Databnf MCP server

mcp-databnf

data.bnf.fr is the open data service of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It publishes the authority records the national library maintains: the people it catalogues, with their dates, their places, their languages and their fields of activity; the works they wrote, with the editions each work was published in; and the links to the copies digitised in Gallica. A record states whether the library considers it established or still provisional.

This server connects a chat client to that service. You can search for an author or a work by name, read a record in full, list what an author wrote, list the editions of a work, and find the digitised copies attached to either. It needs no API key and no account.

Version française

Install

One-click install

Claude Code

claude mcp add databnf -- npx -y mcp-databnf

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any client using the standard config format

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "databnf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-databnf"]
    }
  }
}

Node 24 or later is required, and no environment variable has to be set.

With Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "databnf": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "ghcr.io/smeet666/mcp-databnf:2.1.2"]
    }
  }
}

-i keeps stdin open, which is where the protocol travels, and -t is left out because a TTY rewrites the stream. The container needs outbound HTTPS to data.bnf.fr, and nothing else: no volume, no port, no credential.

Bundle, without npm

Download mcp-databnf-2.1.2.mcpb from the latest release and open it. A client that supports MCP bundles installs it on its own, with no npm and no configuration file to edit. The bundle carries its dependencies, so nothing is fetched at install time.

What you can ask

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.