Scryfall MCP Server

Scryfall-backed MCP server for Magic: The Gathering search, rules lookup, pricing, set discovery, and deckbuilding workflows.

The project currently supports:

• stdio as the primary transport for local MCP clients
• local-first Streamable HTTP via src/http.ts
• 15 MCP tools, 3 resources, and 2 prompts

What It Exposes

Tools

• search_cards: Run Scryfall card searches with paging, sorting, and optional price filtering.
• get_card: Fetch one card by name, set/collector number, or Scryfall ID.
• get_card_prices: Return price data with optional format context and alternatives.
• random_card: Get a random card with optional filters.
• search_sets: Search and filter Magic sets.
• query_rules: Search the local comprehensive rules file with context.
• build_scryfall_query: Convert natural language into an explainable Scryfall query.
• search_format_staples: Search format-legal candidates using disclosed price and ordering heuristics, not tournament metagame data.
• search_alternatives: Find candidates using disclosed price, type, and mana-value heuristics; results are not verified functional replacements or upgrades.
• find_synergistic_cards: Find synergy pieces for a card, theme, or archetype.
• batch_card_analysis: Analyze multiple cards for legality, prices, synergy, or composition.
• validate_brawl_commander: Check Brawl and Standard Brawl commander legality.
• analyze_deck_composition: Evaluate deck lists for curve, colors, and structural issues.
• suggest_mana_base: Recommend land counts and fixing packages from color requirements.
• show_card_search: Render a ChatGPT Apps widget for visual Scryfall card search results.

Resources

• card-database://bulk: Cached Oracle bulk snapshot.
• set-database://all: Cached set list snapshot.
• ui://widget/card-search.html: ChatGPT Apps widget template for show_card_search.

Prompts

• analyze_card
• build_deck

Transports

STDIO

Recommended for Claude Desktop, Codex, MCP Inspector, and most local MCP clients.

npm run dev

npm start

Streamable HTTP

Available as a separate entrypoint for local or explicitly controlled environments.

npm run dev:http

npm run start:http

For local MCP testing:

npm run dev:http:local
npm run smoke:http

The smoke test checks /health, performs MCP initialize, sends notifications/initialized, and verifies tools/list. It also makes representative validate_brawl_commander and search_cards tool calls so the local HTTP endpoint is checked beyond discovery.

Current HTTP behavior:

• binds to 127.0.0.1 by default
• serves POST|GET|DELETE on /mcp
• serves GET /health
• rejects non-loopback Origin headers by default unless HTTP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS is set
• requires both HTTP_AUTH_TOKEN and HTTP_TRUST_PROXY_TLS=true when HTTP_HOST is not loopback; the latter is an operator assertion that a trusted HTTPS proxy or tunnel protects the plaintext listener
• limits active and initializing sessions with HTTP_MAX_SESSIONS (default 100)

The HTTP entrypoint is useful today, but it is still documented conservatively. It is not presented here as a public-hosting story.

ChatGPT App Development

The HTTP MCP endpoint can be connected to ChatGPT Developer Mode as a local app prototype. Start the server on loopback:

npm run dev:http:local

Expose that local endpoint with an HTTPS tunnel:

ngrok http 3000

Then connect the tunneled https://.../mcp URL in ChatGPT Developer Mode. Refresh the app after changing tool descriptors, widget resources, or metadata so ChatGPT reloads the current MCP surface.

The current ChatGPT-facing widget is show_card_search, which returns concise structuredContent for the model and renders ui://widget/card-search.html in ChatGPT. The widget is read-only against Scryfall, uses Scryfall image URLs, and keeps its CSP resource allowlist limited to https://cards.scryfall.io.

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js ^20.19.0, ^22.13.0, or >=24.0.0
• npm

Install

git clone https://github.com/bmurdock/scryfall-mcp.git
cd scryfall-mcp
npm install
cp .env.example .env

The documented npm run dev*, npm start, and npm run inspector commands preload .env. Explicit process environment variables take precedence over values in that file. MCP clients that launch dist/index.js directly should provide overrides through their own env configuration.

Validate

npm run lint
npm run type-check
npm test
npm run test:coverage

Build

npm run build

Common Commands

npm run dev
npm run dev:http
npm start
npm run start:http
npm test
npm run test:watch
npm run test:ui
npm run test:coverage
npm run lint
npm run lint:fix
npm run type-check
npm run inspector

Configuration

See .env.example for the canonical values. The main variables in active use are:

• SCRYFALL_USER_AGENT
• RATE_LIMIT_MS
• RATE_LIMIT_QUEUE_MAX
• SCRYFALL_TIMEOUT_MS
• CACHE_MAX_SIZE
• CACHE_MAX_MEMORY_MB
• LOG_LEVEL
• NODE_ENV
• HEALTHCHECK_DEEP
• HTTP_HOST
• HTTP_PORT
• HTTP_MCP_PATH
• HTTP_HEALTH_PATH
• HTTP_MAX_BODY_BYTES
• HTTP_SESSION_IDLE_MS
• HTTP_SESSION_CLEANUP_INTERVAL_MS
• HTTP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS
• HTTP_AUTH_TOKEN
• HTTP_TRUST_PROXY_TLS
• HTTP_MAX_SESSIONS

Operational notes:

• Scryfall API calls are globally serialized by the shared rate limiter. Batch tools may schedule multiple local lookups, but upstream Scryfall request completion remains one-at-a-time by design.
• The default pacing is 100 ms for general API endpoints and at least 500 ms for Scryfall's 2/sec card endpoints: /cards/search, /cards/named, /cards/random, and /cards/collection.
• HTTP 429 responses are not retried automatically. The server records Scryfall's throttle window and delays the next request start so callers can decide whether to retry.
• CACHE_MAX_MEMORY_MB controls whether large in-memory snapshots, including card-database://bulk, can be retained. Bulk resource rebuilds stream to a temp file first; oversized snapshots remain on disk for warm reads instead of being retained in the cache. Each MCP resource response still materializes the complete serialized bulk payload required by the resource protocol, so callers should allow memory proportional to that response size.
• Set snapshots are refreshed weekly. A stale snapshot may be retained for up to four weeks, subject to cache capacity, and served when a scheduled refresh fails; failed scheduled refreshes are retried after five minutes.
• Card detail output includes Scryfall source links and artist attribution when available. Consumers that render Scryfall image URLs should preserve copyright, artist, and source context and should not crop, distort, recolor, watermark, or imply ownership of card images.
• Deck-list analysis resolves card names exactly first, then falls back to fuzzy lookup for exact misses and reports any fuzzy resolutions in the response. Input is bounded to 64 KiB, 100 unique names, 10,000 total cards, and 1,000 copies per entry.
• Cancelling an MCP tool or prompt stops its queued Scryfall work. A lookup shared with another active caller continues until that caller completes or cancels.
• The stdio server shuts down when its client closes input. Malformed HTTP URLs or Host headers return HTTP 400 without terminating the server.
• Prompt validation errors retain their actionable message and use the MCP invalid-parameters error code. Upstream prompt errors include safe status or retry information.
• suggest_mana_base returns heuristic land counts and cycle categories; individual card legality and color compatibility still require verification. All allocated slots are included, with a generic fixing category when no specific cycle is available. Special land requirements are currently unsupported and nonempty special_requirements inputs return a validation error.
• Deck-scale tools may return partial analysis or an explicit retry-after message when Scryfall throttles the underlying card lookups.
• Streamable HTTP sessions expire after HTTP_SESSION_IDLE_MS and are checked by HTTP_SESSION_CLEANUP_INTERVAL_MS.
• Non-loopback HTTP bindings require bearer-token authentication and HTTP_TRUST_PROXY_TLS=true, which asserts that a trusted HTTPS proxy or tunnel protects the plaintext listener. Origin allowlists remain an additional browser policy, not an authentication mechanism.
• GET /health is a readiness check: it returns HTTP 503 when a required service is degraded, including while the Scryfall circuit breaker is open.

Example local HTTP startup:

HTTP_HOST=127.0.0.1 HTTP_PORT=3000 npm run start:http

Example Tool Calls

build_scryfall_query

{
  "natural_query": "blue counterspells under $20 for modern",
  "optimize_for": "precision"
}

search_cards

{
  "query": "c:r t:instant mv=1",
  "limit": 10,
  "order": "name"
}

search_sets

{
  "type": "expansion",
  "released_after": "2020-01-01"
}

find_synergistic_cards

{
  "focus_card": "Obeka, Splitter of Seconds",
  "synergy_type": "theme",
  "format": "commander",
  "color_identity": "UBR",
  "limit": 12
}

For commander-like workflows, pass color_identity when the focus is a theme rather than a resolvable card. When the focus resolves to a card, the tool infers that card's color identity and filters final results by requested legality, Arena availability, and color identity.

analyze_deck_composition

{
  "deck_list": "4 Lightning Bolt\n4 Monastery Swiftspear\n20 Mountain",
  "format": "modern",
  "strategy": "aggro"
}

Claude Desktop Integration

Add the built stdio entrypoint to your Claude Desktop configuration.

macOS path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows path: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scryfall": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/scryfall-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Operational Notes

• Rate limiting is enforced in-process with a 100 ms default minimum interval between general Scryfall API requests and a 500 ms minimum for Scryfall's 2/sec card endpoints.
• Search responses, card details, prices, sets, and bulk snapshots are cached with bounded in-memory limits.
• The bulk card resource streams rebuilds through disk and stores a pre-serialized snapshot to keep repeated reads cheap. Cache retention is bounded, but producing a bulk resource response still requires the full serialized response text in process memory.
• Set filtering is derived from one canonical cached /sets dataset to avoid incorrect filtered cache reuse.
• Health checks are available through ScryfallMCPServer.healthCheck() and the HTTP /health endpoint.
• If an MCP connector reports a JSON-RPC/SSE deserialization error, compare it against the raw HTTP smoke path:

npm run dev:http:local
npm run smoke:http

If the smoke command succeeds, capture the connector error text and the smoke output together; that separates local endpoint framing from connector-specific parsing.

Documentation Map

Current source-of-truth docs:

• PURPOSE.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md
• SECURITY.md
• SCRYFALL_COMPLIANCE.md

License

MIT