mainlymcpfolk
Superseded by mainlynorfolk-cli. This repository is archived. The replacement is a Rust CLI and MCP server covering the same archive and more: a composable GraphQL API instead of a tool per operation, the archive's own
search.phpendpoints instead of downloading and grepping a 670KB index, the bibliography and record-label discographies it never reached, and a three-layer cache so a session that reads a page twice fetches it once. The npm packagemainlymcpfolkstill installs and still works. It is no longer maintained. One correction worth carrying over: the text below claimed the 305 Child Ballads. The archive has pages for 209 of them.
MCP server that gives Claude deep knowledge of British folk music via Mainly Norfolk.
Ask about Martin Carthy's discography, find recordings of Child Ballad 84, look up who's covered "Reynardine", get lyrics to "Tam Lin" - the full encyclopaedia of English folk tradition at your fingertips.
Tools
| Tool | What it does | | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | search_folk | Search for artists, songs, albums, ballad numbers | | get_page | Read any page - lyrics, history, versions, bios | | child_ballads | Browse the 305 Child Ballads with optional filtering | | laws_index | Browse Laws Index (American ballads of British origin) | | artist_discography | Get full discography for any artist | | record_labels | Browse folk labels (Topic, Fellside, etc.) |
Install
# mise
mise use -g npm:mainlymcpfolk
# or npm
npm install -g mainlymcpfolkConnect to Claude Desktop
Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"folk": {
"command": "bunx",
"args": ["mainlymcpfolk"]
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop. Tools appear in the 🔧 menu.
Caching
Results cached 1 hour in memory. Be nice to Mainly Norfolk - it's a labour of love maintained by one person.
Credit
All data from Mainly Norfolk, an encyclopaedic resource for English folk music named after Peter Bellamy's first solo album.
