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AHG Archives MCP Server

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answering

AHG Archives is answering right now. Last checked 9 min ago. It exposes 16 tools. Last commit 27 Oct 2026.

Search and read AtoM archival catalogues with citable links; staff propose changes for review.

Uptime history 14 days of history · worst day 78%
14 days agonow
100.0%
Uptime 24h
182 of 182 checks
16
Tools
read from the server
956 ms
Response time
average over 24h
0
Stars
last commit 27 Oct 2026

What changed 4

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 27 October 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

27 Oct 2 tool descriptions were rewritten4 times that day get_record_image, get_record_text
and 2 more, back to 27 October 2026

AHG Archives does not always answer

Over the last week it answered 96.9% of our checks. We check every 15 minutes, so you hear about the next outage within the hour — not from your users.

Three servers free · no card

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 9 min ago.

run in your terminal
claude mcp add ahg-archives --transport http https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp
~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.ahg-archives]
url = "https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp"
.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ahg-archives": {
      "url": "https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp"
    }
  }
}
.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "ahg-archives": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp"
    }
  }
}

This endpoint answered with an authorization challenge. The server is running, and it signs you in through your browser: there is no API key to paste.

This server publishes 1 more address. The block above uses the one we reach during checks; the full list is under Endpoints below, and the author may intend a particular one for your client.

Available tools 16

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

propose
propose_access_points_and_dates
Propose access points (people, organisations, places) and dates for one record. Read the record with get_record first. Propose only what its text, or a reliable source you name, supports; give the evidence and source URLs for each. For a person or organisation, also give dates_of_existence, a short history and places when the record or a source states them: they pre-fill the new authority record if the archivist creates one. Look names and places up with search_authorities first; when one is already in the catalogue, give its id as existing_id and why in link_reason, and the archivist sees it as the first candidate to link. Nothing on the record changes: an archivist reviews every proposal. On AtoM with the AHG extensions they are queued in AI > NER review; on stock AtoM they are returned for the archivist to apply. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
propose_description_change
Propose new text for one field of a record, for an archivist to review. text is the complete proposed text for the field, not a fragment: read the record with get_record first and keep what is right in the current text. For a title, propose the title only (at most 1,024 characters). Give the evidence and the URLs of any web sources. Nothing on the record changes: on AtoM with the AHG extensions the proposal is queued in AI > Suggest review, where the archivist can edit it before approving; on stock AtoM it is returned for the archivist to apply. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
propose_relationships
Propose relationships between people or organisations that a record states, such as a marriage or parent and child in a family register. Each side must be an existing authority record (give its id from search_authorities) or a person or organisation you have already proposed for this record with propose_access_points_and_dates. Give the line that states each relationship as evidence. An archivist reviews them in AI > Relationship review; approved ones show on both authority records. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
propose_transcription
Propose a transcription of a record's file, such as a scanned page with no text. Look at the page with get_record_image first and transcribe what is written, line by line, in its own language and spelling; mark what you cannot read as [illegible] rather than guessing. Use get_record_text to see whether the file already has text. digital_object_id picks the file when a record has several. At most 65,000 bytes: propose a long document page by page. An archivist compares it with the page image in AI > Suggest review; once approved it is the file's text and is searchable. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
propose_translation
Propose a translation of one field of a record into another language. language is the target language code, e.g. "en", "af" or "nl". Translate the record's current text for that field faithfully (read it with get_record); keep names, dates and reference codes as they are. An archivist reviews it in AI > Suggest review next to any text already held in that language; once approved the record shows it in that language. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
record
get_record
Read one archival description in full, by its slug (the last part of its URL). Includes dates, names, subjects, places, notes and, where the catalogue provides them, its place in the hierarchy, its number of children, images, and its provenance chain (owners, dates, transfers, certainty, gaps).
get_record_image
Look at a record's image: returns the reference image itself, so you can describe what it shows, read inscriptions or labels, or judge its condition. Use it before proposing a description for a record whose own text is thin. Only images the caller may view are returned (the reference copy, never the master). Say what you saw and what you inferred, and treat inscriptions you cannot read clearly as uncertain. Where the catalogue states rights (OpenRiC Workspace, AtoM with the AHG Extensions, Heratio), each result carries rights: RightsStatements.org statements, Creative Commons licences, what may be done (PREMIS acts: allow, disallow, conditional) and Local Contexts labels. Follow them when you quote or reuse anything, and say what they are. A file whose labels ask for no reuse (TK Secret/Sacred, Community Use Only, Women or Men Restricted), or that may not be shown, is withheld: it is not given to you, and you should not try to describe or obtain it another way.
get_record_text
Read the text held for a record's files: text extracted from a PDF or by OCR, and transcriptions of audio or video. Use it for documents, where reading the text beats looking at a small image. Long text comes in pages: if a result says more=true, call again with offset set to offset + the length you received. Personal information may be masked. Quote what you rely on when you propose changes. Where the catalogue states rights (OpenRiC Workspace, AtoM with the AHG Extensions, Heratio), each result carries rights: RightsStatements.org statements, Creative Commons licences, what may be done (PREMIS acts: allow, disallow, conditional) and Local Contexts labels. Follow them when you quote or reuse anything, and say what they are. A file whose labels ask for no reuse (TK Secret/Sacred, Community Use Only, Women or Men Restricted), or that may not be shown, is withheld: it is not given to you, and you should not try to describe or obtain it another way.
authorities
search_authorities
Find existing authority records (people, organisations, families) or places by name. Every word must appear in the name, in any order, so "Hendrik Engelbrecht" also finds "Engelbrecht, Hendrik". Use it before proposing a name or place: when one of the results is the same person, organisation or place, pass its id as existing_id in propose_access_points_and_dates, so the archivist links the existing record instead of creating a new one.
authority
get_authority
Read an authority record (a person, family or organisation) by its slug.
catalogues
list_catalogues
The catalogues this service can search and read. Proposals go to the home catalogue only.
children
get_children
List the descriptions directly below one record (for example the series in a fonds).
iiif
get_iiif_manifest
Return the IIIF manifest URL for a record's images, for viewing in a IIIF viewer.
proposals
list_my_proposals
List the proposals you made and what became of them, newest first. Each shows the record, the name, place, date or field text proposed, and its status: pending, approved, edited, linked (to an authority record), rejected, new_record_created or parked, with who reviewed it and when. Check it before proposing for a record, and do not propose again what was rejected. Needs the archivist's own staff key.
records
search_records
Search archival descriptions (fonds, series, files, items) by keyword. Returns title, level of description and the citable URL of each match. Use get_record on a result for the full description. catalogue: leave empty for the home catalogue, give a name from list_catalogues, or "all" to search every catalogue at once (results grouped by catalogue). Every read tool takes the same catalogue; read a result with the catalogue it came from.
work
work_through_series
Work through every record below a parent (for example each page of a family Bible), a batch at a time, with a running summary of what you proposed where. Returns a batch of the parent's children, each with your proposals on it so far by status, the totals for the whole batch, how many proposals you may still make this hour, and next_skip for the next batch (null when done). For each child: read it (get_record, and get_record_text or get_record_image when its text is thin), skip it when your proposals there are still pending, propose, then move on. Call again with skip=next_skip until it is null. When get_record shows a child has children of its own, work through it the same way.

Endpoints

URLTransportStateLatencyChecked
https://mcp.theahg.co.za/public/mcp streamable-http answering 882 ms 9 min ago
https://mcp.theahg.co.za/mcp streamable-http sign-in 944 ms 11 min ago

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AHG Archives — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can AHG Archives do?
It exposes 16 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: get_authority, get_children, get_iiif_manifest, get_record, get_record_image, get_record_text and 10 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
What is AHG Archives mostly used for?
Its tools cluster around propose and record. That is what this server is built to work with — the grouping comes from the actual tool names, not from a category we assigned.
Is AHG Archives working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 182 of 182 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 956 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
How do I connect AHG Archives?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address. You sign in through your browser once and the client keeps the session: no key to copy, and it refuses anonymous clients.
How do you sign in to AHG Archives?
No API key is involved. AHG Archives answers our knock with an OAuth challenge, so you authorise it once in your browser and the client keeps the session. That is also why we see no tool list: it will not describe itself to an anonymous client, and that is the server working as intended, not a fault.
How fast is AHG Archives?
It answers our handshake in 956 ms on average, which is faster than 6% of all working MCP servers we measure. That is on the slow side — worth knowing if the tool sits inside an interactive loop. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.
Is AHG Archives open source?
The code is open source: it is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, written in Python, 0 stars on GitHub and 1 open issue. The licence covers the code in the repository, not the hosted service at mcp.theahg.co.za, which runs on its operator's own terms.