The Met Museum MCP Server for LlamaIndex 8 tools — connect in under 2 minutes
LlamaIndex specializes in data-aware AI agents that connect LLMs to structured and unstructured sources. Add The Met Museum as an MCP tool provider through Vinkius and your agents can query, analyze, and act on live data alongside your existing indexes.
ASK AI ABOUT THIS MCP SERVER
Vinkius supports streamable HTTP and SSE.
import asyncio
from llama_index.tools.mcp import BasicMCPClient, McpToolSpec
from llama_index.core.agent.workflow import FunctionAgent
from llama_index.llms.openai import OpenAI
async def main():
# Your Vinkius token. get it at cloud.vinkius.com
mcp_client = BasicMCPClient("https://edge.vinkius.com/[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]/mcp")
mcp_tool_spec = McpToolSpec(client=mcp_client)
tools = await mcp_tool_spec.to_tool_list_async()
agent = FunctionAgent(
tools=tools,
llm=OpenAI(model="gpt-4o"),
system_prompt=(
"You are an assistant with access to The Met Museum. "
"You have 8 tools available."
),
)
response = await agent.run(
"What tools are available in The Met Museum?"
)
print(response)
asyncio.run(main())
* Every MCP server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS - a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts optimized for native MCP execution. See our infrastructure
About The Met Museum MCP Server
Connect to The Met Museum and explore one of the world's largest art collections through natural conversation — no API key needed.
LlamaIndex agents combine The Met Museum tool responses with indexed documents for comprehensive, grounded answers. Connect 8 tools through Vinkius and query live data alongside vector stores and SQL databases in a single turn. ideal for hybrid search, data enrichment, and analytical workflows.
What you can do
- Artwork Search — Search 470,000+ artworks by artist name, title, culture, medium or any term
- Artwork Details — Get full metadata including title, artist, date, medium, dimensions, credit line and images
- Department Browse — Explore artworks by department (European Paintings, Egyptian Art, Asian Art, etc.)
- Highlights — Discover curator-selected highlights from the collection
- On-View Objects — Find artworks currently displayed in the museum galleries
- Date Range Search — Filter artworks by century or specific date ranges
- Image Discovery — Find artworks with Open Access CC0 images
The The Met Museum MCP Server exposes 8 tools through the Vinkius. Connect it to LlamaIndex in under two minutes — no API keys to rotate, no infrastructure to provision, no vendor lock-in. Your configuration, your data, your control.
How to Connect The Met Museum to LlamaIndex via MCP
Follow these steps to integrate the The Met Museum MCP Server with LlamaIndex.
Install dependencies
Run pip install llama-index-tools-mcp llama-index-llms-openai
Replace the token
Replace [YOUR_TOKEN_HERE] with your Vinkius token
Run the agent
Save to agent.py and run: python agent.py
Explore tools
The agent discovers 8 tools from The Met Museum
Why Use LlamaIndex with the The Met Museum MCP Server
LlamaIndex provides unique advantages when paired with The Met Museum through the Model Context Protocol.
Data-first architecture: LlamaIndex agents combine The Met Museum tool responses with indexed documents for comprehensive, grounded answers
Query pipeline framework lets you chain The Met Museum tool calls with transformations, filters, and re-rankers in a typed pipeline
Multi-source reasoning: agents can query The Met Museum, a vector store, and a SQL database in a single turn and synthesize results
Observability integrations show exactly what The Met Museum tools were called, what data was returned, and how it influenced the final answer
The Met Museum + LlamaIndex Use Cases
Practical scenarios where LlamaIndex combined with the The Met Museum MCP Server delivers measurable value.
Hybrid search: combine The Met Museum real-time data with embedded document indexes for answers that are both current and comprehensive
Data enrichment: query The Met Museum to augment indexed data with live information before generating user-facing responses
Knowledge base agents: build agents that maintain and update knowledge bases by periodically querying The Met Museum for fresh data
Analytical workflows: chain The Met Museum queries with LlamaIndex's data connectors to build multi-source analytical reports
The Met Museum MCP Tools for LlamaIndex (8)
These 8 tools become available when you connect The Met Museum to LlamaIndex via MCP:
get_departments
Useful for filtering searches by department (e.g. European Paintings, Egyptian Art, Asian Art, Arms and Armor). Get all museum departments
get_object
Returns title, artist, culture, date, medium, dimensions, credit line, repository URL, image URLs and more. All Open Access images are CC0 public domain. Get detailed info for a specific artwork by object ID
get_objects_by_department
Use get_departments first to find the department ID. Returns list of object IDs which can be used with get_object for full details. Get all object IDs for a specific department
search_by_century
Returns object IDs which can be used with get_object for full artwork details including images. Search for objects created in a specific century
search_highlights
These represent some of the most significant and popular works in the collection. Search for highlighted (curator-selected) objects
search_objects
Supports filtering by department, date range, medium, images, highlights and on-view status. Returns object IDs which can be used with get_object for full details. Search The Met collection for artworks
search_on_view
Useful for planning museum visits. Search for objects currently on view in the museum
search_with_images
Useful for finding visual artworks. Supports all standard search filters plus has_images=true. Search for objects that have images
Example Prompts for The Met Museum in LlamaIndex
Ready-to-use prompts you can give your LlamaIndex agent to start working with The Met Museum immediately.
"Search for paintings by Monet."
"Show me the highlights from Egyptian Art."
"Find sculptures from the 1800s."
Troubleshooting The Met Museum MCP Server with LlamaIndex
Common issues when connecting The Met Museum to LlamaIndex through the Vinkius, and how to resolve them.
BasicMCPClient not found
pip install llama-index-tools-mcpThe Met Museum + LlamaIndex FAQ
Common questions about integrating The Met Museum MCP Server with LlamaIndex.
How does LlamaIndex connect to MCP servers?
Can I combine MCP tools with vector stores?
Does LlamaIndex support async MCP calls?
Connect The Met Museum with your favorite client
Step-by-step setup guides for every MCP-compatible client and framework:
Anthropic's native desktop app for Claude with built-in MCP support.
AI-first code editor with integrated LLM-powered coding assistance.
GitHub Copilot in VS Code with Agent mode and MCP support.
Purpose-built IDE for agentic AI coding workflows.
Autonomous AI coding agent that runs inside VS Code.
Anthropic's agentic CLI for terminal-first development.
Python SDK for building production-grade OpenAI agent workflows.
Google's framework for building production AI agents.
Type-safe agent development for Python with first-class MCP support.
TypeScript toolkit for building AI-powered web applications.
TypeScript-native agent framework for modern web stacks.
Python framework for orchestrating collaborative AI agent crews.
Leading Python framework for composable LLM applications.
Data-aware AI agent framework for structured and unstructured sources.
Microsoft's framework for multi-agent collaborative conversations.
Connect The Met Museum to LlamaIndex
Get your token, paste the configuration, and start using 8 tools in under 2 minutes. No API key management needed.