Search Wikipedia articles, read summaries and full text, target sections, find nearby pages, and list language editions via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.
Six tools for working with Wikipedia across all language editions:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
wikipedia_search |
Full-text search across Wikipedia, returning ranked results with plain-text snippets and page IDs. |
wikipedia_get_summary |
Lead-section summary for any article — plain text, Wikidata QID, description, thumbnail URL, and page type. |
wikipedia_get_article |
Full article or a targeted section as clean plain text, with section markers preserved. |
wikipedia_get_sections |
Table of contents with section_index values for targeted section reads. |
wikipedia_search_nearby |
Geotagged Wikipedia articles within a radius of a WGS 84 coordinate, sorted by distance. |
wikipedia_get_languages |
All language editions available for an article, with titles and URLs. |
Search Wikipedia articles by full-text query.
- Returns ranked results with plain-text snippets (HTML stripped), page IDs, and word counts
- Use when the exact article title is unknown or to discover multiple articles on a topic
- Supports all Wikipedia language editions via the
languageparameter
Fetch the lead-section summary for a Wikipedia article.
- Returns the 2–4 paragraph intro, Wikidata QID for cross-referencing, short description, and thumbnail URL
- Surfaces
page_type: "disambiguation"— a signal to follow up withwikipedia_searchusing a more specific query - Redirect pages followed automatically
- Right tool for 90% of encyclopedic lookups
Fetch article content as clean plain text.
- Without
section_index: returns the full article (40–100 KB for major articles) with== Section ==markers - With
section_index(fromwikipedia_get_sections): returns just that section (1–10 KB) - Section path uses wikitext stripping via
wtf_wikipedia
Fetch the table of contents for a Wikipedia article.
- Returns section titles, heading levels, section numbering (e.g. "2.1"), and
section_indexvalues section_indexis the integer to pass towikipedia_get_articlefor targeted reads- Call this before
wikipedia_get_articlewhen only a specific section is needed
Find Wikipedia articles about places near a geographic coordinate.
- Results sorted ascending by distance in meters
- Only articles with geographic coordinates in their Wikidata record are returned
- Radius capped at 10,000 meters; up to 50 results per call
List language editions available for a Wikipedia article.
- Returns language codes, article titles in each language, and full URLs
- Use for cross-language research or to discover a non-English title before switching editions
Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:
- Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
- Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches, classifies, and formats
- Pluggable auth:
none,jwt,oauth - Swappable storage backends:
in-memory,filesystem,Supabase,Cloudflare KV/R2/D1 - Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
- STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports
Wikipedia-specific:
- Dual API integration — MediaWiki REST API (
/api/rest_v1/) for summaries, Action API (/w/api.php) for search, full text, sections, geo search, and language links - Retry and backoff on all requests;
User-Agentheader per Wikimedia API policy - Wikitext stripping pipeline via
wtf_wikipedia— handles links, templates, refs, bold/italic; re-injects section headings for structure - Per-call
languageparameter on every tool — all Wikipedia language editions accessible in a single session - Language validation against ~250 known Wikipedia edition codes — catches structurally valid but nonexistent editions before they cause timeouts
Agent-friendly output:
page_typefield on summaries discriminates article / disambiguation / redirect — no string parsing neededwikibase_item(Wikidata QID) on summaries enables direct cross-referencing with wikidata-mcp-serversection_indexon table-of-contents entries links directly to the targeted-read parameter onwikipedia_get_article- Recovery hints on every error type — callers get actionable next steps (e.g., "use
wikipedia_searchto find the correct title")
Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"wikipedia-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "bunx",
"args": ["@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}
}
}
}Or with npx (no Bun required):
{
"mcpServers": {
"wikipedia-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}
}
}
}Or with Docker:
{
"mcpServers": {
"wikipedia-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run", "-i", "--rm",
"-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
"ghcr.io/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server:latest"
]
}
}
}For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp- Bun v1.3.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).
- No API keys required — Wikipedia's API is public.
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server.git- Navigate into the directory:
cd wikipedia-mcp-server- Install dependencies:
bun install- Configure environment (optional):
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env if you want to customize WIKIPEDIA_USER_AGENT or logging| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
WIKIPEDIA_USER_AGENT |
User-Agent header sent with every Wikimedia API request. Customize for your deployment. | wikipedia-mcp-server/0.1.9 (https://github.com/cyanheads/wikipedia-mcp-server) |
WIKIPEDIA_BASE_URL |
Base Wikipedia URL. Language selection is per-call — not a global language setting. | https://en.wikipedia.org |
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE |
Transport: stdio or http. |
stdio |
MCP_HTTP_PORT |
Port for HTTP server. | 3010 |
MCP_AUTH_MODE |
Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth. |
none |
MCP_LOG_LEVEL |
Log level (RFC 5424). | info |
LOGS_DIR |
Directory for log files (Node.js only). | <project-root>/logs |
OTEL_ENABLED |
Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation (spans, metrics, completion logs). | false |
See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.
-
Build and run:
# One-time build bun run rebuild # Run the built server bun run start:stdio # or bun run start:http
-
Run checks and tests:
bun run devcheck # Lint, format, typecheck, security bun run test # Vitest test suite bun run lint:mcp # Validate MCP definitions against spec
docker build -t wikipedia-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 wikipedia-mcp-serverThe Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/wikipedia-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.
| Directory | Purpose |
|---|---|
src/index.ts |
createApp() entry point — registers tools and inits the Wikipedia service. |
src/config |
Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod. |
src/mcp-server/tools |
Tool definitions (*.tool.ts) — one file per tool. |
src/services/wikipedia |
WikipediaService — REST API + Action API client with retry/backoff and language validation. |
tests/ |
Unit and integration tests mirroring src/. |
See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:
- Handlers throw, framework catches — no
try/catchin tool logic - Use
ctx.logfor request-scoped logging,ctx.statefor tenant-scoped storage - Register new tools in
src/mcp-server/tools/definitions/index.ts - Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:
bun run devcheck
bun run testApache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.