Search Korean dictionary definitions via API

This MCP server downloads the National Institute of Korean Language's (NIKL) official "dictionary download" JSON dump of the Standard Korean Dictionary (Pyojun Gugeo Daesajeon), normalizes it into a local SQLite database, and serves headword lookups as MCP tools through a Deno-based stdio server. It works without an NIKL Open API key: on first startup it downloads the official dump and builds the SQLite database, and on subsequent runs it reuses the cached ZIP and the already-normalized database instead of re-downloading.

It exposes four tools: search_entries for exact, prefix, or contains-style headword search; get_entry for a detailed lookup by target_code; dictionary_status for checking the local data's state; and refresh_dictionary to re-download the official dump and update the database. Lookups return a configurable set of fields - by default target_code, word, hanja, sup_no, pos, and definition - and a caller can request just the fields it needs, for example only word and definition.

Use it when an assistant needs to look up Korean words in the authoritative Standard Korean Dictionary - definitions, part of speech, Hanja (Chinese-character) forms, or homograph numbering (sup_no) - without needing to register for an NIKL API key. It requires Deno 2.0+ and a first-run download of the official dictionary dump, so it needs outbound internet access at least once; after that it can run from the local cache. It is licensed AGPL-3.0-or-later, and the underlying dictionary data's copyright and usage terms remain governed by NIKL's own policy rather than the project's license.

• Exact, prefix, and contains-style headword search (search_entries)
• Detailed entry lookup by target_code (get_entry)
• Local dictionary data status check (dictionary_status)
• Manual re-download and database refresh (refresh_dictionary)
• Selectable response fields per query, including headword, Hanja form, homograph number, part of speech, and definition

Requires Deno 2.0 or later.

deno install

Run the dev server with deno task dev, prepare only the initial data with deno task init, or force a fresh dump download and rebuild with deno task refresh. Register it with an MCP client by running the published JSR package:

{"mcpServers":{"ko-stdict":{"command":"deno","args":["run","-A","jsr:@hongminhee/ko-stdict-mcp"]}}}

Data is stored by default at ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/ko-stdict-mcp on Linux/macOS, overridable via the KO_STDICT_DATA_DIR environment variable.

Developers building Korean-language tools or assistants - translation aids, language-learning apps, editorial tools - who need authoritative Standard Korean Dictionary lookups without an NIKL API key or a hosted dictionary API.