theo-van-gogh-mcp

MCP server that exposes the theo-van-gogh art management system to Claude (or any MCP-compatible AI).

What it does

Lets an AI assistant manage your art catalogue — find paintings, post to social media, upload to gallery sites, schedule posts, and update metadata — by calling tools over the Model Context Protocol.

Setup

1. Install mcp into the main project's virtualenv

The MCP server runs inside theo-van-gogh's existing virtualenv so it has access to all dependencies.

cd ~/programming/theo-van-gogh
source venv/bin/activate
pip install "mcp[cli]"

2. Configure Claude Desktop

Merge the following into ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Linux) or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "theo-van-gogh": {
      "command": "/home/christopher/programming/theo-van-gogh/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/home/christopher/programming/theo-van-gogh-mcp/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "THEO_VAN_GOGH_PATH": "/home/christopher/programming/theo-van-gogh"
      }
    }
  }
}

See claude_desktop_config.example.json for a copy-pasteable example.

3. Restart Claude Desktop

The server starts automatically when Claude Desktop launches.

Available tools

Tool	Description
get_painting	Full metadata for one painting
find_painting	Fuzzy search by name
list_platforms	All platforms with status
check_login_status	Browser session health
verify_config	Check paths and API keys
generate_skeleton_metadata	Stub metadata for new paintings
update_painting_metadata	Edit title, description, price, etc.
sync_collection_folders	Create missing collection dirs
sync_instagram_folders	Mirror folder structure
post_to_social	Post a painting now
schedule_post	Schedule a future post
run_scheduled_posts	Execute due scheduled posts
upload_to_faso	Browser-upload a painting to FASO
set_dimension_unit	"cm" or "in"
add_list_item	Add to substrates/mediums/etc.

Available resources

URI	Content
tvg://capabilities	Plain-English guide to all tools (AI reads this first)
tvg://paintings	All paintings with upload/post status
tvg://pending	Paintings needing uploads or posts, by platform
tvg://schedule	Upcoming and recent scheduled posts
tvg://settings	Config, paths, credential status

What stays manual

• First browser login for FASO and Cara — use admin option 17 in the main CLI
• Processing new paintings (AI title generation, entering dimensions) — use python main.py process

Support

If you find this useful, a small donation helps keep projects like this going: Donate via PayPal