anilist

This MCP server provides a bridge to the AniList API, exposing a suite of tools that let you search and retrieve information about anime, manga, characters, staff, studios, and user data. It supports a wide range of capabilities including media lookups (get_anime, get_manga), searching (search_anime, search_manga, search_character, search_staff, search_studio, search_user), lists and activity operations (get_user_anime_list, add_list_entry, remove_list_entry, get_user_profile, get_user_stats, etc.), and miscellaneous endpoints for genres, tags, and site statistics. The server is designed to be consumable via either STDIO transport or HTTP transport, enabling integration with local setups or cloud deployments.

To use it, configure the MCP client to connect to the AniList MCP server. If you’re using STDIO transport, provide the Anilist token (if required) via environment variable ANILIST_TOKEN. If you’re using HTTP transport, you can pass the token through the Anilist-Token header or rely on the server’s internal config. Once connected, browse and invoke any of the available tools (e.g., search_anime with a query, get_user_profile with a user ID, or get_full_user_info) to obtain structured responses suitable for feeding into a chatbot or other LLM-driven workflows.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 18+ must be installed on your system.
• Git (optional for cloning the repository).

Local Development (STDIO or HTTP-agnostic setup):

1. Install dependencies (if you have the repository):

pnpm install

2. Optional: create and configure environment variables. Copy the example env file if provided by the project (e.g., env.example) and add your AniList API token:

cp env.example .env

Edit .env to include:

ANILIST_TOKEN=your_api_token

3. Run the server (STDIO transport):

# From project root, or as configured in your mcp.json
pnpm run start:stdio

4. For HTTP transport (self-hosting): ensure dependencies are installed and start the HTTP server, e.g.:

pnpm run start:http

By default this starts on port 8081 (adjust via PORT env var). 5) If you prefer debugging with the MCP Inspector, you can run:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector -e ANILIST_TOKEN=your_api_token npx anilist-mcp

Replace the token with your actual AniList token as needed.

Notes and tips:

• The ANILIST_TOKEN is optional for operations that don’t require login, but needed for actions like managing user lists or posting activities.
• When hosting HTTP transport with a pre-configured token, consider enabling authentication on your endpoint to prevent unauthorized access.
• If you pass the token via the HTTP header (Anilist-Token) and also have ANILIST_TOKEN set in the environment, the header value takes precedence.
• You can deploy this MCP server to any Node.js-friendly hosting environment or cloud platform (e.g., Smithery).
• The server exposes a broad set of tools; each tool’s input parameters can be found by inspecting the available tools through MCP Inspector or the server’s API/docs.