io.github.lazyants/transkribus
MCP server for the Transkribus REST API — collections, documents, HTR/OCR, and models.
Open source Open in the app JSON README (API)
About
MCP server for the Transkribus REST API — collections, documents, HTR/OCR, and models.
Details
- Kind
- MCP servers
- Topic
- Developer tools
- Publisher
- lazyants
- Origin
- official
- Category
- ferramentas
- Transport
- local
- Version
- 4.0.0
- Stars
- 2
- Open pull requests
- 2
- Last push
- 2026-08-31T07:11:41Z
- Repository state
- ativo
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- NOASSERTION
- Added
- 2026-08-29 04:00:22
- Updated
- 2026-09-07 21:05:06
- Origin id
io.github.lazyants/transkribus
README
# transkribus-mcp-server
[](https://github.com/lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server/actions/workflows/test.yml)
MCP server for the [Transkribus REST API](https://transkribus.eu/). Manage collections, documents, HTR/OCR recognition, models, and more through the Model Context Protocol.
**300 tools** across 22 resource domains, with 8 entry points so you can pick the right server for your MCP client's tool limit.
> **API scope:** This server covers the **legacy Transkribus TrpServer REST API**. The newer **Processing API v2** (OIDC auth, `/processing/v2`, `account.readcoop.eu`) is intentionally out of scope.
## Installation
```bash
npm install -g @lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server
```
Or run directly:
```bash
npx @lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server
```
## Configuration
Transkribus uses session-based authentication. You can authenticate in two ways:
### Option 1: Username + Password (auto-login)
```bash
export TRANSKRIBUS_USER=your-email@example.com
export TRANSKRIBUS_PASSWORD=your-password
```
The server will automatically log in and manage the session.
### Option 2: Direct session ID
```bash
export TRANSKRIBUS_SESSION_ID=your-session-id
```
Use this if you already have a valid session from the Transkribus platform.
## Entry Points
| Command | Domains | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| `transkribus-mcp-server` | All 22 domains | 300 |
| `transkribus-mcp-collections` | Auth, Collections (core/docs/pages/users/crowd/editdecl/credits/stats/labels/activity/tags) | 132 |
| `transkribus-mcp-admin` | Auth, Admin, Credits, Uploads, Labels, Files, System, Root | 62 |
| `transkribus-mcp-transcription` | Auth, Recognition, Layout Analysis, PyLaia, P2PaLA, DU | 47 |
| `transkribus-mcp-users` | Auth, Users, Crowdsourcing, eLearning | 29 |
| `transkribus-mcp-models` | Auth, Models | 26 |
| `transkribus-mcp-jobs` | Auth, Jobs, Actions | 18 |
| `transkribus-mcp-search` | Auth, Search, KWS | 16 |
Use split servers to reduce context size — pick only the splits you need.
## Claude Code
Add to `~/.claude/settings.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"transkribus": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"TRANSKRIBUS_USER": "your-email@example.com",
"TRANSKRIBUS_PASSWORD": "your-password"
}
}
}
}
```
Or use split servers (pick the splits you need):
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"transkribus-collections": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "-p", "@lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server", "transkribus-mcp-collections"],
"env": {
"TRANSKRIBUS_USER": "your-email@example.com",
"TRANSKRIBUS_PASSWORD": "your-password"
}
},
"transkribus-transcription": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "-p", "@lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server", "transkribus-mcp-transcription"],
"env": {
"TRANSKRIBUS_USER": "your-email@example.com",
"TRANSKRIBUS_PASSWORD": "your-password"
}
}
}
}
```
## Claude Desktop
Add to `claude_desktop_config.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"transkribus": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@lazyants/transkribus-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"TRANSKRIBUS_USER": "your-email@example.com",
"TRANSKRIBUS_PASSWORD": "your-password"
}
}
}
}
```
## Security
- **Never commit your credentials** to version control
- Use environment variables or a `.env` file (excluded via `.gitignore`)
- Session IDs expire — prefer username/password for long-running setups
## Disclaimer
This is an unofficial MCP server for Transkribus. The authors are not affiliated with READ-COOP SCE. Use at your own risk.
## Releasing
Releases ship via the GitHub Release event. Maintainer flow:
1. Bump the version in `package.json`, `package-lock.json`, and `server.json` (`npm version <x.y.z> --no-git-tag-version` updates the first two together). `npm run check-versions` **hard-fails** unless `package.json#/version` and `server.json#/packages[0].version` agree. `server.json#/version` is checked loosely: it must be present, and it only fails when it *regresses* below `packages[0].version` — a value left behind at the previous release passes with a `WARN:` line and exit 0. The script does **not** look at `package-lock.json` or `CHANGELOG.md` at all, so read its output rather than trusting its exit code.
2. Update `CHANGELOG.md`.
3. Commit, and **merge the version bump to `main` before creating the release**. Then create the tag yourself, on a SHA you have checked, and only then create the release from it:
```bash
V=X.Y.Z && PR=<release-pr-number> &&
SHA="$(gh pr view "$PR" --json mergeCommit -q .mergeCommit.oid)" && test -n "$SHA" &&
git fetch origin main && git merge-base --is-ancestor "$SHA" origin/main &&
PKG="$(git show "$SHA:package.json")" &&
test "$(printf '%s' "$PKG" | node -pe 'JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync(0,"utf8")).version')" = "$V" &&
CL="$(git show "$SHA:CHANGELOG.md")" &&
printf '%s\n' "$CL" | awk -v v="$V" 'index($0,"## ["v"]")==1{f=1;next} /^## \[/{f=0} /^\[[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\]:/{f=0} f' > "/tmp/notes-v$V.md" &&
grep -q '[^[:space:]]' "/tmp/notes-v$V.md" &&
git tag -a "v$V" "$SHA" -m "v$V" &&
git push origin "v$V" &&
gh release create "v$V" --verify-tag --notes-file "/tmp/notes-v$V.md"
```
**The failure this prevents:** with no existing tag, `gh release create vX.Y.Z` places one on the **tip of the default branch**. Run it while the bump is still on a release branch and it tags the *previous* release's commit; the workflow then publishes whatever version it finds in that commit's `package.json`, producing a `vX.Y.Z` GitHub Release that silently republishes the old version. The publish workflow now refuses to continue when `GITHUB_REF_NAME` is not `v<package.json version>`, so that exact scenario fails before `npm publish` rather than silently republishing. The sequence above is still required, and guards a case the workflow cannot: the workflow guard only runs once a release already exists, and it passes for any commit carrying the right version — so it catches a *mis-tagged* release, not the *wrong commit* being tagged.
Each element is load-bearing:
- **`gh pr view … .mergeCommit.oid`** names the release PR's own squash commit. Do not substitute `git rev-parse origin/main`: that is merely whatever sits on `main` at the moment you look, so an unrelated merge landing in the gap gets tagged and shipped instead. `gh` exits 0 and prints nothing for an unmerged PR, hence the explicit `test -n`.
- **The `&&` chain** stops at the first failure instead of falling through to the irreversible step. Both `git show` calls are assigned to a variable rather than piped directly, so their exit status is actually checked — a pipeline reports only its *last* command's status unless `pipefail` is set, which is not assumed here.
- **`git merge-base --is-ancestor`** proves the commit is reachable from `main`. Mere existence is not enough: a commit can be present locally because another branch was fetched, and if its version files happen to match it would otherwise pass every remaining check.
- **The version test reads `package.json` out of the target commit**, not the working tree — which would still show the right version while `$SHA` pointed elsewhere.
- **The `awk`** lifts that version's section out of the commit's `CHANGELOG.md` for `--notes-file`. Without it the release body is whatever `--notes-from-tag` finds in the annotation — here the literal string `vX.Y.Z`, a poor release note for any version and a misleading one for a release carrying a breaking change. It stops at the next `## [` heading *or* at the first link-reference definition, because the oldest entry has no heading after it and would otherwise swallow the whole link-reference block. `grep -q` rather than `test -s` guards the result: a section empty apart from its blank line still produces a one-byte file, which `test -s` accepts.
- **`--verify-tag`** makes `gh` abort rather than invent a tag if the push did not land — the guard against the tip-of-default-branch fallback described above.
If `gh release create` fails after the tag is already pushed, do not rerun the whole block; it will stop at `git tag`, which is correct. Rerun only the final command.
4. The `Publish to npm + MCP Registry` workflow runs automatically: it `npm publish`es with provenance, polls the registry until the tarball is available, then pushes the matching `server.json` to the MCP Registry via `mcp-publisher`.
The workflow skips `npm publish` cleanly if the version is already on npm (cutover guard for releases that were partially published manually).
### npm authentication
Publishing uses **npm Trusted Publishing**: the workflow's GitHub OIDC token (`id-token: write`) is exchanged for a one-shot publish token at runtime. No `NPM_TOKEN` secret needs to live in the repo.
The binding is configured in the npm web UI (package → Trusted Publishers): provider `GitHub Actions`, organization `lazyants`, repository `transkribus-mcp-server`, workflow `publish-registry.yml`.
## License
[FSL-1.1-MIT](LICENSE) — see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for the full terms. Versions `1.x` remain MIT-licensed.