Arke Institute MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants with semantic search capabilities across the Arke Institute's extensive archive of NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) records and presidential libraries.
Features
- Semantic Search: Natural language queries powered by OpenAI embeddings and Pinecone vector search
- Rich Entity Types: Search across institutions, collections, series, file units, and digitized objects
- Extracted Text: Access OCR'd content from scanned documents and PDFs
- Complete Metadata: Full NARA catalog records, access restrictions, physical locations, and hierarchical relationships
- Fast Responses: Sub-second search times with parallel API processing
- Easy Integration: Works with Claude Desktop, Cloudflare AI Playground, and any MCP client
What is Arke Institute?
The Arke Institute provides semantic access to historical archives, starting with digitizing and indexing the complete holdings of the National Archives. The search API powers discovery across millions of historical documents, photographs, and records.
Installation
Deploy to Cloudflare Workers
Or via command line:
npm create cloudflare@latest -- arke-mcp-server --template=arke-institute/arke-mcp
cd arke-mcp-server
npm run deploy
Your MCP server will be deployed to: arke-mcp-server.<your-account>.workers.dev/sse
Local Development
git clone https://github.com/arke-institute/arke-mcp.git
cd arke-mcp/arke-mcp-server
npm install
npm run dev
The server runs at http://localhost:8787
MCP Tool Reference
search_arke
Perform semantic search across Arke Institute archives.
Parameters:
query(string, required): Natural language search querytopK(number, optional): Number of results (1-100, default: 10)namespaces(array, optional): Filter by entity type(s)
Available Namespaces:
institution- Institutional collectionscollection- Record collectionsseries- Record seriesfileUnit- File unitsdigitalObject- Digital objects (scanned documents, images, PDFs with extracted text)
Returns:
Formatted search results including:
- Similarity scores (0-1 range, higher = better match)
- Entity titles and descriptions
- NARA identifiers and persistent identifiers (PIs)
- Date ranges and record types
- Parent/child entity relationships
- Physical locations and access restrictions
- IPFS content identifiers (CIDs)
- Extracted text from digitized documents
Usage Examples
Example 1: General Search
{
"query": "Apollo 11 moon landing mission",
"topK": 5
}
Searches all entity types for Apollo 11 content.
Example 2: Search Digitized Documents
{
"query": "World War II photographs",
"topK": 10,
"namespaces": ["digitalObject"]
}
Searches only digitized objects (with extracted text) for WWII photos.
Example 3: Search File Units
{
"query": "presidential speeches on climate change",
"topK": 20,
"namespaces": ["fileUnit", "digitalObject"]
}
Searches file units and digitized objects for climate-related presidential speeches.
Connect to Claude Desktop
To use this MCP server with Claude Desktop, add it to your configuration:
- Open Claude Desktop Settings > Developer > Edit Config
- Add the server configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"arke": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"mcp-remote",
"https://arke-mcp-server.<your-account>.workers.dev/sse"
]
}
}
}
For local development:
{
"mcpServers": {
"arke": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"mcp-remote",
"http://localhost:8787/sse"
]
}
}
}
- Restart Claude Desktop
- You should see the
search_arketool available
Connect to Cloudflare AI Playground
- Go to https://playground.ai.cloudflare.com/
- Enter your deployed MCP server URL:
arke-mcp-server.<your-account>.workers.dev/sse - Start using the
search_arketool directly in the playground
Example Conversations
Finding Historical Documents
User: "Find documents about the Space Shuttle Discovery missions"
Claude (using search_arke):
{
"query": "Space Shuttle Discovery missions",
"topK": 10
}
Returns relevant file units, digitized speeches, and mission records with extracted text content.
Researching Presidential Libraries
User: "Show me Clinton administration documents about Japan relations in the 1990s"
Claude (using search_arke):
{
"query": "Clinton administration Japan relations 1990s",
"topK": 15,
"namespaces": ["fileUnit", "digitalObject"]
}
Returns presidential library materials with dates, locations, and full text content.
Architecture
┌─────────────┐
│ AI Client │ (Claude Desktop, AI Playground)
└──────┬──────┘
│ MCP Protocol (SSE/HTTP)
▼
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Arke MCP Server │
│ (Cloudflare Worker) │
│ │
│ - search_arke tool │
│ - Dynamic namespaces │
│ - Result formatting │
└──────┬──────────────────────┘
│ HTTPS
▼
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Arke Search API │
│ search.arke.institute │
│ │
│ - OpenAI embeddings │
│ - Pinecone vector search │
│ - IPFS content retrieval │
└─────────────────────────────┘
Project Structure
arke-mcp-server/
├── src/
│ ├── index.ts # MCP server implementation
│ ├── types.ts # TypeScript type definitions
│ ├── clients/
│ │ └── arke.ts # Arke Search API client
│ └── utils/
│ └── formatters.ts # Result formatting for AI
├── package.json
├── wrangler.jsonc # Cloudflare Worker config
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md
API Endpoints
/sse- Server-Sent Events endpoint for MCP protocol (recommended)/mcp- Standard HTTP MCP endpoint/- Server information and health check
Development
Type Checking
npm run type-check
Code Formatting
npm run format
Deploy to Production
npm run deploy
Performance
- Search latency: ~500-900ms (including vector search, entity fetching, and formatting)
- Namespace fetching: Cached at server initialization
- Concurrent searches: Fully supported via Cloudflare Workers
Limitations
- Maximum 100 results per query (topK parameter)
- Searches are read-only (no write operations)
- Rate limits apply per Cloudflare Workers free tier (or your plan)
Related Projects
- Arke Search API: search.arke.institute - The underlying search service
- Arke IPFS API: api.arke.institute - Entity manifest and metadata retrieval
- MCP Specification: modelcontextprotocol.io
Contributing
Contributions welcome! Please open issues or pull requests on GitHub.
License
MIT License - see LICENSE file for details
Support
For questions or issues:
- Open a GitHub issue
- Contact the Arke Institute team
- Check the MCP documentation
Acknowledgments
- Built with Cloudflare Workers
- Uses Model Context Protocol
- Powered by Arke Institute search infrastructure
- NARA data from the National Archives