Genius MCP Server

Query songs, artists, lyrics annotations, album artwork annotations, song relationships, credits, and editorial knowledge through a clean set of tools and prompts — powered by both the official Genius API and thelyricsgeniusPython library.

The Genius MCP Server exposes the Genius.com knowledge base to any MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, etc.). It lets the AI:

- Searchfor songs and artists by name
- Fetch full song metadata— title, album, release date, lyrics state, and Genius editorial descriptions
- Fetch artist profiles— bio, follower count, verification status
- Browse an artist's discography— sorted by popularity or release date, or as a full album list with tracklists
- Read annotations— community and artist-verified explanations of specific lyric fragments, each tagged with a trust level so the AI knows how much weight to give them
- Read album artwork annotations— community explanations of visual elements, symbolism, and artistic choices written directly on album cover art images
- Explore song relationships— discover what a song samples, interpolates, covers, or remixes, and what later songs sampled it in turn
- Look up song credits— writers, producers, featured artists, and custom performance roles (mixing engineer, recording studio, label)
- Run pre-built analysis promptsthat gather all relevant data in one shot and ask the AI for a deep analysis of a song or artist

Some tools call theofficial Genius API(api.genius.com) using your access token. Others use thelyricsgeniusPython library, which accesses Genius's undocumented public API — these endpoints are not part of the official API contract and may change without notice.

Prompts are pre-built multi-step workflows that gather data from Genius and feed it to the AI in a structured context.

Args:song_title(required),artist_name(optional)

Searches for the song, fetches its full metadata and editorial description, retrieves all annotations (sorted by trust level), and asks the AI for a deep analysis of the song's meaning, themes, and cultural context.

Fetches the artist's full bio, their top 3 most popular songs with metadata and artist-verified annotations (where available), and asks the AI for an overview of the artist's themes, style, and significance.

Copy the example env file and fill in your token:

# Required — your Genius API access token GENIUS_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_token_here # Transport mode: # true → run as a Streamable HTTP server on port 8080 # false → run in stdio mode (for Claude Desktop) STREAMABLE_HTTP=true

The server will start onhttp://127.0.0.1:8080(Streamable HTTP mode) or in stdio mode depending on yourSTREAMABLE_HTTPsetting.

The server runs asgenius-mcp-serveron port 8080. The.envfile is mounted into the container — make sure it exists and contains your token before starting.

stdio mode(e.g. for Claude Desktop via Docker):

SetSTREAMABLE_HTTP=falsein your.env, then run:

docker run --rm -i --env-file .env $(docker build -q .)

claude mcp add genius --transport http http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp

WithSTREAMABLE_HTTP=falsein your.env, add this to yourclaude_desktop_config.json: