Blank Files MCP

Blank Files Website

Laravel application that powers blankfiles.com. Browse and download minimal valid blank files by type and category. File data and assets are served from the filearchitect/blank-files repository via a configurable CDN.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• Composer
• Node.js 18+ (for Vite frontend build)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/filearchitect/blankfiles-website.git
cd blankfiles-website
composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

Set CDN_URL in .env (see Configuration). Then build the frontend and run the app:

npm install && npm run build
php artisan serve

Or use Laravel Herd with a .test domain.

Configuration

| Variable | Description | | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | CDN_URL | Required. Base URL used to construct downloadable file URLs as {CDN_URL}/files/{filename}. Default: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filearchitect/blank-files/main (set in config/app.php). | | CATALOG_URL | Optional. Direct URL for the catalog JSON (files/files.json). Default is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filearchitect/blank-files/main/files/files.json for freshness. | | CACHE_ENABLED | Optional. When true, the file list from the CDN is cached. TTL is controlled by CATALOG_TTL_MINUTES (default 10). See config/cache.php and app/Services/FileService.php. | | CATALOG_TTL_MINUTES | Optional. Cache TTL in minutes for the remote catalog when CACHE_ENABLED=true. Lower values reflect new formats sooner; higher values reduce CDN fetches. | | API_KEYS | Optional. Comma-separated API keys for higher-rate API clients (used by X-API-Key or Authorization: Bearer ...). | | API_PUBLIC_RATE_LIMIT | Optional. Public API requests/minute limit (default 30). | | API_KEY_RATE_LIMIT | Optional. API-key requests/minute limit (default 300). | | API_USAGE_LOG_CHANNEL | Optional. Logging channel for API usage analytics (default api_usage). | | OPENPANEL_CLIENT_ID | Optional. Enables OpenPanel web analytics script when set. | | OPENPANEL_CLIENT_SECRET | Optional. Reserved for server-side OpenPanel events (not exposed to browser script). |

Project structure

| Path | Purpose | | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | app/Http/Controllers/FileController.php | Web: homepage, file detail page, download proxy. | | app/Http/Controllers/Api/FileController.php | API: list all files, list files by type. | | app/Services/FileService.php | Fetches catalog JSON (CATALOG_URL) and formats file URLs from CDN_URL. | | routes/web.php | Web routes (home, files show, download). | | routes/api.php | API v1 routes. | | resources/views/files/ | Blade views for file listing and file detail. |

Deployment

On push to main, GitHub Actions:

1. Builds the frontend (Vite) with npm ci and npm run build.
2. SCPs public/build/ to the Forge server.
3. Triggers a Laravel Forge deployment.
4. Runs php artisan optimize:clear on the server.

Required repository secrets:

• FORGE_SSH_HOST — SSH host for the server.
• FORGE_SSH_USER — SSH user (e.g. forge).
• SSH_PRIVATE_KEY — Private key for SCP/SSH.
• FORGE_SERVER_ID — Forge server ID.
• FORGE_SITE_ID — Forge site ID.
• FORGE_API_KEY — Forge deploy token.

See .github/workflows/deploy.yml.

---

For developers and bots

Base URL

Production: https://blankfiles.com. HTML and JSON are available; use Accept: application/json where applicable.

Web routes

| Method | Path | Description | | ------ | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | GET | / | Homepage: file list by category. Responds with JSON when Accept: application/json. Throttle: 30/min. | | GET | /upload-testing | Binary-focused landing page for upload testing intent, linking to high-demand file formats and categories. | | GET | /files/{category}/{type} | SEO-friendly file detail page (e.g. /files/document-spreadsheet/xlsx). Constraints: category, type = [A-Za-z0-9\-]+. | | GET | /files/download/{category}/{type} | Download proxy: streams the file with Content-Disposition: attachment (filename blank.{type} or blank.{type}.zip). Throttle: 60/min. |

API routes (prefix api/v1)

| Method | Path | Response | | ------ | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | GET | /api/v1/files | { "files": [ ... ], "meta": { "version", "generated_at", "count" } }. | | GET | /api/v1/files/{type} | Same schema, filtered by extension. | | GET | /api/v1/files/{category}/{type} | Same schema with exactly one matching entry when found; 404 when missing. | | GET | /api/v1/status | API health + aggregate catalog metrics (file_count, type_count, category_count) and upstream source info. |

Machine-friendly notes

• The canonical file catalog schema is defined in the blank-files repo: files/files.json (key files, array of { type, url, category, package? }).
• Download URLs: use the API url field for direct CDN access, or GET /files/download/{category}/{type} for a same-origin download with a predictable filename.
• Conditional requests are supported on API responses and sitemap (ETag, Last-Modified).
• Rate limits: public IP-based limits and optional API-key limits (X-API-Key).
• API usage analytics are logged to storage/logs/api-usage-*.log (configurable channel).
• Compatibility policy: API policy.
• Web landing analytics for growth pages are logged to storage/logs/web-traffic-*.log.

Client snippets

curl -sS "https://blankfiles.com/api/v1/files/document-spreadsheet/xlsx" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $BLANKFILES_API_KEY"

const res = await fetch("https://blankfiles.com/api/v1/files", {
  headers: { "Accept": "application/json", "If-None-Match": etag }
});
if (res.status === 304) {
  // unchanged
}

import requests
r = requests.get("https://blankfiles.com/api/v1/status", timeout=20)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json())

Compatibility policy

• URL versioning is stable under /api/v1/*.
• Breaking changes require a new major API path version.
• Deprecated endpoints are kept for at least 90 days before removal.
• New fields may be added; clients should ignore unknown fields.

---

Related

• filearchitect/blank-files — Source of truth for the file list and blank file assets.

MCP server (for agent marketplaces/registries)

This repository now includes a minimal MCP server that exposes Blank Files as tool calls.

• Script: scripts/mcp/blankfiles-mcp.mjs
• Run: npm run mcp:server
• Optional env: BLANKFILES_BASE_URL (default: https://blankfiles.com)

Available MCP tools:

• list_blank_files — list files, optional filters (category, type, limit)
• files_by_type — list entries by extension
• file_by_category_type — deterministic single lookup by category + extension

Example local MCP client config entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "blankfiles": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/blankfiles-website/scripts/mcp/blankfiles-mcp.mjs"],
      "env": {
        "BLANKFILES_BASE_URL": "https://blankfiles.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Registry submission helpers:

• Template metadata: scripts/mcp/registry/server.json.template
• Publish checklist: scripts/mcp/registry/PUBLISHING.md

Published package workspace:

• packages/blankfiles-mcp (publish as @filearchitect/blankfiles-mcp)

OpenClaw skill (ClawHub discoverability)

This repository includes an OpenClaw-ready skill bundle:

• Skill path: skills/blankfiles
• Skill entry: skills/blankfiles/SKILL.md
• Publish guide: skills/blankfiles/references/publish.md

Typical publish flow:

npm i -g clawhub
clawhub login
clawhub publish ./skills/blankfiles \
  --slug blankfiles \
  --name "Blank Files Gateway" \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --changelog "Initial release" \
  --tags latest

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.