ASTGL Knowledge

mcp-astgl-knowledge

An MCP server that lets AI assistants search and cite content from As The Geek Learns — covering MCP servers, local AI, AI automation, and ASTGL project documentation.

When an AI assistant connects to this server, it can search the indexed ASTGL entries (articles, tutorials, comparisons, guides, and project docs). Search results include source URLs back to astgl.ai.

Requirement: the semantic tools (search_articles, get_answer, get_tutorial, compare_topics) embed your query at runtime with a local Ollama running nomic-embed-text (default http://localhost:11434). The metadata tools (find_articles, list_tags, list_topics, get_latest) work without Ollama.

Quick Start

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "astgl-knowledge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-astgl-knowledge"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "astgl-knowledge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-astgl-knowledge"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / Generic MCP Client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "astgl-knowledge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-astgl-knowledge"]
    }
  }
}

With Registration (500 queries/day)

Register via the register tool to get an API key, then add it to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "astgl-knowledge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-astgl-knowledge"],
      "env": {
        "ASTGL_API_KEY": "astgl_your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

search_articles

Search the knowledge base by query. Returns ranked results with relevance scores and source URLs.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	Search query (e.g., "how to build an MCP server")
limit	number	No	Max results, 1-20 (default: 5)
content_type	string	No	Filter by type: article, tutorial, faq, comparison, guide, newsletter, project

get_answer

Get a direct answer to a specific question. Prefers FAQ entries for concise responses.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
question	string	Yes	A specific question (e.g., "What is an MCP server?")
content_type	string	No	Filter by content type

get_tutorial

Get step-by-step instructions from tutorial and guide content.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	What you want to learn (e.g., "setup Ollama on Mac")

compare_topics

Side-by-side comparison of two topics.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
topic_a	string	Yes	First topic
topic_b	string	Yes	Second topic

get_latest

Get the most recently added content.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
limit	number	No	Max results, 1-20 (default: 5)

list_topics

Browse all topics in the knowledge base with content types and section headings.

register

Register your email to unlock 500 queries/day (up from 50).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
email	string	Yes	Your email address

More tools

The server registers 17 tools in total. The others:

Tool	What it does	Main parameters
find_articles	Structured lookup by tag, type, title text and date range (no embeddings)	tag, content_type, title, date_from, date_to
list_tags	Every tag with its article count	—
suggest_ideas	Topic suggestions from query analytics (gaps, low-confidence queries)	days (default 7), limit
add_idea / list_ideas / export_ideas	Idea journal stored alongside the index	title, description, status, priority, source
export_article	One article as a markdown post	url
export_topic_roundup	Roundup post from related articles	topic, limit
export_qa_compilation	FAQ-style markdown from article Q&A pairs	topic, limit
generate_dashboard_data	JSON analytics snapshot (optionally written to data/dashboard.json)	days (default 30), output_file

Content Types

Type	Description
article	Informational content about MCP, local AI, automation
project	ASTGL project documentation
tutorial	Step-by-step how-to guides
comparison	Side-by-side topic analysis
guide	Comprehensive reference material
newsletter	Personal updates and announcements
faq	Primarily Q&A content
concept	Wiki concept pages (only allowlisted pages are public)
entity	Wiki entity pages (only allowlisted pages are public)

Counts change as content is added; call list_topics or list_tags for the current index. draft and synthesis entries exist only in the maintainer database and are removed from the published one. The content_type descriptions in the tool schemas list only the first seven types.

Rate Limits

Tier	Limit	How to Get
Public	50 queries/day	Default (anonymous)
Registered	500 queries/day	Use the register tool with your email

Limits reset at midnight UTC. Rate limit info is included in every response.

Limits and registrations are enforced by the server process itself: usage and registrations are kept in a local SQLite file (data/query-log.db next to the package, or ASTGL_QUERY_LOG_DB), and anonymous clients get a persistent ID in ~/.astgl-client-id. An ASTGL_API_KEY only counts as registered if it exists in that local registrations table.

How It Works

The knowledge base is pre-built from ASTGL articles using semantic embeddings (nomic-embed-text, 768 dimensions). Content is chunked by section and FAQ entry, embedded, and stored in a SQLite database with sqlite-vec for vector similarity search.

Article embeddings are pre-computed and shipped in the npm package, so you never re-index content. Your query is still embedded at runtime through Ollama for the semantic tools (see the requirement above).

The server opens data/knowledge.db when it exists (a maintainer checkout) and otherwise build/knowledge-public.db. The npm package ships only build/knowledge-public.db, which npm run build-public-db produces by physically removing every non-public row (see docs/adr/).

Performance

• Typical response time: 100-500ms (embedding lookup + vector search)
• Embedding results are cached in memory (LRU, 200 entries) — repeated queries are near-instant
• Ollama calls include 10s timeout + automatic retry
• Query logging is async/batched to avoid blocking responses
• Rate limit checks are cached for 5 seconds

For Maintainers

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Jmeg8r/mcp-astgl-knowledge.git
cd mcp-astgl-knowledge
npm install

Scripts

Script	Description
npm run build	Compile TypeScript
npm test	Run the test suite (node:test via tsx)
npm run dev	Run MCP server in dev mode (tsx)
npm start	Run compiled MCP server
npm run ingest	Rebuild knowledge.db from local markdown (requires Ollama)
npm run ingest-projects	Index project docs from astgl-site projects.json
npm run discover	Poll RSS/sitemap for new content
npm run structure	Process discovered content (classify, embed, index)
npm run pipeline	Discover + structure in one step
npm run daily-report	Generate AEO analytics report
npm run alerts	Run content gap alert checks
npm run freshness	Check for stale content and ecosystem version changes
npm run publish-drift	Compare local publishable content against what npm actually serves
npm run citation-test	Manual AI citation testing
npm run related	Generate internal article links via vector similarity
npm run build-public-db	Write build/knowledge-public.db with non-public rows removed (runs in prepack)

Other maintainer scripts (draft ingest and reconcile, rewrite queue, wiki sync, backup pruning, dashboard data, MCPB bundle) are listed in package.json.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
OLLAMA_URL	http://localhost:11434	Ollama endpoint (dev/rebuild only)
EMBED_MODEL	nomic-embed-text	Embedding model
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL	—	Discord webhook for reports/alerts
ASTGL_API_KEY	—	Registered tier API key
ASTGL_ARTICLES_DIR	~/Projects/astgl-site/src/content/answers	Local markdown source
ASTGL_PROJECTS_JSON	~/Projects/astgl-site/src/data/projects.json	Projects data source
ASTGL_QUERY_LOG_DB	data/query-log.db	Query log, rate limits and registrations
ASTGL_CITATION_TEST_DB	data/citation-test.db	Citation test results

Automated Jobs

Job	Schedule	Purpose
Content pipeline	Every 6h	Discover + structure new content
Daily report	8 AM	Query analytics + health metrics (JSON report)
Content alerts	9 AM	Gap detection, zero-citation, competitor scan (JSON report)
Freshness check	10 AM	Stale content + ecosystem version tracking (JSON report)
Draft pipeline	Midnight	Index pre-publication drafts
Wiki sync	00:30	Incremental sync of tagged wiki pages into the index
Draft reconciler	2 AM	Retire draft entries whose source is gone
Citation testing reminder	Mondays 9 AM	Reminder to run citation tests

Schedules are defined in cron/*.json; the scheduled report jobs print JSON that an external scheduler picks up and delivers. Run the report scripts with --discord to post to DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL instead. macOS launchd plists for the pipeline, draft and wiki jobs are in launchd/.

Architecture

flowchart TD
    Client["MCP client<br/>(Claude, Cursor, ...)"] -->|"stdio"| Server["MCP server<br/>src/index.ts (17 tools)"]
    Server --> RL["Rate limit + query log<br/>data/query-log.db"]
    Server --> Search["src/search.ts"]
    Search -->|"embed query"| Ollama["Ollama<br/>nomic-embed-text"]
    Search -->|"sqlite-vec KNN"| KDB[("knowledge.db<br/>or knowledge-public.db")]
    Sources["astgl.ai RSS / sitemap<br/>+ local markdown"] -->|"discover, structure, ingest"| KDB
    KDB -->|"build-public-db"| Pub[("build/knowledge-public.db<br/>(shipped in npm)")]
    Jobs["Report jobs<br/>daily report, alerts, freshness"] -.->|"--discord (manual)"| Discord["Discord webhook"]

A rendered diagram is in docs/diagrams/mcp-astgl-knowledge.architecture.svg (source: docs/diagrams/mcp-astgl-knowledge.architecture.json).

License

MIT