MCP server · Research

Gramps Web MCP server

Lets your AI search, explore and edit your Gramps Web family tree records for you.

This is a helper that connects your AI assistant to Gramps Web, the free open-source program people use to build family trees. Once it is set up, you can ask your AI questions about your tree or ask it to make changes, and it will do the clicking for you. It is handy for anyone who keeps a genealogy tree in Gramps Web and wants to work faster.

What is an MCP server? The 30-second version

On its own, your AI can only chat. An MCP server is a small helper program that gives your AI a new skill or a connection to an app. This one connects your AI to your Gramps Web family tree, so it can look up people, follow family lines, and make edits when you ask. You keep using Gramps Web as usual; this just adds an AI helper on top.

What this MCP server does

You ask your AI something about your family tree, like who the parents of a certain person are. The AI sends that request to this helper program. The helper talks to your Gramps Web server using your login, finds the records, and sends the answer back. Your AI then shows it to you in the chat, as a list, a summary or a family line. If you ask it to change something, it can also add or update records in your tree.

What you can do with it

Search your tree for a person by name
List someone's ancestors or descendants
Show how two people are related
Build a timeline of events for a person or family
Add a new person, family, event or note
Link an existing note, source or citation to a record
Read a media file or a preview of a document scan

Try asking your AI

“Find everyone in my tree with the surname Kowalski”
“Who were the parents of Maria Schmidt and when were they born?”
“Show me a timeline of all events for my grandfather”
“Add a note to John Smith saying he was a blacksmith”

What it gives back to you

You get answers in the chat: lists of people, short summaries, family lines, timelines or details of a single record. When it changes something, it tells you what it added or updated. If you ask for a media preview, you may see a small image of the document in the chat. Everything stays readable, no technical output.

Before you start

What you need

A running Gramps Web instance you can log into
Your Gramps Web username and password, or a refresh token
The tree ID (a code that identifies your tree on that server)
For Claude Desktop: the ready-made bundle from the releases page, no extra software needed

Good to know

It can create, change and delete records in your family tree, so keep read-only mode on until you are comfortable, and use version 2.3.1 or later because older versions could drop data during edits.

Install it with your AI

Add Gramps Web MCP server to your AI, no technical skills needed

You don't install anything by hand. You copy one prompt, paste it into an AI that can work on your computer, and it checks, installs and connects the server for you, asking you when it needs something.

Sign in to get the install prompt

Members get a ready-made prompt that lets the Claude desktop app check Gramps Web MCP server, install it and connect it for them, step by step. You don't need any technical skills: you copy, paste and answer a few questions. Your connected AI can also find and install any of the 4,609 MCP servers here for you.