TMDB (The Movie Database) MCP server

The TMDB MCP Server provides access to The Movie Database (TMDB) API through the Model Context Protocol interface. This server allows AI assistants to search and retrieve movie information, making it easy to integrate film data into AI conversations.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• TMDB API key (available from TMDB)

Installation

Clone and Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rakeshgangwar/tmdb-mcp-server.git
   cd tmdb-mcp-server
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Build the server:

   npm run build
   

Configuration

MCP Settings

Configure the server in your MCP settings file (typically cline_mcp_settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tmdb": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/tmdb-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "TMDB_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Be sure to:

• Replace your-api-key-here with your actual TMDB API key
• Update /path/to/ with the correct path to your installation

Using the MCP Server

Available Tools

search_movies

This tool allows you to search for movies in the TMDB database.

Parameters:

• query (required): Search term for finding movies
• year (optional): Filter results by release year
• page (optional): Specify result page number (default: 1)

Example usage:

{
  "query": "Inception",
  "year": 2010,
  "page": 1
}

This will return movie results matching "Inception" from the year 2010, displaying the first page of results.

Features

The TMDB MCP Server provides:

• Movie search functionality by title, year, and other criteria
• Detailed movie information retrieval
• Seamless integration with any MCP-compatible AI assistant

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "tmdb" '{"command":"node","args":["/path/to/tmdb-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],"env":{"TMDB_API_KEY":"your-api-key-here"},"disabled":false,"autoApprove":[]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "tmdb": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/tmdb-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "TMDB_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
            },
            "disabled": false,
            "autoApprove": []
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "tmdb": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/tmdb-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "TMDB_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
            },
            "disabled": false,
            "autoApprove": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect