SightRadar

SightRadar MCP Server

Face recognition for AI assistants. Index event photos, find every photo a person appears in from one selfie, run batches, manage webhooks and billing, all from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client.

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There are two ways to connect. Both expose the same tools.

	Remote (hosted)	Local (this package)
URL / command	https://mcp.sightradar.com/mcp	npx -y sightradar-mcp
Sign-in	SightRadar account (email + password, Google or email link), or an API key as a Bearer token	SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY
Install	Nothing	Node.js 20+
Images from your computer	No (URLs or base64)	Yes, file_path

Remote server (recommended)

Add https://mcp.sightradar.com/mcp as a custom connector. On first use your browser opens sightradar.com, you sign in and choose what the assistant may do. Each connection gets its own revocable key, listed under API keys as MCP: <app name>.

• Claude (claude.ai, Desktop): Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste the URL.
• ChatGPT: Settings → Apps & Connectors → Create → paste the URL, authentication OAuth.
• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http sightradar https://mcp.sightradar.com/mcp
• Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) / VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json, key servers):

  { "mcpServers": { "sightradar": { "url": "https://mcp.sightradar.com/mcp" } } }
  

Prefer an API key? Send it as a header instead of signing in:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sightradar": {
      "url": "https://mcp.sightradar.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer frs_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

Local server

Create an API key at sightradar.com/dashboard/keys, then:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sightradar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "sightradar-mcp"],
      "env": { "SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY": "frs_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

That block works in Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Cursor, Windsurf, Cline and most clients. Claude Code:

claude mcp add sightradar --env SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY=frs_your_key -- npx -y sightradar-mcp

Variable	Default
SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY	(required)	API key
SIGHTRADAR_SCOPES	read,search,write,delete	Which tool groups to expose. all adds account; read gives a read-only server.
SIGHTRADAR_FILE_ROOTS	your home folder	Folders file_path may read (separated by : on macOS/Linux, ; on Windows). none turns file_path off.
SIGHTRADAR_BASE_URL	https://api.sightradar.com	API base URL
SIGHTRADAR_TIMEOUT_MS	120000	Per-request timeout
SIGHTRADAR_DEBUG	unset	Log each tool call (no arguments or results) to stderr

Tools

Credits: 100,000 credits = US$1. Every billable tool states its price in its description, and accepts an idempotency_key so a retry is never charged twice.

read — free

Tool
list_collections	Collections with photo, face and selfie counts; search and paging
get_collection	One collection's status and counts (verify recounts from the vector store)
get_deletion_status	Progress of a collection deletion
list_batches / get_batch / get_batch_photos	Batch jobs, status (one or up to 5000 at once) and per-photo results
list_webhooks / list_webhook_failures	Webhook endpoints and dead-lettered deliveries
get_balance / get_usage	Credit balance; usage summary, daily series or storage

search — spends credits, stores nothing

Tool	Credits
search_faces	93	Find every photo in a collection containing the person in a selfie (or an embedding)
search_by_point_id	62	Repeat a registered selfie's search without re-sending it
detect_faces	93	Faces, bounding boxes and quality in an image
compare_faces	93 per image	Are two faces the same person?

write — spends credits / stores data

Tool	Credits
index_photo	93	Store a photo's faces in a collection
register_selfie	93	Store a person's selfie; returns its point id and embedding
submit_batch	62 per photo	Up to 1000 photo URLs, index or match, processed in the background
requeue_failed_batch_photos	62 per photo	Retry failed batch photos (preview, then execute)
create_collection / recreate_collection	free
create_webhook / replay_webhook_failures	free	Signed deliveries for batch and deletion events

delete — free

Tool
delete_collection	Soft delete with a 7-day restore window by default; immediate or compliance erase permanently
restore_collection	Undo a soft delete
delete_photo / restore_photo	Remove or restore one photo's faces
delete_webhook	Stop deliveries to an endpoint

account — free, off by default on the local server

Tool
list_api_keys / create_api_key / revoke_api_key	API keys
get_profile / update_profile	Name and organization
get_billing_settings / update_auto_recharge / get_invoice	Auto-recharge, orders and invoice PDFs
get_notification_settings / update_notification_settings / manage_notification_recipient	Email alerts and extra recipients
list_team_members	Organization members

Prompts and resources

Clients that show MCP prompts (Claude's "+" menu, / commands) get three ready-made workflows:

Prompt	What it does
find_person_in_event	Checks the balance, searches a collection with a selfie and lists the matching photos
index_event_photos	Picks index_photo or submit_batch by photo count and states the cost before starting
account_health	Balance, recent usage, failed batch photos and failed webhook deliveries

Resources: sightradar://docs/pricing-and-limits (credits per operation, rate limits, image and deletion limits) and sightradar://collections/{collection_id} (one collection's counts, needs the read scope).

Images

Image tools take exactly one of:

• image_url: a public http(s) URL. SightRadar downloads it, so it must be reachable from the internet.
• gcs_key: an object key on the CDN configured for your account.
• image_base64: the bytes as base64 or a data: URL. The remote server accepts up to 10 MB; the local server up to 30 MB.
• file_path (local server only): a JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF or HEIC file inside SIGHTRADAR_FILE_ROOTS.

Files and base64 data are checked to be real images before anything is uploaded.

Example prompts

• "Create a collection called wedding-2026-10 and index every photo in ~/Pictures/wedding."
• "Here is a selfie of Priya: which photos in wedding-2026-10 is she in?"
• "Submit these 600 photo URLs as a batch into marathon-7 and tell me when it's done."
• "How many credits did I spend this week, and on what?"
• "Delete the test-event collection." (The assistant confirms first, and the delete can be undone for 7 days.)

Safety

• Tools carry MCP annotations (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint), so clients can ask before destructive calls.
• Deletes are soft by default. Permanent erasure needs immediate or compliance to be set explicitly.
• Scopes limit what a connection can do. A read-only connection cannot spend credits or change data.
• The local server reads files only inside SIGHTRADAR_FILE_ROOTS, after resolving symlinks, and only image files.
• API errors come back as tool results with the error code, a hint and the request id, never as stack traces.

Troubleshooting

You see	Meaning
401 / unauthorized	The API key was revoked or mistyped. Create a new one at sightradar.com/dashboard/keys; remote connections: reconnect.
402 / insufficient_credits	Top up at sightradar.com/dashboard/billing.
409 / duplicate_request_already_processed	That idempotency_key was already used and charged; the earlier call succeeded.
file_path ... is outside the folders this server may read	Add the folder to SIGHTRADAR_FILE_ROOTS (:-separated on macOS/Linux, ; on Windows).
429	Over 50 requests/s per key or 10 in flight per account. Wait and retry.

Development

npm install
npm test          # unit tests against a mocked API
npm run build
SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY=frs_... node scripts/smoke.mjs   # free live calls over stdio

createSightRadarServer({ api, scopes }) and TOOLS are exported for embedding the same tools in another host.

Links

• SightRadar · API docs · Pricing
• Node.js SDK: sightradar on npm · Python SDK: sightradar on PyPI

MIT licensed.