guardian

The Guardian MCP Server integrates The Guardian Open Platform archive into an MCP-enabled workflow, allowing a large language model to query and retrieve Guardian articles, headlines, and metadata. It exposes a set of tools such as guardian_search for searching the archive, guardian_get_article for retrieving individual articles, guardian_find_related for finding related items, guardian_topic_trends for topic-based trends, guardian_author_profile for journalist insights, and more. To use these tools, run the MCP server (for example via npx guardian-mcp-server with your Guardian API key) and send structured requests to the available endpoints. You can tailor responses by using detail_level in guardian_search (minimal, standard, or full) to manage response size and performance. Typical workflows include performing a search to locate relevant articles, retrieving full articles when needed, and exploring related content or topics over time to build contextual understanding for your LLM-assisted tasks.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm (or npx available)
• A Guardian Open Platform API key

Installation steps:

1. Obtain a Guardian API key from https://open-platform.theguardian.com/access/
2. Install/run the MCP server using npx (as shown in the README):

npx guardian-mcp-server

3. Configure your MCP client to point at the guardian server and provide the API key (example provided in the sample configuration).
4. Ensure the environment variable for the API key is set when launching the server, e.g. GUARDIAN_API_KEY=your-key-here

Notes and tips:

• The API key is required and should be kept confidential. Set GUARDIAN_API_KEY in your environment or configuration file.
• The Guardian API has rate limits (non-commercial usage commonly includes up to 1 call/second and 500 calls/day). Plan requests accordingly or discuss licensing if you exceed limits.
• Use guardian_search with detail_level to control response size: minimal (headlines), standard (headlines + summaries + metadata), or full (full article content).
• If you encounter authentication or rate-limit errors, verify the API key and consider implementing caching on your side to reduce repeated requests.
• The MCP server name in the configuration is guardian, and you access its tools via the exposed MCP interface (e.g., guardian_search, guardian_get_article, guardian_topic_trends, etc.).