@nulib/clover-mcp

A Node.js package that provides a ready-to-use Clover IIIF Viewer UI resource for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

Overview

This package bundles a generic MCP UI resource that integrates the Samvera Clover IIIF viewer, making it easy to add IIIF content visualization capabilities to your MCP server. The CloverUIResource class handles resource registration and automatically wires up your tools to use the embedded viewer.

Installation

npm install @nulib/clover-mcp

Usage

Basic Setup

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { CloverUIResource } from "@nulib/clover-mcp";

const server = new McpServer({
  name: "my-mcp-server",
  version: "1.0.0"
});

// Create a Clover UI resource
const uiResource = new CloverUIResource({
  resourceUri: "ui://my-server/viewer",
  description: "UI resource for viewing IIIF content",
  resourceDomains: ["https://iiif.example.org"],
  connectDomains: ["https://api.example.org", "https://iiif.example.org"]
});

// Register tools that use this resource
uiResource.registerTool(
  server,
  "my-tool",
  { /* tool config */ },
  async (args) => { /* tool handler */ }
);

// Register the resource with the server
uiResource.registerResource(server);

Complete Example with Tool

Here's a complete example showing how to embed the viewer resource with a tool that returns IIIF content:

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";
import { CloverUIResource } from "@nulib/clover-mcp";

const UI_RESOURCE_URI = "ui://dc-viewer/viewer";
const DC_API_ORIGIN = "https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu";
const DC_IIIF_ORIGIN = "https://iiif.dc.library.northwestern.edu";

// Create and configure the server
const server = new McpServer({
  name: "northwestern-dc-server",
  version: "1.0.0"
});

// Create a Clover UI resource
const uiResource = new CloverUIResource({
  resourceUri: UI_RESOURCE_URI,
  description: "Northwestern Digital Collections viewer",
  resourceDomains: [DC_API_ORIGIN, DC_IIIF_ORIGIN],
  connectDomains: [DC_API_ORIGIN, DC_IIIF_ORIGIN]
});

// Register a tool that returns IIIF content
uiResource.registerTool(
  server,
  "view-collection",
  {
    description: "Display a Northwestern Digital Collections IIIF collection in the Clover viewer",
    inputSchema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        collectionId: {
          type: "string",
          description: "Northwestern Digital Collections collection ID"
        }
      },
      required: ["collectionId"]
    }
  },
  async ({ collectionId }) => {
    const collectionUrl = `${DC_API_ORIGIN}/api/v2/collections/${collectionId}?as=iiif`;

    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: `Viewing Northwestern Digital Collections collection ${collectionId}`
        },
        {
          type: "resource",
          resource: UI_RESOURCE_URI
        }
      ],
      structuredContent: {
        iiifContentUrl: collectionUrl
      }
    };
  }
);

// Register the resource with the server
uiResource.registerResource(server);

// Start the server
const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

Example usage:

// Call the tool with a real Northwestern Digital Collections collection
await server.callTool("view-collection", {
  collectionId: "c373ecd2-2c45-45f2-9f9e-52dc244870bd"
});
// This displays the IIIF collection at:
// https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/collections/c373ecd2-2c45-45f2-9f9e-52dc244870bd?as=iiif

API

CloverUIResource

A class that manages a Clover IIIF viewer UI resource for your MCP server.

Constructor

new CloverUIResource(options: CloverUIResourceOpts)

Options:

• resourceUri (string, required): The URI identifier for the UI resource (e.g., "ui://my-server/viewer")
• description (string, required): Human-readable description of the resource
• resourceDomains (string[], optional): Array of domains allowed for loading resources (images, manifests) in the viewer's Content Security Policy
• connectDomains (string[], optional): Array of domains allowed for API connections in the viewer's Content Security Policy

Methods

registerTool(server, toolName, toolConfig, callback)

Registers a tool with the MCP server that will use this UI resource.

Parameters:

• server (McpServer): Your MCP server instance
• toolName (string): Name of the tool
• toolConfig (object): Tool configuration including description and inputSchema
• callback (ToolCallback): Tool handler function that returns results with iiifContentUrl in structuredContent

Returns: RegisteredTool

registerResource(server)

Registers the UI resource with the MCP server. Call this after registering all tools.

Parameters:

• server (McpServer): Your MCP server instance

How It Works

1. The package bundles a React-based Clover IIIF viewer as a single HTML file
2. Create a CloverUIResource instance with your resource configuration
3. Register tools using registerTool() - this automatically adds the UI resource metadata to your tools
4. Call registerResource() to register the viewer resource with the MCP server
5. Your tools return results containing:
   • A resource reference to the UI resource URI in the content array
   • A iiifContentUrl in the structuredContent object pointing to a valid IIIF manifest or collection
6. The viewer automatically displays the IIIF content when tool results are received

Development

Building

npm run build

This builds both the viewer UI and the main package. It also emits a runnable local stdio server at dist/local-server.js for MCP client configuration.

Local Claude Configuration

After building, point Claude Desktop at the local server entrypoint:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clover-local": {
      "command": "/path/to/clover-mcp/examples/local-server/bin/run.sh",
    }
  }
}

The local server exposes a view_iiif_content tool and allows Northwestern's Digital Collections IIIF origins by default. To allow different origins, set CLOVER_ALLOWED_ORIGINS to a comma-separated list of https://... origins.

Watch Mode

npm run build:watch

License

MIT

Credits

Built with:

• @samvera/clover-iiif - The IIIF viewer component
• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk - MCP SDK for TypeScript
• @modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps - MCP app extensions