Tattoo Feed

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets an LLM client (e.g. Claude Desktop) browse and curate posts from a hand-picked list of Instagram tattoo artists, via Instagram's Business Discovery API.

You point it at the artists you follow, and from your chat client you can pull a merged feed, discover one post at a time, bookmark the ones you like, and record notes about your taste so a future session remembers them.

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Architecture

A deliberate two-layer split so a future GUI can reuse the logic without a rewrite:

• core (src/tattoo_feed/ excluding server/) — all real logic: domain models, typed errors, JSON-file repositories, the Graph API client, image processing, and the services that orchestrate them. Knows nothing about MCP.
• server (src/tattoo_feed/server/) — a thin FastMCP adapter that exposes core as MCP tools. Holds no business logic.

src/tattoo_feed/
  config.py            # lazy env config (IG_ACCESS_TOKEN, IG_USER_ID)
  models.py            # Pydantic v2 value objects
  errors.py            # typed error hierarchy
  imaging.py           # preview downscale + EXIF strip
  repositories/        # Repository ABC + JSON-file stores (atomic writes)
  graph/client.py      # Business Discovery client
  services/            # FeedService, ArtistService, InspirationService, PreferenceService
  server/app.py        # FastMCP tools + stdio entrypoint

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Setup

Requirements: Python 3.12 and uv.

uv sync                       # create the venv and install pinned deps
cp .env.example .env          # then edit .env with your real credentials

Environment variables

Variable	Meaning
IG_ACCESS_TOKEN	A long-lived Instagram Graph API access token.
IG_USER_ID	The Instagram Business/Creator account id that owns the token.
TATTOO_FEED_DATA_DIR	Optional. Where the JSON stores live (default ./data).

.env is gitignored and must never be committed. Only .env.example (with placeholders) is in the repo.

Getting credentials is a one-time manual step on Meta's side: create a Meta app, connect an Instagram Business/Creator account, and mint a long-lived access token with Business Discovery permission. Both the querying account and the artists you look up must be professional accounts.

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Running

Locally (stdio)

uv run python -m tattoo_feed.server.app

The server speaks the MCP stdio protocol, so you normally don't run it by hand — you register it with an MCP client. For Claude Desktop, add to its config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tattoo-feed": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "python", "-m", "tattoo_feed.server.app"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/tattoo-feed",
      "env": {
        "IG_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-token",
        "IG_USER_ID": "your-business-user-id"
      }
    }
  }
}

In Docker

A dev image (Dockerfile) bundles Python, uv, Node, and the toolchain. Build and open a shell with only this folder mounted to /workspace:

docker build -t tattoo-feed-dev .
./run-loop.sh        # mounts $PWD to /workspace, nothing else on your machine

Inside the container you have the full gate and can run the server exactly as above. The volume mount means anything written under /workspace lands back in this folder on your host.

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The tools (MCP surface)

Tool	What it does
list_artists	List tracked artists.
add_artist(handle)	Validate the handle is a reachable professional account, then track it.
remove_artist(handle)	Stop tracking a handle.
get_feed(limit_per_artist=10)	Merged, newest-first feed. Metadata + permalinks only (no images).
next_inspiration()	One not-yet-seen post, marked seen, with a rendered preview image.
save_to_inspiration(post_id, notes=None)	Bookmark a post into the saved collection.
list_inspiration()	The saved collection, in save order.
remove_from_inspiration(post_id)	Remove a saved item.
reset_seen()	Clear the seen-set so inspiration starts fresh.
record_preference(observation)	Persist a taste note (propose-then-confirm, see below).
get_preference_summary()	All recorded preferences, to reload taste in a fresh session.

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Design decisions

• Two-layer split (core / server). MCP concepts never leak into core; business logic never leaks into server. This is what makes a phase-2 GUI a bolt-on rather than a rewrite.
• JSON-file persistence behind a Repository interface. Simple, inspectable, and swappable. Writes are atomic (temp file + os.replace) so a crash mid-write can never corrupt a store.
• Pydantic v2 frozen models for everything crossing a boundary, so external data is validated once and treated as immutable values thereafter.
• Typed error hierarchy (TattooFeedError and friends). Every external failure maps to a typed error; nothing raises bare exceptions across a boundary, so the client always gets a readable message instead of a stack trace.
• Lazy credentials. The server boots and lists its tools with no network and no real credentials; the token is only read when a tool actually calls Instagram.
• Hermetic tests. All Instagram HTTP is mocked with respx; there are zero live network calls in the test suite. (mypy --strict, ruff, and a 90% coverage floor are enforced.)
• Images only where they earn their context. Only next_inspiration returns a rendered image — the one-at-a-time conversational moment. get_feed stays metadata-only to keep the context window light.

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Limitations (by design)

• No video. Video posts are filtered out entirely at the Graph-client layer and never enter the feed, inspiration, or stores.
• Carousels show the first image only. Multi-image expansion is out of scope.
• Manual token refresh. There is no automatic token refresh. When the token expires, tools fail with a clear TokenExpiredError telling you to mint a new long-lived token and update IG_ACCESS_TOKEN.
• Preview sizing is fixed. Previews are capped at 640px on the long edge, aspect ratio preserved, never upscaled, re-encoded as JPEG quality 85.
• record_preference is propose-then-confirm. The tool persists whatever it is given; the discipline of proposing the observation to you and getting your explicit confirmation before the tool is called lives in the tool's description, so the calling assistant honours it.
• No write access to Instagram. No posting, commenting, or messaging — this is strictly read-and-curate.

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Attribution & copyright

Posts belong to the artists who made them. This tool is for personal discovery and curation, not redistribution:

• Previews are downscaled copies (≤640px, EXIF stripped), not full-resolution downloads.
• Every image and saved item carries the artist's handle and the post's permalink, so attribution travels with the content and you can always open the original on Instagram.
• Respect each artist's rights: don't repost or reuse their work without permission.

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Development

The full gate (must all exit 0):

uv run ruff format --check .
uv run ruff check .
uv run mypy --strict src
uv run pytest -q --cov=src/tattoo_feed --cov-report=term-missing --cov-fail-under=90

License

MIT — see LICENSE.