wikidata-mcp-server

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Overview

Wikidata's knowledge graph. Search and fetch entities, traverse the graph with SPARQL, and resolve external identifiers like DOI, PMID, ORCID, OpenAlex, and IMDb to their Wikidata items. No API key required.

Tools

Tool	Description
wikidata_search_entities	Search for items or properties by text query, returning QIDs/PIDs with labels, descriptions, and match metadata
wikidata_get_entity	Fetch a full entity by QID or PID with optional field and language filtering
wikidata_get_labels	Batch-resolve up to 50 QIDs or PIDs to human-readable labels and descriptions
wikidata_get_statements	Fetch property claims for an entity with qualifier detail and QID label resolution
wikidata_get_sitelinks	Fetch Wikipedia and Wikimedia project article URLs for a Wikidata item
wikidata_sparql_query	Execute a SPARQL SELECT query against the Wikidata Query Service
wikidata_resolve_external_id	Look up a Wikidata entity by an external identifier (DOI, PubMed ID, ORCID, OpenAlex ID, etc.)

Resources

Resource	Description
wikidata://entity/{id}	Compact markdown summary of a Wikidata entity — labels, English description, instance-of, Wikipedia link, image, and statement count

All resource data is also reachable via tools.

Capability reference

wikidata_search_entities _tool

• Searches labels, aliases, and descriptions; type="item" for people, places, and works, type="property" for P-IDs
• Takes a Wikidata language code (en, de, pt-br; case-insensitive); offset pagination, up to 50 results per call
• Each hit includes match metadata saying whether it matched a label or alias

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wikidata_get_entity _tool

• Q-IDs (e.g. Q76) fetch items and P-IDs (e.g. P31) fetch properties; fields selects labels, descriptions, aliases, statements, or sitelinks, and narrows the upstream fetch (Q76 is 344,114 bytes whole, 6,703 for labels alone)
• languages filters multilingual maps to the given language codes
• An entity too large to inline returns an outline of field categories with byte sizes; its retrieval_notice names a fields set that fits and points oversized statements or sitelinks to the tool that can narrow them

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wikidata_get_labels _tool

• Up to 50 IDs per call via the MediaWiki wbgetentities API, with one or more language codes per request
• Reports a found count and notFound IDs for partial results
• Meant to follow a SPARQL query: run it, then humanize the QIDs

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wikidata_get_statements _tool

• properties limits the fetch to specific P-IDs (omit for all); item QIDs and quantity units in values, qualifiers, and references are resolved to labels unless resolve_labels=false
• References stay grouped by source; unknown or absent values come back as somevalue / novalue
• A statement set too large to inline returns an outline of P-IDs with byte sizes, largest first (unfiltered, Q30 carries 467 properties across 1,717 statements); re-call with properties whose sizes sum to 24,000 or less, as the retrieval_notice suggests

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wikidata_get_sitelinks _tool

• Maps site codes (e.g. enwiki) to article titles and URLs; sites filters to specific codes
• wikis_only=true keeps only Wikipedia links (drops Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, etc.)
• Q-IDs only; P-IDs are not supported

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wikidata_sparql_query _tool

• Runs SELECT queries against the Wikidata Query Service (Blazegraph); ASK, CONSTRUCT, DESCRIBE, updates, and plain search text are rejected before the request is sent
• Standard prefixes (wd:, wdt:, p:, ps:, pq:, wikibase:, bd:) and the wikibase:label SERVICE (when the query uses a ?<var>Label, ?<var>Description, or ?<var>AltLabel variable) are added automatically; language takes one code or a fallback list like fr,en
• Results are SPARQL 1.1 JSON bindings, capped at 64,000 bytes per response and cut between whole rows; a larger result returns its leading rows with returnedCount, totalCount, and a notice to page with ORDER BY plus LIMIT/OFFSET or to aggregate
• Client timeout is 1–55s (server hard limit 60s); rate limit is 60 requests/min and 5 concurrent requests per IP

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wikidata_resolve_external_id _tool

• Resolves DOI (P356), PMID (P698), ORCID (P496), OpenAlex ID (P10283), IMDb ID (P345), and other external IDs to a QID; whitespace and resolver URL prefixes are stripped, and DOIs, PMIDs, and ORCIDs are normalized
• The property must have data type external-id; item-valued or media properties (e.g. P31, P18) are rejected
• Returns match=null when not found (the Query Service lags the live wiki, so null is not proof of absence) and multipleMatches when more than one entity claims the same ID; the label uses the requested language, falling back to mul

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wikidata://entity/{id} _resource

• Compact markdown summary — labels (all languages), English description, instance-of (P31), enwiki Wikipedia link, image (P18), and statement count
• Returned as text/markdown; for full entity data, use wikidata_get_entity
• id is a Q-ID or P-ID, the same identifiers the tools take

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.

Wikidata-specific:

• Wikidata REST API v1 for entity and statement fetches — no SPARQL overhead for lookup operations
• MediaWiki wbgetentities API for efficient batch label resolution
• Wikidata Query Service (Blazegraph) for SPARQL with auto-injected prefix headers and label SERVICE
• Configurable User-Agent per Wikimedia policy (WIKIDATA_USER_AGENT)
• Separate timeout configuration for REST and SPARQL endpoints (WIKIDATA_REST_TIMEOUT_MS, WIKIDATA_SPARQL_TIMEOUT_MS)

Agent-friendly output:

• All tools echo relevant input parameters in the response for traceability
• wikidata_get_labels designed to follow SPARQL result sets — run the query, then humanize in one call
• wikidata_resolve_external_id returns multipleMatches instead of a false null when a Wikidata data-integrity issue puts duplicate claims on one external ID
• Oversized entities and statement sets return a kind: "outline" payload — field/property sizes plus a retrieval_notice naming the exact re-call — instead of a truncated or oversized response

Getting started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://wikidata.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. It serves Streamable HTTP; each client takes its own config shape.

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http wikidata-mcp-server https://wikidata.caseyjhand.com/mcp

For Cline (cline_mcp_settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikidata-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://wikidata.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For Cursor (mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikidata-mcp-server": {
      "url": "https://wikidata.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop adds remote servers under Settings → Connectors.

Self-Hosted / Local

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

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

Or with npx (no Bun required):

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

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wikidata-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/wikidata-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 ≥ 24.0.0).

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd wikidata-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set any overrides

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas. Key environment variables:

Variable	Description	Default
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	HTTP server port	3010
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH	HTTP endpoint path where the MCP server is mounted	/mcp
MCP_PUBLIC_URL	Public origin override for TLS-terminating reverse-proxy deployments	none
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth	none
MCP_SESSION_MODE	HTTP session mode: stateful, stateless, or auto	stateless
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (debug, info, notice, warning, error)	info
MCP_GC_PRESSURE_INTERVAL_MS	Opt-in forced-GC interval in ms (Bun only)	0 (disabled)
LOGS_DIR	Directory for log files (Node.js only)	<project-root>/logs
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE	Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1	in-memory
WIKIDATA_USER_AGENT	User-Agent string for Wikimedia requests (policy requires a descriptive value)	wikidata-mcp-server/0.1 (https://github.com/cyanheads/wikidata-mcp-server)
WIKIDATA_SPARQL_TIMEOUT_MS	Max wait for a SPARQL response in ms	55000
WIKIDATA_REST_TIMEOUT_MS	Max wait for REST API responses in ms	10000
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry	false

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

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run the production version:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:http
  # or
  bun run start:stdio
  

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck  # Lints, formats, type-checks, and more
  bun run test      # Runs the test suite
  

Docker

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

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/wikidata-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 and resources, inits services.
src/mcp-server/tools	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Seven tools for entity lookup, statements, sitelinks, SPARQL, and external ID resolution.
src/mcp-server/resources	Resource definitions. Entity summary resource.
src/services/wikidata	Wikidata service layer — REST API client, SPARQL client, statement normalization, types.
src/config	Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
tests/	Unit and integration tests, mirroring the src/ structure.

Development guide

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

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
• Use ctx.log for logging, ctx.state for storage
• Register new tools and resources in the createApp() arrays
• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.