🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

🏛️ swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp

MCP Server for Swiss cultural heritage — SIK-ISEA artists, Nationalmuseum collections, and the Nationalbibliothek bibliography

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

Overview

swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp provides AI-native access to Swiss cultural heritage data sources, all without authentication:

Source	Data	API
SIK-ISEA (SIKART)	~17,000 Swiss artists — SIKART biographical data	opendata.swiss CKAN
Nationalmuseum (SNM)	Museum collections (numismatics, seals, special collections)	opendata.swiss CKAN
Nationalbibliothek (NB)	Swiss national bibliography (Helveticat)	OAI-PMH
Memoriav / Memobase	Audiovisual heritage (photo, audio, video)	Linked Open Data (JSON-LD / Hydra)
Dodis	Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (documents, persons, organisations)	JSON-REST (Solr) + permalinks

This server completes the humanistic dimension of the Swiss public data portfolio — history, literature, and art — alongside existing servers for law (fedlex-mcp), transport, statistics, and more.

The memory-institution facade (Memobase + Dodis) is exposed through three federated tools — search_heritage, get_heritage_item, list_heritage_collections — rather than one tool-family per source. Every result carries source, permalink and licence, and the licence is reported separately for metadata and for the digitised object (they diverge: metadata is open Linked Open Data, but a digitised object may be In Copyright). Only metadata and links are returned — copyright-protected full texts (e.g. Dodis transcriptions) are never reproduced.

Anchor demo query (art): "Find works by Zurich-based painters from the 19th century in the Nationalmuseum, and cross-reference with their biography in the SIK-ISEA artist database."

Anchor demo query (memory institutions): "Which sources on the development of the Zurich Volksschule in the 19th century can be found in the Swiss memory institutions?" → search_heritage(query="Volksschule Zürich", collection="all", date_from="1800", date_to="1899").

Demo

Demo: Claude using heritage_cross_search

Features

🏛️ 11 tools, 2 resources, 2 prompts across five data sources
🔍 heritage_cross_search — parallel search across SIK-ISEA + SNM + NB in a single call
🏛️ search_heritage — federated facade over Memobase + Dodis with per-result source, permalink and split metadata/digitised-object licence
🌐 Bilingual output (Markdown / JSON)
🔓 No API key required — all data under open licenses
☁️ Dual transport — stdio (Claude Desktop) + Streamable HTTP (cloud)
📚 Prompt templates for art research and finding educational materials

Project phase: Phase 1 — read-only. Every tool is annotated readOnlyHint: true; there are no write or destructive operations. Moving to Phase 2 (write-capable) requires the prerequisites in docs/roadmap.md.

Prerequisites

Python 3.11+
uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp.git
cd swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .
# or with uv:
uv pip install -e .

Or with uvx (no permanent installation):

uvx swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp

Quickstart

# stdio (for Claude Desktop)
python -m swiss_cultural_heritage_mcp.server

# Streamable HTTP (port 8000)
python -m swiss_cultural_heritage_mcp.server --http --port 8000

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Who is Ferdinand Hodler?" "What coins does the Nationalmuseum have from Zurich?" "Find publications about Volksschule in the Swiss national bibliography"

→ More use cases by audience →

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-cultural-heritage": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "swiss_cultural_heritage_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Or with uvx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-cultural-heritage": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

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):

Render.com (recommended):

Push/fork the repository to GitHub
On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
Select region Frankfurt (EU) — required for Swiss public-sector use under revDSG / EDÖB. See docs/data-residency.md.
Set start command: python -m swiss_cultural_heritage_mcp.server --http --port 8000
In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/sse

💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, SSE for the browser."

For container deployments (Docker / Kubernetes / Cloud Run): the repository ships a hardened Dockerfile (non-root UID 10001). See docs/security.md for recommended SecurityContext and docs/network-egress.md for egress policy. The service runs single-instance by default; before scaling horizontally, see docs/scaling.md for the session-affinity prerequisites.

Available Tools

SIK-ISEA (Swiss Art Research)

Tool	Description
`heritage_search_artists`	Search ~17,000 Swiss artists (SIKART) by name or place
`heritage_get_artist`	Full artist profile by SIKART ID (HAUPTNR)

Nationalmuseum (SNM)

Tool	Description
`heritage_search_museum_datasets`	Search SNM datasets on opendata.swiss
`heritage_browse_collection`	Browse objects within a collection via CKAN DataStore

Nationalbibliothek (NB)

Tool	Description
`heritage_search_helveticat`	Search Swiss national bibliography via OAI-PMH
`heritage_list_nb_collections`	List available OAI-PMH sets
`heritage_get_publication`	Full Dublin Core metadata for a publication

Cross-Source

Tool	Description
`heritage_cross_search`	Parallel search across SIK-ISEA + SNM + NB

Memory institutions (Memobase + Dodis) — federated facade

Tool	Description
`search_heritage`	Federated search over Memobase + Dodis (`collection = memobase \| dodis \| all`), with `date_from` / `date_to` / `media_type` filters. Every result carries source, permalink and a split metadata/digitised-object licence
`get_heritage_item`	Full metadata for one object (`collection`, `item_id`). Metadata + links only — protected full texts are never reproduced
`list_heritage_collections`	Discovery: which collections exist, their protocol, auth and licences — including the probed-but-not-connected sources (Bundesarchiv, Landesmuseum) and why

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"Who is Ferdinand Hodler?"	`heritage_get_artist`
"Find Swiss artists born in Basel"	`heritage_search_artists`
"What coins from Zurich does the Nationalmuseum have?"	`heritage_browse_collection`
"Find publications about Volksschule"	`heritage_search_helveticat`
"Search for everything about Sophie Taeuber-Arp"	`heritage_cross_search`
"Sources on the 19th-c. Zurich Volksschule in Swiss memory institutions"	`search_heritage`

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│  Swiss Cultural Heritage MCP  │────▶│  SIK-ISEA                │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│  (MCP Server)                │◀────│  opendata.swiss / CKAN   │
└─────────────────┘     │                              │     ├──────────────────────────┤
                        │  11 Tools · 2 Resources      │────▶│  Nationalmuseum (SNM)    │
                        │  2 Prompts                   │◀────│  opendata.swiss / CKAN   │
                        │  Stdio | SSE                 │     ├──────────────────────────┤
                        │                              │────▶│  Nationalbibliothek (NB) │
                        │  No authentication required  │◀────│  OAI-PMH (Helveticat)    │
                        │                              │     ├──────────────────────────┤
                        │  search_heritage facade      │────▶│  Memobase (JSON-LD/Hydra)│
                        │                              │◀────│  Dodis (JSON-REST/Solr)  │
                        └──────────────────────────────┘     └──────────────────────────┘

Data Source Characteristics

Source	Protocol	Coverage	Auth
SIK-ISEA (SIKART)	CKAN DataStore	~17,000 Swiss artists	None
Nationalmuseum	CKAN DataStore	Museum collections	None
Nationalbibliothek	OAI-PMH	Swiss national bibliography	None
Memoriav / Memobase	Linked Open Data (JSON-LD / Hydra, RiC-O)	Audiovisual heritage (~460k records)	None
Dodis	JSON-REST (Solr) + stable permalinks	Diplomatic documents, persons, organisations	None

Architecture decision — memory-institution facade

Verified by a live probe on 2026-07-19 (methodology: mcp-data-source-probe). Four memory institutions were evaluated; only two expose a clean, no-auth, standardised interface and are connected:

Source	Result	Why
Memobase	✅ connected	Linked-Open-Data API (`api.memobase.ch`, JSON-LD/Hydra); full-text search via `?q=`, single record via `/record/<id>`; pagination via `offset`/`size`. Metadata open; digitised objects carry per-object `rightsstatements.org` rights ("In Copyright", access "onsite").
Dodis	✅ connected	JSON-REST/Solr (`beta.dodis.ch/api`): search via `POST /api/solr/query`, item via `GET /api/solr/full/<id>`; stable permalinks `dodis.ch/<id>`. Metadata open (citation required); documents carry per-document rights (TEI/PDF behind the permalink).
Bundesarchiv	⛔ not connected	The `recherche.bar.admin.ch` backend (CMI AIS) sits behind eIAM login and Google reCAPTCHA — not machine-accessible without emulating a session, which is fragile and against the operator's intent.
Landesmuseum	⛔ not connected	`sammlung.nationalmuseum.ch` has no public API (only an internal, undocumented Ajax/HTML surface) — connecting it would require scraping, which violates the resilience guardrails.

Consequences: three federated tools instead of four tool-families; every result carries source + permalink + a split metadata/digitised-object licence; no copyright-protected full text is reproduced (metadata + links only); bar and landesmuseum are documented as gated via list_heritage_collections, not scraped.

Project Structure

swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp/
├── src/swiss_cultural_heritage_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Package
│   └── server.py                # 11 tools, 2 resources, 2 prompts
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py           # Unit + integration tests (mocked HTTP)
├── .github/workflows/ci.yml     # GitHub Actions (Python 3.11/3.12/3.13)
├── .github/dependabot.yml       # Monthly dependency + SDK update PRs
├── Dockerfile                   # Multi-stage, non-root, HEALTHCHECK
├── docs/                        # security, network-egress, scaling, data-residency, roadmap
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                    # This file (English)
└── README.de.md                 # German version

Single-file server: the 11 tools live in one server.py rather than a tools/ package. At this size a single, linear module is easier to read and review than a split; if the tool count grows materially, the SIK-ISEA / SNM / NB / cross-search blocks are the natural split points.

Safety & Limits

Read-only: All tools perform HTTP GET requests only — no data is written, modified, or deleted.
No personal data: The APIs return institutional records (artworks, publications, artists). No personally identifiable information (PII) is processed or stored by this server.
Rate limits: The opendata.swiss and OAI-PMH endpoints are not rate-limit-documented; use limit parameters conservatively. The server enforces a 30s timeout per request.
Data freshness: Records reflect the upstream source at query time. No caching is performed by this server.
Terms of service: Data is subject to the ToS of each source — SIK-ISEA, opendata.swiss, Nationalbibliothek OAI-PMH. All data is published under open licenses (CC0 / CC BY).
No guarantees: This server is a community project, not affiliated with SIK-ISEA, SNM, or NB. Availability depends on upstream APIs.

Known Limitations

SIK-ISEA: Artist data is updated periodically; very recent acquisitions may not yet be reflected
Nationalmuseum: Only datasets published on opendata.swiss are accessible; not all SNM collections are available
Nationalbibliothek: OAI-PMH harvesting is rate-limited; large result sets require pagination
Cross-search: Response time depends on the slowest of the three sources

Testing

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

# Integration tests (live API calls)
pytest tests/ -m "live"

MCP Protocol Version

Item	Value
Supported MCP protocol version	`2025-11-25` (negotiated by the SDK)
SDK	`mcp[cli] >=1.0.0,<2.0.0` (pinned in `pyproject.toml`)
Update policy	The SDK pin is the source of truth for the protocol version. Dependabot opens monthly `mcp` update PRs; protocol-version bumps are reviewed there and recorded in CHANGELOG.md.

The official mcp SDK negotiates the protocol version during initialize; this server does not override it. Pin the SDK (not a hand-rolled version string) to control which protocol version is spoken.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md

Security

See SECURITY.md (Deutsch) for the security posture and how to report a vulnerability.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE

Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

Credits & Related Projects

SIK-ISEA: www.sik-isea.ch — Swiss Institute for Art Research
Nationalmuseum: www.nationalmuseum.ch / opendata.swiss
Nationalbibliothek: www.nb.admin.ch — Swiss National Library
Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
Related: eth-library-mcp — ETH Library: full Swiss library coverage (ETH = science, NB = humanities)
Related: fedlex-mcp — Cultural heritage law + primary legislation
Related: zurich-opendata-mcp — Spatial-historical: museum objects + Zurich geodata
Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

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": {
    "swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}