similarity_signals

MCP tool from Smithsonian MCP Server by cyanheads

on each result show every metadata term that connected it to the anchor — an object surfaced by more than one signal carries all of them

How to use it

similarity_signals is exposed by the Smithsonian MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), and the similarity_signals tool becomes available to the model automatically. See the full listing for setup details and every tool this server provides.

Install Smithsonian MCP Server

$docker run --rm -e SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY=your-api-key -p 3010:3010 smithsonian-mcp-server

FULL SMITHSONIAN MCP SERVER LISTING

Other tools in Smithsonian MCP Server (9)

object_type

is not enumerable upstream — discover object-type values from the objecttype field in smithsoniansearchobjects results

smithsonian_browse_category

Browse objects within one exact category (museum, culture, period, medium, topic) with total count, a page of objects, and museum breakdown. Requires an exact indexed category term.

smithsonian_find_related

Discover cross-collection objects related to an anchor, matched on shared culture, named-party, topic, and period signals.

smithsonian_get_media

Return all CC0-licensed images for an object at multiple resolutions (thumbnail, screen, high-res JPEG/TIFF). Only CC0 images returned, never an empty list — a distinct error reason names why, whether the object has nothing digitized, only non-image media, or only restricted images.

smithsonian_get_object

Fetch a normalized catalog metadata projection for an object by ID: title, dates, materials, dimensions, exhibition history, credit line, and identifiers.

smithsonian_list_terms

Enumerate the valid term vocabulary for an indexed filter field (unitcode, culture, place, date, onlinemediatype, topic). Call before filtering to avoid empty results from invalid values; pass contains to resolve a guessed value to its exact term(s). unitcode terms come back with their museum names.

smithsonian_search_objects

Search across 14.5M objects by text query with optional filters (museum, type, date term, culture, place, topic, name, online-only, CC0). Returns curated summaries with total count.

topic

and name are hard indexed constraints, not free text — topic: "Quilts" matches 1,134 objects where the bare word matches 2,677, and name: "Warhol, Andy" matches 421 against 715

value

must be an exact indexed category term — resolve museum, culture, period, and topic vocabulary with smithsonianlistterms first; objecttype is not enumerable there, so harvest it from smithsoniansearchobjects results