unsplash

This MCP server provides a way to search for pictures on Unsplash via the MCP (Model Context Protocol) interface. It runs as a Java application packaged as a JAR and is designed to be invoked by MCP clients or tools that understand the MCP specification. To use it, first clone the repository and build the project to produce the runnable JAR. You must supply an Unsplash Access Key as an environment variable so the server can authenticate with the Unsplash API. Once running, you can query and retrieve Unsplash images through the MCP protocol by issuing requests described in the MCP server documentation or by the MCP client tooling that interacts with the server, enabling you to search for images (for example, “two house pictures”) and obtain metadata or image URLs in the expected MCP response format.

Prerequisites:

• Java JDK (recommended version compatible with the project, e.g., Java 11+)
• Maven for building the project
• Access to Unsplash API (sign up to obtain an Access Key)

Steps:

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/JavaProgrammerLB/unsplash-mcp-server.git
2. Navigate to the project directory: cd unsplash-mcp-server
3. Build the project to produce the runnable JAR: mvn clean package This will generate a JAR typically located under target/ (e.g., unsplash-mcp-server-1.0.jar).
4. Prepare configuration: Create a configuration block (see the example in the repository README) and set your Unsplash Access Key as UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY.
5. Run the server using the provided configuration (see mcp_config in this document) and ensure the JAR path in the args matches the built JAR location.

Notes:

• Ensure that the path in -jar points to the actual built JAR file.
• The server is configured to run as a non-web (console) Java process.

Tips and notes:

• You must provide a valid Unsplash Access Key in the UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY environment variable for authentication with the Unsplash API.
• The Maven build will embed the necessary dependencies into the produced JAR; ensure you run the build in a Java environment with network access to download dependencies.
• If the server does not start, verify that the path to the JAR is correct and that the environment variable UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY is set in your runtime environment.
• The configuration uses the MCP convention; you can adapt the -jar line or JVM options if you need different runtime settings.
• For different MCP clients, consult the MCP protocol documentation to structure requests appropriately to the Unsplash server.