Eth Library Mcp

Anchor demo query: "Find historical documents about Zurich school history in the ETH Library archives."

Features

• 🔍 Full-text search over 30M+ resources with fields, operators, and facets
• 📖 Resource details – full metadata via MMS-ID
• 🗂️ Archive search – ETH University Archives, Max Frisch, Thomas Mann, Graphische Sammlung, Bildarchiv
• 🏷️ Resource type filter – books, maps, images, archival material and more
• 🎓 Education search – curated workflow optimised for pedagogy and school history
• 👤 Person search with linked-data enrichment (Wikidata, GND, Metagrid) (BUG-02: currently unavailable)
• 📋 Server overview – all resource types and archives at a glance
• 🗣️ Built-in prompts – structured research and education-research workflows
• ☁️ Dual transport – stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP/SSE for cloud deployment

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• A free API key from developer.library.ethz.ch

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/eth-library-mcp.git
cd eth-library-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .

# Or with uv (recommended)
uv pip install -e .

Quickstart

# Set the API key
export ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY=your_key_here   # macOS / Linux
# $env:ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY = "your_key_here"  # Windows (PowerShell)

# Start the server (stdio mode for Claude Desktop)
python -m eth_library_mcp.server

> Without an API key the server returns a helpful error message with the registration link – no crashes.

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

> "Find books about Swiss education history in the ETH Library." > "Search the Max Frisch archive for manuscripts about Zurich."

[→ More use cases by audience →](EXAMPLES.md)

Configuration

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Required | |---|---|---| | ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY | API key for Discovery & Persons API | ✅ |

Claude Desktop Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eth-library": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "eth_library_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

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

Cloud Deployment (SSE for browser access)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

python -m eth_library_mcp.server --http --port 8000

The HTTP transport binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. To expose it on another interface, pass --host explicitly:

# Only behind a reverse-proxy / firewall that terminates TLS and enforces auth.
python -m eth_library_mcp.server --http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

> ⚠️ Do not bind to 0.0.0.0 without a reverse proxy. The server has no > built-in auth, rate-limiting or TLS — any LAN neighbour could call your tools.

> 💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, HTTP for the browser — behind a proxy."

Available Tools

Discovery API (api.library.ethz.ch)

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | eth_search_resources | Full-text search over 30M+ resources with fields, operators, facets | | eth_get_resource | Full metadata for a specific resource via MMS-ID | | eth_search_archive | Search within a specific archive (University Archives, Max Frisch, Thomas Mann, etc.) | | eth_search_by_type | Filter by resource type (books, maps, images, archival material, etc.) | | eth_search_education | Curated search for education topics (pedagogy, school history, etc.) |

Persons API

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | eth_search_persons | Person search with linked-data enrichment (Wikidata, GND, Metagrid) — ⚠️ BUG-02 |

Utilities

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | eth_library_info | Server overview: all types and archives at a glance |

Resources & Prompts

| Item | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | eth://resource-types | Resource | All available resource types | | eth://archives | Resource | All available archives and collections | | research-workflow | Prompt | Structured research workflow | | education-research | Prompt | Education topics workflow (Schulamt-optimised) |

Query Syntax

The Discovery API uses structured queries:

field,operator,value

| Field | Meaning | |---|---| | any | All fields (recommended for starters) | | title | Title only | | creator | Author / creator | | sub | Subject headings / topics |

| Operator | Meaning | |---|---| | contains | Term is present | | exact | Exact match | | begins_with | Starts with |

Examples:

any,contains,Volksschule Zürich
title,contains,Pädagogik
creator,exact,Einstein Albert
sub,contains,Bildungsforschung
title,contains,Schule;sub,contains,Geschichte

Available Archives

| Identifier | Description | |---|---| | ETH_Hochschularchiv | Institutional memory of ETH Zurich | | ETH_MaxFrischArchiv | Estate of Swiss author Max Frisch | | ETH_ThomasMannArchiv | Letters and documents of Thomas Mann | | ETH_GraphischeSammlung | Prints, drawings, graphic works | | ETH_Bildarchiv | Science/technology history, Swissair (E-Pics) |

Example Use Cases

| Query | Tool | |---|---| | "Find books about Zurich school history" | eth_search_education | | "What's in the Max Frisch archive?" | eth_search_archive | | "Find historical maps of Switzerland" | eth_search_by_type | | "Get full metadata for resource ID 991170525863705501" | eth_get_resource | | "Which archives does the ETH Library hold?" | eth_library_info |

Project Structure

eth-library-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── eth_library_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py        # Package init, version
│       └── server.py          # FastMCP server, all tools
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py         # Unit tests
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md             # Contribution guide (English)
├── CONTRIBUTING.de.md          # Contribution guide (German)
├── SECURITY.md                 # Security posture (English)
├── SECURITY.de.md              # Security posture (German)
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                  # This file (English)
├── README.de.md               # German version
├── claude_desktop_config.json # Example Claude Desktop configuration
└── pyproject.toml             # Build configuration

Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (API key required)
ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY=xxx pytest tests/ -m "live"

Safety & Limits

• Read-only: All tools perform HTTP GET requests only — no data is written, modified, or deleted.
• No personal data: The APIs return bibliographic metadata (titles, authors, subjects, identifiers). No personally identifiable information (PII) is processed or stored by this server.
• Authentication: A free API key from developer.library.ethz.ch is required. The key is read from the ETH_LIBRARY_API_KEY environment variable and never logged or transmitted to third parties.
• Rate limits: The ETH Library API enforces rate limits per API key. The server enforces a 30-second timeout per request. Use limit and offset parameters conservatively.
• Data freshness: Results reflect the ETH Library catalogue at query time. No caching is performed by this server.
• Terms of service: Bibliographic metadata is published as Public Domain — free for all uses. API access is subject to the ETH Library Developer Portal terms.
• Known issue (BUG-02): eth_search_persons returns HTTP 404 — the Persons API endpoint URL needs verification. All other 6 tools work correctly.
• No guarantees: This is a community project, not affiliated with the ETH Library or ETH Zurich. Availability depends on upstream APIs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) ([Deutsch](CONTRIBUTING.de.md)) for guidelines.

Security

Read-only, no PII, a single upstream API key, and a fixed egress allow-list of ETH Library endpoints. See [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) ([Deutsch](SECURITY.de.md)) for the full security posture and accepted-risk decisions.

Changelog

See [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md)

License

• Server code: MIT License — see [LICENSE](LICENSE)
• Bibliographic metadata: Public Domain (no restrictions)
• API documentation: developer.library.ethz.ch

Powered by Model Context Protocol • 2 APIs • 7 Tools • 2 Resources • 2 Prompts

Installation

Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eth-library-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "eth-library-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Source & license

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

• Author: malkreide
• Source: malkreide/eth-library-mcp
• License: MIT

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