What is BGG MCP?

BGG MCP is an API server that interacts with the BoardGameGeek API through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling access to board game data, user collections, profiles, and real-time pricing from multiple retailers via BoardGamePrices.co.uk. It is implemented in Go using the GoGeek library.

How to use BGG MCP?

There are two setup options:

1. Smithery Install (Recommended):

   npx -y @smithery/cli install @kkjdaniel/bgg-mcp --client claude
   

2. Manual Setup:
   • Install Go
   • Build the binary using make build or go build -o build/bgg-mcp
   • Add MCP config in settings.json or claude_desktop_config.json

Usage involves querying BGG MCP with prompts like:

• Searching for games, game details, user collections, or prices
• Example: "Search for Wingspan on BGG", "Show me ZeeGarcia's game collection"

Key features of BGG MCP?

• Search board games and retrieve detailed game data
• Query and filter user collections
• Get the current BGG hotness list
• Retrieve user profile information
• Fetch real-time pricing from multiple retailers
• Generate formatted trade sales posts

Use cases of BGG MCP?

1. Researching board games before purchasing
2. Managing and analyzing personal game collections
3. Finding trending games on BGG
4. Comparing prices across retailers
5. Creating sales/trade posts for collections

FAQ from BGG MCP?

• What data does BGG MCP access?

  BGG MCP accesses board game data, user collections, profiles, and pricing. No private data is handled outside specific user requests.

• Is BGG MCP free?

  Yes! BGG MCP is free and open-source (MIT License).

• Where can I get support?

  Report issues or questions on the GitHub repository.

BGG MCP: BoardGameGeek MCP API Server

BGG MCP provides access to the BoardGameGeek API through the Model Context Protocol, enabling retrieval and filtering of board game data, user collections, and profiles. The server is implemented in Go, using the GoGeek library, which helps ensure robust API interactions.

Price data is provided by BoardGamePrices.co.uk, offering real-time pricing from multiple retailers.

Example

Tools

• Search - Search for board games on BoardGameGeek
• Game Details - Get detailed information about a specific board game
• Collection - Query and filter a user's game collection
• Hotness - Get the current BGG hotness list
• User - Get user profile information
• Price - Get current prices from multiple retailers using BGG IDs

Prompts

• trade-sales-post - Generate a formatted sales post for your BGG 'for trade' collection with discounted market prices

Example Prompts

Here are some example prompts you can use to interact with the BGG MCP tools:

🔍 Search

"Search for Wingspan on BGG"
"How many expansions does Grand Austria Hotel have?"
"Search for Wingspan expansions only"

📊 Game Details

"Get details for Azul"
"Show me information about game ID 224517"
"What's the BGG rating for Gloomhaven?"

📚 Collection

"Show me ZeeGarcia's game collection"
"Show games rated 0+ in kkjdaniel's collection"
"List unplayed games in rahdo's collection"
"Find games for 6 players in kkjdaniel's collection"

🔥 Hotness

"Show me the current BGG hotness list"
"What's trending on BGG?"

👤 User Profile

"Show me details about BGG user rahdo"
"When did user ZeeGarcia join BGG?"

💰 Prices

"Get the best price for Wingspan in GBP"
"Show me the best UK price for Ark Nova"
"Compare prices for: Wingspan & Ark Nova"

Setup

You have two options for setting up, the easiest is to use the integration of Smithery.

A) Installing via Smithery

To install bgg-mcp for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @kkjdaniel/bgg-mcp --client claude

B) Manual Setup

1. Install Go

You will need to have Go installed on your system to build binary. This can be easily downloaded and setup here, or you can use the package manager that you prefer such as Brew.

2. Build

The project includes a Makefile to simplify building and managing the binary.

# Build the application (output goes to build/bgg-mcp)
make build

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

# Both clean and build
make all

Or you can simply build it directly with Go...

go build -o build/bgg-mcp

3. Add MCP Config

In the settings.json (VS Code / Cursor) or claude_desktop_config.json add the following to your list of servers, pointing it to the binary you created earlier, once you load up your AI tool you should see the tools provided by the server connected:

"bgg": {
    "command": "path/to/build/bgg-mcp",
    "args": []
}

More details for configuring Claude can be found here.