MCP server for searching for boardgames

Introduction

This is a small experiment to create an MCP server that can search for
boardgames from BGG (BoardGameGeek). Written in Java, using Spring Boot and Spring AI.

Usage

Claude Desktop

Open the claude_desktop_config.json in your /Users/<YOUR_USERNAME>/Library/Application Support/Claude and add the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boardgame-mcp": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/absolute/path/to/the/jar/boardgame-stdio-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and the tool should be available.

IntelliJ IDEA - AI Chat

In IntelliJ IDEAS AI Chat you type / and select the Add Command... option. Then you can import the settings from Calude Desktop or follow the detailed instructions from the AI Assistant documentation page. If succesful, you should see the getBoardGamesWithName command in the list of commands.

Acknowledgements

• The code uses this BGG Client.
• Other tools and clients are listed in the Geek Tools guild
• BGG (BoardGameGeek) provides the data through their API

Claude Desktop Troubleshooting

If you are using SDKMan on MacOS, the Java runtime might not be setup in a way that Claude Desktop can use. If you see this error in the Claude Desktop logs for your MCP server:

The operation couldn’t be completed. Unable to locate a Java Runtime.

Then you need to follow the instructions on this page: https://cuizhanming.com/claude-java-mcp-server/