BoardGameGeek MCP Server

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates with the BoardGameGeek XML API, allowing Claude to search for board games, retrieve game details, get user collections, and more.

Features

This server provides the following tools:

1. search-games: Search for board games by name
2. get-game-details: Get detailed information about a specific board game
3. get-user-collection: Get a user's board game collection with filtering options
4. get-hot-games: Get the current hottest board games on BoardGameGeek
5. get-user-plays: Get a user's recent board game plays
6. get-similar-games: Get games similar to a specified game
7. sync-user-collection: Synchronize a user's collection from BoardGameGeek
8. sync-user-plays: Synchronize a user's plays from BoardGameGeek

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22.5.0 or higher (required for experimental SQLite support)
• npm (for dependency management)

Building and Running

To build the server:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the TypeScript code
npm run build

To run the server directly:

# The --experimental-sqlite flag is required
node --experimental-sqlite build/index.js

To run with Docker:

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t bgg-mcp-server .

# Run the container
docker run --rm -i bgg-mcp-server

Testing

To verify the server is working correctly:

# Make sure the server is built first
npm run build

# Run the test script
node test-direct.js

The test script will:

1. Start the MCP server
2. Test the search-games functionality
3. Test the get-hot-games functionality
4. Display results and any errors

Using with Claude for Desktop

1. Open your Claude for Desktop configuration file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the server configuration for direct Node.js execution:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boardgamegeek": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["--experimental-sqlite", "/path/to/bgg-mcp-server/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

3. Or use Docker (recommended):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boardgamegeek": {
      "command": "bash",
      "args": ["-c", "cd /path/to/bgg-mcp-server && docker build -t bgg-mcp-server . && docker run --rm -i bgg-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

4. Restart Claude for Desktop

Example Questions

Once connected to Claude, you can ask questions like:

• "Find board games similar to Pandemic"
• "What are the top 10 hottest games on BoardGameGeek right now?"
• "Show me the details of Catan"
• "What games are in user 'TomVasel's collection?"
• "What games has user 'dice_tower' played recently?"
• "Find games similar to Catan"
• "Sync my collection from BGG username 'example'"

Data Storage

The server uses SQLite for data persistence. All retrieved game data, user collections, and play history are stored in the data/bgg.sqlite database file. This:

• Reduces API calls to BoardGameGeek
• Improves response times for repeated queries
• Maintains data between server restarts

The database is automatically created if it doesn't exist and will be populated as you use the server.