Access Star Wars Data via MCP
An MCP server for the SWAPI Star Wars API - characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, and starships with caching.
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Why it matters
Integrate with the Star Wars API (SWAPI) using an MCP server. Access characters, planets, films, and more with built-in caching and pagination for efficient data retrieval.
Outcomes
What it gets done
Retrieve lists of Star Wars characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, and starships.
Get detailed information for specific Star Wars entities by their ID.
Utilize automatic pagination for seamless data fetching across all available resources.
Manage and clear the internal cache for optimized performance.
Source
Get it from source
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Capabilities
Tools your agent gets
List of Star Wars characters with automatic pagination and optional search
Get detailed information about a specific Star Wars character by ID
List of Star Wars planets with automatic pagination and optional search
Get detailed information about a specific Star Wars planet by ID
List of Star Wars films with automatic pagination and optional search
Get detailed information about a specific Star Wars film by ID
List of Star Wars species with automatic pagination and optional search
Get detailed information about a specific Star Wars species by ID
Overview
Star Wars MCP Server
This MCP server exposes 14 tools for the SWAPI Star Wars API: paginated/searchable listing and get-by-ID detail for six categories, plus cache management tools. Use it when an AI assistant needs to look up Star Wars characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, or starships. Requires Node.js 20+.
What it does
An MCP server for the SWAPI Star Wars API, demonstrating how an MCP server can wrap a REST API with built-in caching and pagination. It exposes 14 tools: get_people, get_planets, get_films, get_species_list, get_vehicles, and get_starships each list their category with automatic pagination and optional search; get_person_by_id, get_planet_by_id, get_film_by_id, get_species_by_id, get_vehicle_by_id, and get_starship_by_id each retrieve one record's full detail by ID; and clear_cache and get_cache_stats manage and report on the server's internal API response cache. Automatic pagination means a single tool call retrieves all pages of a listing rather than requiring the caller to page through results manually, and caching means repeated lookups avoid re-hitting the upstream SWAPI API.
When to use - and when NOT to
Use it when an AI assistant needs to look up Star Wars characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, or starships - listing with search, or fetching one record's full detail by ID. It also serves as a reference example for how to structure an MCP server around a REST API with pagination and caching baked in. It requires Node.js 20 or higher; all data is sourced from the public SWAPI documentation.
Capabilities
The naming follows a get_<category>/get_<category>_by_id shape, but it is not fully regular across all six categories. Planets, films, vehicles, and starships follow the pattern cleanly (get_planets/get_planet_by_id, get_films/get_film_by_id, get_vehicles/get_vehicle_by_id, get_starships/get_starship_by_id). Two categories break it: get_people/get_person_by_id uses an irregular singular ("person," not "people" minus a suffix), and species is named get_species_list rather than get_species since the category name is already plural - both worth checking for when writing code against this server rather than assuming the pattern holds everywhere.
How to install
npx -y @johnpapa/mcp-starwars
A dedicated VS Code MCP JSON configuration format is also documented, listing the server under a servers block with an empty inputs array. Or install via Smithery CLI (npx -y @smithery/cli install @johnpapa/mcp-starwars --client claude), directly into VS Code with code --add-mcp, or from source (clone, npm install, npm run build, then test with the MCP Inspector). A VS Code settings.json entry looks like:
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"starwars": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"], "env": {} }
}
},
"chat.mcp.discovery.enabled": true
Who it's for
Developers who want Star Wars reference data (characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, starships) available conversationally in an AI assistant, or who want a working reference implementation of pagination and caching patterns for wrapping a public REST API as an MCP server. Distributed under the MIT License, with installation badges documented for both VS Code and VS Code Insiders, covering both NPM-based and Docker-based install paths for editor integration.
Source README
MCP Server for the SWAPI Star Wars API. The main goal of the project is to show how an MCP server can be used to interact with APIs.
Note: All data used by this MCP server is fetched from the SWAPI documentation](https://swapi.dev).
🔧 Features
- List Star Wars Characters: Get character data with optional search filters and automatic pagination
- List Planets, Films, Species, Vehicles, and Starships: Access all Star Wars entity collections with search capabilities
- Fetch Entity Details by ID: Get detailed information about specific characters, planets, films, species, vehicles, or starships
- Automatic Pagination: Seamlessly retrieve all pages of data with a single API call
- Built-in Caching: Optimize performance with intelligent API response caching
- Cache Management: Clear cache and view cache statistics to monitor performance
- Tool-based MCP Integration: Register this server with Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools (VS Code, Claude, etc.)
🧰 Tools
1. get_people 🧑🤝🧑
- Description: List Star Wars characters with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Name or partial name to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars character data including name, physical attributes, homeworld, and related entities
2. get_person_by_id 👤
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars character by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the character
- Returns: Complete data for the requested character including name, physical attributes, homeworld, and related entities
3. get_planets 🪐
- Description: List Star Wars planets with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Planet name or partial name to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars planet data including climate, terrain, population, and related entities
4. get_planet_by_id 🌍
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars planet by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the planet
- Returns: Complete data for the requested planet including climate, terrain, population, and related entities
5. get_films 🎬
- Description: List Star Wars films with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Film title or partial title to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars film data including title, episode ID, director, and related entities
6. get_film_by_id 📽️
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars film by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the film
- Returns: Complete data for the requested film including title, episode ID, director, and related entities
7. get_species_list 👽
- Description: List Star Wars species with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Species name or partial name to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars species data including classification, physical attributes, and related entities
8. get_species_by_id 🧬
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars species by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the species
- Returns: Complete data for the requested species including classification, physical attributes, and related entities
9. get_vehicles 🚗
- Description: List Star Wars vehicles with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Vehicle name or partial name to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars vehicle data including model, manufacturer, and specifications
10. get_vehicle_by_id 🚙
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars vehicle by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the vehicle
- Returns: Complete data for the requested vehicle including model, manufacturer, and specifications
11. get_starships 🚀
- Description: List Star Wars starships with automatic pagination and optional search
- Inputs:
page(optional number): The page number to retrieve (defaults to 1)search(optional string): Starship name or partial name to search forfetchAllPages(optional boolean): Whether to automatically fetch all pages of results (defaults to true)
- Returns: Collection of Star Wars starship data including model, manufacturer, and specifications
12. get_starship_by_id 🛸
- Description: Get details about a specific Star Wars starship by ID
- Input:
id(string or number): The unique identifier of the starship
- Returns: Complete data for the requested starship including model, manufacturer, and specifications
13. clear_cache 🧹
- Description: Clear the Star Wars API cache (partially or completely)
- Input:
endpoint(optional string): Specific endpoint to clear from cache. Leave empty to clear all.
- Returns: Confirmation message indicating which cache was cleared
14. get_cache_stats 📊
- Description: Get statistics about the Star Wars API cache usage
- Inputs: None
- Returns: Cache hit/miss statistics, size, and performance metrics
🛠️ Setup
Quick Installation in VS Code
For the quickest installation, click on one of the VS Code installation buttons at the top of this README.
Manual Installation in VS Code
Using the Command Line
You can install the Star Wars MCP server manually using the following commands:
For VS Code Stable:
code --add-mcp '{"name":"starwars","command":"npx","args":["-y","@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"],"env":{}}'
For VS Code Insiders:
code-insiders --add-mcp '{"name":"starwars","command":"npx","args":["-y","@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"],"env":{}}'
Using VS Code Settings
- Open VS Code Settings (File > Preferences > Settings)
- Click on the "Open Settings (JSON)" icon in the top right corner
- Add the following configuration to your settings.json file:
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"starwars": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"],
"env": {}
}
}
},
"chat.mcp.discovery.enabled": true
Installing via Smithery
To install Star Wars MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install @johnpapa/mcp-starwars --client claude
Run the MCP Server Locally with MCP Inspector
If you'd like to run MCP Inspector locally to test the server, follow these steps:
Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/johnpapa/-mcp-starwarsInstall the required dependencies and build the project.
npm install npm run build(Optional) To try out the server using MCP Inspector run the following command:
# Start the MCP Inspector npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.jsVisit the MCP Inspector URL shown in the console in your browser. Change
Argumentstodist/index.jsand selectConnect. SelectList Toolsto see the available tools.
Running the MCP Server hosted in GitHub Copilot with VS Code Insiders
Note: If you already have the MCP server enabled with Claude Desktop, add
chat.mcp.discovery.enabled: truein your VS Code settings and it will discover existing MCP server lists.
If you want to associate the MCP server with a specific repo, create a .vscode/mcp.json file with this content:
{
"inputs": [],
"servers": {
"mcp-starwars": {
"command": "npx",
// "command": "node",
"args": [
"-y",
"@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"
// "_git/mcp-starwars/dist/index.js"
],
"env": {}
}
}
}
If you want to associate the MCP server with all repos, add the following to your VS Code User Settings JSON:
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"mcp-starwars": {
"command": "npx",
// "command": "node",
"args": [
"-y",
"@johnpapa/mcp-starwars"
// "/Users/papa/_git/mcp-starwars/dist/index.js"
// "_git/mcp-starwars/dist/index.js"
],
"env": {}
}
}
}
"chat.mcp.discovery.enabled": true,
Using Tools in GitHub Copilot
Now that the mcp server is discoverable, open GitHub Copilot and select the
Agentmode (notChatorEdits).Select the "refresh" button in the Copilot chat text field to refresh the server list.
Select the "🛠️" button to see all the possible tools, including the ones from this repo.
Put a question in the chat that would naturally invoke one of the tools, for example:
How do I set my VS Code accent colors?Note: If you see "Sorry, the response was filtered by the Responsible AI Service. Please rephrase your prompt and try again.", try running it again or rephrasing the prompt.
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