PrimoMCP

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that wraps the Ex Libris Primo Search API, enabling LLMs to search library catalogs.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• npm
• Docker (for containerized deployment)
• Kubernetes cluster (for K8s deployment)
• Ex Libris Primo API key

Local Development

npm install
npm run build
PRIMO_API_KEY=your-key PRIMO_VID=your-vid PRIMO_TAB=your-tab PRIMO_SCOPE=your-scope npm start

The server starts on port 3000 (configurable via PORT).

Health Checks

• GET /healthz — liveness probe
• GET /readyz — readiness probe

MCP Endpoint

• POST /mcp — stateless Streamable HTTP transport (one request per MCP session)

Docker

docker build -t primomcp .
docker run -e PRIMO_API_KEY=your-key \
-e PRIMO_VID=your-vid \
-e PRIMO_TAB=your-tab \
-e PRIMO_SCOPE=your-scope \
-p 3000:3000 primomcp

Kubernetes Deployment

The manifests in k8s/ are managed with kustomize and deploy to the vtlib namespace (namespace, image, and ingress host are set in the committed manifests). Per-institution config and all secrets are kept out of version control: they live in .env and are rendered into gitignored kustomize generator inputs (k8s/config.env, k8s/secret.env, k8s/dockerconfigjson).

1. Copy .env.sample to .env and fill in your values:

cp .env.sample .env
# PRIMO_API_KEY, PRIMO_VID/TAB/SCOPE, CONTAINER_REGISTRY, REGISTRY_* (deploy token)

2. Build and push the Docker image:

./scripts/build.sh # builds and pushes $CONTAINER_REGISTRY/primomcp:latest

3. Render the gitignored kustomize inputs from .env:

./scripts/gen-kustomize-inputs.sh

4. Deploy with kustomize:

kubectl --kubeconfig endeavour.yaml apply -k k8s

Steps 3–4 are also wrapped by ./scripts/deploy.sh, which renders the inputs, applies k8s/ against endeavour.yaml, and waits for the rollout. Re-run gen-kustomize-inputs.sh whenever .env changes; otherwise kubectl apply -k k8s is self-contained.

MCP Tool: primo_search

Search a library catalog via the Primo Search API.

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	One of query or advancedQuery required	Simple keyword search
advancedQuery	string	One of query or advancedQuery required	Raw Primo q format (e.g., title,contains,machine learning)
limit	integer	No	Max results, 1-50 (default 10)
offset	integer	No	Pagination offset, 0-5000 (default 0)
sort	string	No	Sort order: rank, title, author, date, date_d, date_a
qInclude	string	No	Include facet filter
qExclude	string	No	Exclude facet filter
lang	string	No	Language code

Example

Simple search:

{ "query": "machine learning" }

Advanced search:

{ "advancedQuery": "title,contains,machine learning,AND;sub,contains,neural networks", "limit": 5 }

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
PRIMO_API_KEY	Yes	—	Ex Libris API key
PRIMO_BASE_URL	No	https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com	Primo API base URL
PRIMO_VID	Yes	—	View ID
PRIMO_TAB	Yes	—	Tab name
PRIMO_SCOPE	Yes	—	Scope name
PRIMO_INST	No	—	Institution code (on-premises only)
PORT	No	3000	Server listen port