Guardian MCP Server

@cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server Search, browse, and retrieve full article text from The Guardian's journalism archive (1999–present) via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP. Its 9 documented tools cover guardian, latest.

People who work with guardian and latest and want it reachable from Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in TypeScript.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-08-21 · ★ 2 · #361 OF 945 MAINTAINED OTHER · VERIFIED 2026-09-18

Apache-2.0 · TypeScript servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Guardian MCP Server

before you install - you'll need

Set MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL, GUARDIAN_API_KEY before connecting.

Claude Code

claude mcp add cyanheads-guardian-mcp-server -- npx -y @cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cyanheads-guardian-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.

Using another client? Same JSON, different key

Claude Desktop · mcpServers

Cursor · mcpServers

VS Code · servers

Windsurf · mcpServers

Zed · context_servers

Cline · mcpServers

Roo Code · mcpServers

Continue · mcpServers

LibreChat · mcpServers

Gemini CLI · mcpServers

Codex CLI · mcp_servers

Full setup guides: every client.

02 · Evidence

Security posture

What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.

runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions

license Apache-2.0 - declared in the repository

npm package @cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server - published under the repo owner's npm scope (@cyanheads)

registry namespace io.github.cyanheads is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner

03 · What Guardian MCP Server can do

Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.

What you can build

An agent gets 9 documented tools spanning guardian, latest, including guardian_search, guardian_get_article, guardian_browse, Filters.

Capability map

Tools grouped from the project's README - what Guardian MCP Server lets an agent do.

Guardian

3 tools - e.g. Full-text search across The Guardian's archive (1999–present) with optional section, tag, contributor, and date filters. Returns articles with full body text (H; Fetch a single Guardian article by its ID…

guardian_search · guardian_get_article · guardian_browse

read & search

2 tools - e.g. returns all Guardian sections as a flat list - use to discover valid section_id values; searches the tag taxonomy with optional query and tag_type filter - use to discover contributor IDs…

list_sections · list_tags

Filters

1 tool - e.g. section ID, tag ID, contributor profile ID, date range (from_date, to_date)

Filters

Truncated

1 tool - e.g. true in the response means the body still exceeded 2,000 words after fetching

truncated

Section

1 tool - e.g. newest articles from a section (requires section_id)

section_latest

Tag

1 tool - e.g. newest articles carrying a tag (requires tag_id)

tag_latest

Latest releases

v0.1.3 · 2026-08-21

Framework 0.12.3 adoption: SDK v2 runtime, recovery hints on the wire · @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core ^0.10.6 → ^0.12.3 - MCP SDK v2 runtime serving protocol revision 2026-07-28 alongside the 2025 era, strict tool inputs…

v0.1.2 · 2026-06-12

mcp-ts-core ^0.10.6 adoption · Framework adoption pass bringing total-count enrichment, explicit server identity, a Docker healthcheck, and MCPB bundle cleaning. · Added: · totalCount enrichment on guardian_search and…

v0.1.1 · 2026-06-01

Initial public release - Guardian Open Platform MCP server · Three tools over The Guardian Open Platform API (requires free GUARDIAN_API_KEY): · guardian_search, guardian_get_article, guardian_browse. Delivers full…

04 · Who maintains Guardian MCP Server

guardian-mcp-server is maintained by cyanheads. We track 125 MCP servers from cyanheads - 119 actively maintained, 1,816 combined GitHub stars, oldest repo from Dec 2024. Full record: all servers from cyanheads.

05 · Facts

repository: github.com/cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server
category: other - ranked #361 of 945 actively-maintained other servers as of 2026-09-18.
release cadence: 1 release in the last 90 days (latest 2026-08-21)
registry: io.github.cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server (active, first published 2026-06-01 · 3 versions)
packages: npm:@cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server · npm:@cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server

06 · Guardian MCP Server FAQ

Is Guardian MCP Server still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-09-18, its last commit was 2026-08-21 and it shipped 1 release in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.

What can Guardian MCP Server do?

An agent gets 9 documented tools spanning guardian, latest, including guardian_search, guardian_get_article, guardian_browse, Filters.

How do I install Guardian MCP Server?

Run `npx -y @cyanheads/guardian-mcp-server`. The README documents 3 environment variables (MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL, GUARDIAN_API_KEY) to set first. Set MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL, GUARDIAN_API_KEY before connecting. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Guardian MCP Server run locally?

Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via npx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.

07 · Alternatives to Guardian MCP Server

Alternatives to Guardian MCP Server

Maintained other servers if Guardian MCP Server isn't the fit.

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