bgg

BGG MCP exposes a Go-based server that delegates to the BoardGameGeek API and related services via the MCP (Model Context Protocol). It provides a set of core and experimental tools for discovering games, details, collections, user profiles, pricing, and recommendations, all accessible through the MCP interface. You can connect to the server using the configured command (Docker in the example) and start issuing prompts or tool calls such as bgg-search, bgg-details, bgg-collection, bgg-hot, bgg-user, bgg-price, bgg-trade-finder, bgg-recommender, and bgg-thread-details. The server is pre-packaged as a Docker image (kdaniel/bgg-mcp) for easy deployment, with environment variables to supply your BGG API key and username. This setup enables AI assistants to fetch and filter BGG data, pricing, and recommendations in a structured, context-aware manner.

Prerequisites:

• Docker installed on your system (recommended method).
• Optional: Go installed if you want to build from source instead of using Docker.

A) Using Docker (Recommended)

1. Install Docker if you haven't already. Refer to https://docs.docker.com/get-dstarted/

2. Run the MCP server using the provided docker configuration:

# Example: run bgg-mcp with environment variables
docker run -i --rm \
  -e BGG_API_KEY=your_api_key_here \
  -e BGG_USERNAME=your_bgg_username \
  kdaniel/bgg-mcp

3. If you integrate with Claude Desktop or similar clients, add the MCP config as shown in the documentation (the mcp_config section below).

B) Manual Go build (if you prefer building from source)

1. Install Go (https://go.dev/dl/)

2. Build the binary into an output directory:

# Build the application (output goes to build/bgg-mcp)
make build
# Or build directly with go
GO111MODULE=on go build -o build/bgg-mcp ./...

3. Run the binary directly (no Docker):

./build/bgg-mcp

4. Ensure you provide the required environment configuration (BGG_API_KEY and BGG_USERNAME) where applicable.

Notes:

• An API key from BoardGameGeek is required to access the BGG API. Set BGG_API_KEY in your environment or in your Docker run command.
• BGG_USERNAME may be required for user-specific endpoints (collections, profiles). Ensure it is set if you plan to use user-scoped tools.
• The Docker image used here is kdaniel/bgg-mcp; verify compatibility with your environment and network access.
• Some tools may require authentication prompts or additional permissions depending on the endpoint being accessed.
• If you encounter rate limits or connectivity issues, verify your API key validity, username accuracy, and network firewall settings.