anime-mcp-server

---

Overview

Anime and manga data from AniList, Jikan (MyAnimeList), and Kitsu. Search titles, pull full detail with side-by-side AniList and MAL scores, walk a franchise's relation graph, check the airing schedule, and look up characters, voice actors, and studio filmographies.

Tools

Tool	Description
anime_search_media	Search anime or manga by title, genre, tag, season, year, format, or status. Returns ranked results with IDs, titles, scores, format, and episode/chapter counts. AniList primary; Jikan (MAL) fallback when AniList has no match for a title-only query.
anime_get_media	Full detail for one anime or manga by AniList ID — synopsis, format, episode/chapter count, status, season, studios, source material, genres and tags (spoiler-flagged), AniList and MAL scores side by side, streaming links, cover/banner, and direct relations.
anime_get_relations	Walks the related-works graph within a hop limit. Groups main and supplementary entries by relation priority, then year; not a strict chronology.
anime_get_schedule	Airing schedule for a season or upcoming episode window. Season mode lists all anime airing in a given season/year. Upcoming mode returns the next episode for each airing title within a date window, with UTC timestamp and countdown.
anime_find_characters	Characters and voice actors for a title, or look up a character/VA by name. Returns characters with role (main/supporting/background), voice actors by language, and cross-links to other media.
anime_get_recommendations	AniList recommendations with matching Jikan (MAL) vote counts. Optionally echoes what the user liked about the source title to contextualize picks.
anime_get_rankings	Top, trending, or seasonal rankings. Filterable by genre, tag, and format. Top returns all-time by score; trending uses AniList's trending order; seasonal returns the current or specified season sorted by popularity.
anime_get_studio	A studio's full filmography by name or AniList studio ID — all titles the studio produced, sortable by year or score, with format, status, and episode count.

Resources

Resource	Description
anime://media/{id}	Compact media record by AniList ID — title, synopsis, scores, genres, streaming count, and cover image. Stable URI for injectable context.

All resource data is also reachable via tools. Use anime_search_media to discover AniList IDs before fetching the resource URI.

---

Capability reference

anime_search_media _tool

• Search anime or manga by title, genre, tag, season/year, format, status, or up to 5 sort values; at least one criterion is required. page/per_page pages results (max 50), and include_adult: true opts into adult titles
• Results carry AniList IDs, titles, scores, and episode/chapter counts. AniList is primary; title-only searches with no match can fall back to Jikan at per_page 25 or less. Follow has_next_page; total_results is exact only on the final page
• AniList serves only the first 5,000 search, season, and ranking entries; deeper pages fail with page_depth_exceeded, so narrow the criteria instead

---

anime_get_media _tool

• Fetch full detail by AniList id, with adult content requiring include_adult: true; discover IDs through anime_search_media
• Returns synopsis, genres, spoiler-flagged tags, studios, direct relations, images, streaming links, and separate AniList/MAL scores. data_sources identifies successful supplements; not_found means the ID did not resolve
• full_text: true returns the complete result as fenced JSON; by default the synopsis is a 500-character preview and tags and relations are shortened, with counts of what was omitted

---

anime_get_relations _tool

• Walk a franchise from an AniList id up to max_depth hops (default 2, max 4)
• Returns main and supplementary entries with season year and episode/chapter counts, ordered by relation priority then year. not_found means the root ID did not resolve
• depth, parent_id, relation_to_parent, and path show the shortest route to each entry. relation_to_root is set only for entries linked directly to the root, and is null otherwise. Entries at the hop limit are returned without their own relations; depth_reached is the deepest hop returned

---

anime_get_schedule _tool

• season mode requires season and season_year; upcoming uses days_ahead (default 7, max 30). Page with page/per_page (max 50); adult titles require include_adult: true
• Returns UTC ISO 8601 airing times and time_until_airing_seconds. Follow has_next_page; total_results is exact only on the final season page. invalid_season and conflicting_inputs identify invalid mode inputs

---

anime_find_characters _tool

• Supply exactly one of media id, character_name, or voice_actor_name. language filters only media cast lookups; per_page is capped at 25
• Returns cast, voice actors, or media appearances according to mode. truncated: true carries next-page guidance for capped cast lists; media_not_found/not_found distinguish an unknown media ID from an unmatched name
• voice_actor_data_available: false means the provider had no voice actor data, as opposed to an empty list. full_text: true returns every role on the page and the full biography as fenced JSON; by default biographies are 500-character previews and staff roles stop at 20, with counts of what was omitted

---

anime_get_recommendations _tool

• Fetch recommendations for an AniList id, paging with page/per_page (max 25); optional liked_aspects is echoed unchanged
• Returns separate anilist_rating and jikan_votes, with sources identifying each contribution. truncated: true supplies next-page guidance; not_found means the source ID did not resolve

---

anime_get_rankings _tool

• Rank ANIME or MANGA in top/trending; seasonal and season/year filters apply only to ANIME (anime_only_season otherwise). Genre/tag/format filters and page/per_page (max 50) remain available. Adult titles require include_adult: true
• Entries carry 1-based rank and season_label. Follow has_next_page; total_results is exact only on the final page. Seasonal mode takes season/season_year together or neither for the current season (invalid_season otherwise)

---

anime_get_studio _tool

• Identify a studio with exactly one of name or id; sort by popularity, score, or release date and page with page/per_page (max 25)
• Returns one row per distinct title within the page, with is_main_studio identifying main credits. Follow has_next_page; total_titles is exact only when the whole filmography fits on page 1. not_found means the studio did not resolve

---

anime://media/{id} _resource

• Read a compact application/json media record using an AniList id from anime_search_media or anime_get_media
• The ID must be a whole number from 1 to 2147483647; anything else fails with invalid_id before any upstream call
• Returns title variants, synopsis, scores, genres, streaming count, and cover image; use anime_get_media for tags, studios, streaming links, and relations

---

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

Anime/manga-specific:

• Three-source architecture: AniList GraphQL (primary), Jikan v4 REST (MAL scores + recommendations), Kitsu JSON:API (streaming links with sub/dub language detail)
• ID reconciliation via AniList's idMal bridge — no cross-source ID guessing
• Franchise relation graph traversal with heuristic ordering by relation-type priority, then season year
• Rate-limit-aware service layer: AniList 30 req/30s with automatic backoff; Jikan 350ms floor between calls
• Keyless by design — all three sources are public and require no API credentials

Agent-friendly output:

• Dual scores surfaced separately — AniList meanScore (0–100) and MAL score (0–10) with population size (scored_by) so agents can reason about weight; never blended into a composite
• Spoiler flags — the tag summary hides spoiler/adult tags; structured output and full_text: true carry all tags with their flags
• Supplement provenance — anime_get_media.data_sources reports whether AniList, MAL/Jikan, and Kitsu data was retrieved; an unavailable supplement leaves its flag false
• UTC timestamps throughout; season labels echoed (WINTER 2024) to avoid the winter/spring/summer/fall boundary footgun

---

Getting started

No API keys required — all three upstream sources (AniList, Jikan, Kitsu) are keyless public APIs.

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anime-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/anime-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anime-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/anime-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anime-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/anime-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

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+). No API keys needed.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/anime-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd anime-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment (optional):

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env if you want to change transport or log level

---

Configuration

No server-specific env vars are required. All framework variables are optional with sensible defaults.

Variable	Description	Default
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http.	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	Port for HTTP server.	3010
MCP_HTTP_HOST	Hostname for HTTP server.	127.0.0.1
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH	Endpoint path for the MCP server.	/mcp
MCP_SESSION_MODE	Session mode: auto, stateful, or stateless.	stateless
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Auth mode: none, jwt, or oauth.	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (RFC 5424): debug, info, notice, warning, error.	info
LOG_TOOL_FAILURE_PAYLOADS	Log failed calls' arguments and results, redacted by key name and capped at LOG_TOOL_FAILURE_PAYLOAD_MAX_BYTES (default 16384). Secrets inside free-form values are not redacted.	false
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry instrumentation.	false

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

---

Running the server

Local development

• 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

docker build -t anime-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 anime-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/anime-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

---

Project structure

Directory	Purpose
src/index.ts	createApp() entry point — registers tools, resources, and inits services.
src/mcp-server/tools	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts).
src/mcp-server/resources	Resource definitions (*.resource.ts).
src/services/anilist	AniList GraphQL client — primary source for all queries.
src/services/jikan	Jikan v4 REST client — MAL scores and recommendations.
src/services/kitsu	Kitsu JSON:API client — streaming links with sub/dub language detail.
tests/	Unit and integration tests mirroring src/.
changelog/	Per-version changelog files (changelog/<minor>.x/<version>.md).

---

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage
• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields
• AniList is primary — supplement failures (Jikan, Kitsu) degrade gracefully via Promise.allSettled

---

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

---

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.