King Crimson Discography MCP Server

King Crimson Discography MCP Server

日本語版: README.ja.md

An MCP server that surfaces King Crimson record and live-performance data — including a curated incarnation (line-up era) model that shows how each song belongs to specific eras of the band.

What makes this different

Generic MusicBrainz/Discogs MCP servers can already fetch releases, credits, and pressings. This server does that too, but adds two things a band-agnostic discography tool structurally can't have:

• A cross-source integration layer keyed on MBID. MusicBrainz, Discogs, Cover Art Archive, and setlist.fm are stitched together so one release-group MBID gets you credits, physical editions, artwork, and live history without re-resolving identities per source.

• A King Crimson incarnation model. King Crimson's line-up turned over almost completely, many times, over five decades — the same song can mean a totally different band depending on the year. This server hand-curates eight line-up eras and cross-references every tracked song's live-performance history against them:

  Song	Incarnations it appears in
  "21st Century Schizoid Man"	Spread across every era — the band's signature
  "Starless"	Only the Larks' Tongues era and the Three-drummer era
  "Elephant Talk"	Born in the Discipline era, gone by the Three-drummer era

• A local, offline-first concert cache. Full concert history (1,200+ shows) is fetched once via refresh_setlist_cache and cached as JSON. Every subsequent song/tour/era query reads the cache — instant, and immune to setlist.fm's intermittent rate-limit failures during analysis.

Tools

The incarnation model

Eight line-up eras, split on membership changes:

Boundaries are dates, not just years — 1972 in particular splits into the Islands-era "Earthbound" spring tour (Transitional) and the Wetton-era autumn tour (Larks' Tongues), since the band's membership genuinely changed mid-year.

Line-up eras are a matter of fan interpretation, and this is one reasonable cut, not the only one. The full definition lives in KING_CRIMSON_INCARNATIONS in src/king_crimson_mcp/server.py — edit it (members, key releases, date boundaries) to match your own view; the aggregation logic doesn't need to change.

Install from PyPI

The easiest way to run the server — no clone, no venv:

# run directly without installing (recommended)
uvx king-crimson-mcp

# or install as a persistent tool
pipx install king-crimson-mcp
king-crimson-mcp

Secrets (MCP_CONTACT, DISCOGS_TOKEN, SETLISTFM_API_KEY) go either in a .env file in the directory you run the command from, or directly in the Claude Desktop config's env block (see below) — either is read. .env is loaded from the current working directory, since an installed package has no project directory of its own to keep one in.

Setup from source (development)

# Python 3.10+ required (3.12 recommended)
uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

# configure secrets
cp .env.example .env
# then edit .env

.env variables:

• MCP_CONTACT — required by MusicBrainz policy; identifies your app to their API via the User-Agent header.
• DISCOGS_TOKEN — needed for get_editions (Discogs personal access token).
• SETLISTFM_API_KEY — needed for get_live_history, refresh_setlist_cache, and song_performance_history.
• KC_CACHE_DIR — optional; overrides where the setlist cache is written (see below).

Running

# quick tool check via MCP Inspector
mcp dev src/king_crimson_mcp/server.py

Run refresh_setlist_cache once first — it fetches King Crimson's full concert history (~1,200 shows, ~40 seconds) and caches it locally under $XDG_CACHE_HOME/king-crimson-mcp (or ~/.cache/king-crimson-mcp; override with KC_CACHE_DIR). After that, song_performance_history reads from the cache and returns instantly.

Register with Claude Desktop

Using the published package:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "king-crimson": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["king-crimson-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_CONTACT": "[email protected]",
        "DISCOGS_TOKEN": "...",
        "SETLISTFM_API_KEY": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Or, running from a local clone instead (after uv pip install -e ., which installs the same king-crimson-mcp console script into the venv):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "king-crimson": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/king-crimson-mcp",
      "env": { "MCP_CONTACT": "[email protected]" }
    }
  }
}

Secrets can live in .env (in the directory the command is run from) instead of the env block — either is read.

Data sources & attribution

This project is an unofficial client with no affiliation with or endorsement from MusicBrainz, the MetaBrainz Foundation, the Internet Archive, Discogs, or setlist.fm.

• MusicBrainz — free, no API key. Requires an identifying User-Agent with contact info (rate limit: 1 req/sec). Data is largely CC0; crediting MusicBrainz in your app is good practice.
• Cover Art Archive — a joint MusicBrainz / Internet Archive project. Images are contributed by individual uploaders; follow the same attribution etiquette as MusicBrainz.
• Discogs — requires a personal access token and a unique User-Agent (60 req/min authenticated). Use is subject to the Discogs API terms of service.
• setlist.fm — requires an API key (apply at api.setlist.fm). Any display of setlist.fm data must include an attribution link to the source setlist — every performance returned by this server includes its url for exactly that purpose; surface it wherever you show the data. setlist.fm data is user-submitted, so completeness and accuracy are not guaranteed.

Limitations

• setlist.fm data is user-submitted — some shows or songs may be missing or incorrect, especially from older tours.
• The incarnation boundaries are one interpretation of King Crimson's line-up history, not an official taxonomy.
• Performer credits depend on what MusicBrainz has cataloged for a given release; sparser releases yield sparser credits.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.