emby-mcp-server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes Emby Server library management, scheduled-task, and session-control operations to LLM clients like Claude.

Designed for personal use on a single Emby instance with two deployment shapes in mind:

• General-purpose use with a cloud LLM (e.g. Claude Desktop) — full search surface, friendly markdown by default.
• Voice / accessibility front-ends running a small local model (4B-12B class — Gemma 3, Qwen, etc. via Ollama or similar). JSON responses are slim, flat, snake_case, and free of raw tick durations or nested objects that small models tend to misread.

The tool surface covers search, item details, played/favorite/rating state, metadata edits, refresh, scheduled tasks, and session control (play, pause, seek, volume, etc.).

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18
• An Emby server, reachable over HTTP from wherever you run this MCP server
• Either an Emby API key OR a valid username/password pair

Install & build

npm install
npm run build

Output goes to dist/. The entry point is dist/index.js.

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables.

| Variable | Required | Description | |---|---|---| | EMBY_SERVER_URL | yes | Base URL of your Emby server, e.g. http://192.168.1.50:8096. No trailing slash needed. | | EMBY_API_KEY | one of | Server-wide API key. Get one in Dashboard → API Keys. | | EMBY_USERNAME | one of | Emby username. Pair with EMBY_PASSWORD. | | EMBY_PASSWORD | one of | Emby password for the named user. |

If both EMBY_API_KEY and username/password are set, the API key wins.

Auth differences:

• API key → server-wide, no user context. Some tools (mark played, favorites, ratings) won't work — they need a UserId. Use API key auth for sysadmin-style tasks like running scheduled tasks.
• Username/password → full per-user access. The MCP server logs in once at startup, gets an AccessToken and UserId, and uses those for all subsequent calls.

Run with Claude Desktop / claude.ai stdio config

Add to your MCP client's config (example for Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emby": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/emby-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "EMBY_SERVER_URL": "http://192.168.1.50:8096",
        "EMBY_USERNAME": "andrew",
        "EMBY_PASSWORD": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

Library

| Tool | What it does | |---|---| | emby_search_items | Search by title, type, genre, year, quality (HD/4K/3D), ratings (community/critic/official), tags, person/studio names, parent folder, played/favorite state, and metadata completeness (has_imdb_id, has_theme_song, etc.) | | emby_get_item | Full metadata for one item by ID | | emby_mark_played | Toggle played state (requires user-context auth) | | emby_set_rating | Set personal rating (0-10) and/or favorite flag | | emby_update_item_metadata | Patch name/overview/genres/tags/rating/year (server-wide) | | emby_refresh_item | Trigger metadata re-scan from external providers |

emby_search_items accepts plain human-readable person_names and studio_names — the tool resolves them to Emby IDs internally before searching (prefers an exact case-insensitive name match, falls back to first hit). Unresolved names surface in the response as an unresolved field so the consumer can tell the user "no library match for X" rather than returning silent empty results.

Scheduled tasks

| Tool | What it does | |---|---| | emby_list_scheduled_tasks | List all tasks with state, optionally filter to running | | emby_get_scheduled_task | Detail for one task | | emby_start_scheduled_task | Start a task by alias, Key, or Id | | emby_stop_scheduled_task | Cancel a running task |

Session control (playback)

Remote-control connected Emby clients (web player, Emby Theater, mobile apps, DLNA renderers). The MCP server can't play media itself — it tells other clients what to do.

| Tool | What it does | |---|---| | emby_list_sessions | List active sessions with what's playing, who, where | | emby_play_items | Play library items on a session (PlayNow / PlayNext / PlayLast) | | emby_playback_command | PlayPause / Pause / Unpause / Stop / Seek / Next / Previous / Rewind / FastForward | | emby_send_command | General commands: VolumeUp/Down, Mute, SetVolume, DisplayMessage, ToggleFullscreen, GoHome, etc. |

Caveats worth knowing:

• Sessions are ephemeral. They appear when a client connects, disappear when it closes. emby_list_sessions reflects the current state — IDs change.
• Clients support different commands. Each session in the JSON response carries a capabilities object — curated booleans like can_set_volume, can_step_volume, can_display_message. Playstate commands (Pause/Stop/Seek/Next/Previous) are not in this map: they go through emby_playback_command and are always available on any controllable session. emby_send_command warns if a client didn't advertise the requested general command.
• NextTrack/PreviousTrack are quirky on video. Most video clients ignore them or remap them to a 30-second skip / chapter jump.
• Stop is permanent. Emby has no server-side resume history. Once a client stops, you can't tell it to "resume where you left off" via the API.
• volume_level on now_playing is advisory. Some clients (notably Emby Theater on Windows) only self-report volume on certain events, so the value can lag the real player state. Trust your ears, not the number.

The server sends general commands via the bodied POST /Sessions/{Id}/Command endpoint (with Name in the JSON body), not the per-command path /Sessions/{Id}/Command/{Command}. On Emby Theater Windows the per-command path silently no-ops SetVolume; the bodied form works on every client tested. Worth knowing if you extend the session tools.

Task aliases

emby_start_scheduled_task and emby_stop_scheduled_task accept friendly aliases as well as Emby's internal Keys:

| Alias | Emby Key | |---|---| | scan_library | RefreshLibrary | | refresh_chapter_images | RefreshChapterImages | | cleanup_logs | CleanLogFiles | | cleanup_cache | CleanCache | | cleanup_temp_files | CleanTempFiles | | cleanup_database | CleanDatabase | | cleanup_transcoding_temp | CleanTranscodingTempFiles | | cleanup_collections | CleanupCollections | | cleanup_playlists | CleanupPlaylists | | cleanup_user_data | RemoveOldUserDatas | | refresh_people | RefreshPeople | | refresh_intros | RefreshIntros | | download_subtitles | DownloadSubtitles | | optimize_database | OptimizeDatabase | | backup_database | BackupDatabase |

The aliases are a convenience layer; the source of truth is whatever your server actually exposes in /ScheduledTasks. If a task isn't in this list (e.g., one added by a plugin), pass its display Name or Key directly — the server resolves any of them.

Response shapes

Every list-returning tool accepts response_format: "markdown" | "json" (markdown is the default). The JSON form is a deliberately slim, flat, snake_case shape — designed so a 4B-12B local model can consume it without choking on deeply nested Emby objects, raw tick durations, or sub-second timestamps.

Item (search/get):

{
  "id": "99160",
  "name": "Polar",
  "type": "Movie",
  "year": 2019,
  "runtime_minutes": 119,
  "genres": ["Action", "Crime", "Drama"],
  "overview": "When a retiring assassin…",
  "community_rating": 6.3,
  "official_rating": "NC-17",
  "is_played": false,
  "is_favorite": false,
  "play_count": 0,
  "imdb_id": "tt4139588",
  "tmdb_id": "483906",
  "tvdb_id": "61",
  "premiered_on": "2019-01-24",
  "added_on": "2026-05-09"
}

Empty/missing fields are omitted entirely (small models cope with missing keys better than nulls). Episode items add series_name, season_number, episode_number.

Session:

{
  "id": "ef666…",
  "client": "Emby Web",
  "device_name": "Firefox Windows",
  "supports_remote_control": true,
  "capabilities": {
    "can_play_media": true,
    "can_set_volume": true,
    "can_step_volume": true,
    "can_mute": true,
    "can_set_audio_track": true,
    "can_set_subtitle_track": true,
    "can_display_message": true,
    "can_go_home": true,
    "can_navigate": true
  },
  "user_name": "andrew",
  "last_active_seconds_ago": 13,
  "now_playing": {
    "id": "99160",
    "name": "Polar",
    "type": "Movie",
    "runtime_minutes": 119,
    "position_minutes": 18,
    "progress_percent": 15,
    "is_paused": false,
    "is_muted": false,
    "volume_level": 70
  }
}

capabilities is omitted entirely on sessions that don't support remote control. now_playing is omitted when the session is idle.

Scheduled task:

{
  "id": "6330ee…",
  "key": "RefreshLibrary",
  "name": "Scan media library",
  "state": "Idle",
  "category": "Library",
  "last_run": {
    "status": "Completed",
    "started_at": "2026-05-20T06:31:55Z",
    "ended_at": "2026-05-20T06:32:05Z"
  }
}

Timestamps are trimmed to second precision; raw tick triggers are dropped from the slim shape (use the markdown form if you need the full trigger schedule).

Design notes

• Item IDs only for mutations. No fuzzy "mark Inception as watched" — the LLM must emby_search_items first. Avoids destroying state on ambiguous matches.
• Names resolved inside the tool, not chained by the model. person_names / studio_names on emby_search_items look up Emby IDs internally rather than requiring the LLM to call a separate resolver tool first. Small models chain tool calls unreliably under voice latency; one-call resolution is robust.
• Markdown by default, JSON on request. Markdown is compact and human-readable; JSON is the slim shape above, optimized for programmatic consumption by small local models.
• Bounded responses. Hard 25,000-character truncation with a hint on how to narrow the query. Pagination is limit/offset everywhere.
• Empty lists return structured JSON. A no-results search in JSON mode returns {total: 0, count: 0, items: [], has_more: false}, never a prose sentence — so a consumer can result.items.length without special-casing.
• Errors point at fixes. A 401 says "check EMBY_API_KEY or credentials." A 404 says "verify with emby_search_items." No raw stack traces.
• Bodied command endpoint. emby_send_command posts to POST /Sessions/{Id}/Command (with Name in the body), not /Command/{Command} — the per-command path silently no-ops SetVolume on Emby Theater Windows.

Limitations

• No direct media playback (intentional — MCP can't render audio/video). Session control tools let you drive other Emby clients instead.
• No user/session management (creating users, managing devices, etc. — out of scope).
• No XML responses — JSON only.
• Single Emby instance per server process. To serve multiple, run multiple processes.