifies, and formats
• Pluggable auth: none, jwt, oauth
• Swappable storage backends: in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1
• Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
• STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

Wikipedia-specific:

• Dual API integration — MediaWiki REST API (/api/rest_v1/) for summaries, Action API (/w/api.php) for search, full text, sections, geo search, and language links
• Retry and backoff on all requests; User-Agent header per Wikimedia API policy
• Wikitext stripping pipeline via wtf_wikipedia — handles links, templates, refs, bold/italic; re-injects section headings for structure
• Per-call language parameter on every tool — all Wikipedia language editions accessible in a single session
• Language validation against ~250 known Wikipedia edition codes — catches structurally valid but nonexistent editions before they cause timeouts

Agent-friendly output:

• page_type field on summaries discriminates article / disambiguation / redirect — no string parsing needed
• wikibase_item (Wikidata QID) on summaries enables direct cross-referencing with wikidata-mcp-server
• section_index on table-of-contents entries links directly to the targeted-read parameter on wikipedia_get_article
• Recovery hints on every error type — callers get actionable next steps (e.g., "use wikipedia_search to find the correct title")

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikipedia-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikipedia-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikipedia-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.3.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
• No API keys required — Wikipedia's API is public.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server.git

1. Navigate into the directory:

cd wikipedia-mcp-server

1. Install dependencies:

bun install

1. Configure environment (optional):

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env if you want to customize WIKIPEDIA_USER_AGENT or logging

Configuration

| Variable | Description | Default | |:---------|:------------|:--------| | WIKIPEDIA_USER_AGENT | User-Agent header sent with every Wikimedia API request. Customize for your deployment. | wikipedia-mcp-server/0.1.10 (https://github.com/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server) | | WIKIPEDIA_BASE_URL | Base Wikipedia URL. Language selection is per-call — not a global language setting. | https://en.wikipedia.org | | MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Transport: stdio or http. | stdio | | MCP_HTTP_PORT | Port for HTTP server. | 3010 | | MCP_AUTH_MODE | Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth. | none | | MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Log level (RFC 5424). | info | | LOGS_DIR | Directory for log files (Node.js only). | /logs | | OTEL_ENABLED | Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation (spans, metrics, completion logs). | false |

See [.env.example](./.env.example) for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

```sh # One-time build bun run rebuild

# Run the built server bun run start:stdio # or bun run start:http ```

• Run checks and tests:

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

Docker

docker build -t wikipedia-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 wikipedia-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/wikipedia-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 tools and inits the Wikipedia service. | | src/config | Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. | | src/mcp-server/tools | Tool definitions (*.tool.ts) — one file per tool. | | src/services/wikipedia | WikipediaService — REST API + Action API client with retry/backoff and language validation. | | tests/ | Unit and integration tests mirroring src/. |

Development guide

See [CLAUDE.md](./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 request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
• Register new tools in src/mcp-server/tools/definitions/index.ts
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: cyanheads
• Source: cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.