cameronrye/gopher-mcp

A modern, cross-platform Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to
browse and interact with both Gopher protocol and
Gemini protocol resources safely and efficiently.
Overview
The Gopher & Gemini MCP Server bridges vintage and modern alternative internet protocols with AI assistants, allowing LLMs like
Claude to explore the unique content and communities that thrive on both Gopherspace and Geminispace. Built with FastMCP and
modern Python practices, it provides secure, efficient gateways to these distinctive internet protocols.
**Key Benefits:**
- **Discover alternative internet content** - Access unique resources on both Gopher and Gemini protocols
- **Safe exploration** - Built-in security safeguards, TLS encryption, and content filtering
- **Modern implementation** - Uses FastMCP framework with async/await patterns
- **Developer-friendly** - Comprehensive testing, type hints, and documentation
- **Advanced security** - TOFU certificate validation and client certificate support for Gemini
Features
- **Dual Protocol Support**: gopher_fetch and gemini_fetch tools for comprehensive protocol coverage
- **Comprehensive Gopher Support**: Every standard RFC 1436 item type — menus
(1) and Index-Search servers (7) as structured menus, text (0), HTML
(h), info (i) and error (3) lines as text, the fourteen binary types as
metadata only, and the three interactive ones (2, 8, T) refused without
opening a connection. The one standard type with no category of its own is +
(redundant server), which names an alternate host for the preceding item
rather than content to render; it takes the unknown-type path below. An
unknown type is read as text, best-effort, and an
hURL URL: selector is followed to the destination the server
actually stated
- **Full Gemini Implementation**: Native gemtext parsing, TLS security, and status code handling
- **Advanced Security**: TOFU certificate validation with dedicated inspection and recovery tools, scoped client certificates, and secure TLS connections
- **Safety First**: Built-in timeouts, size limits, input sanitization, SSRF protection, per-host rate limiting, and host allowlists
- **LLM-Optimized**: Returns structured JSON responses designed for AI consumption
- **Cross-Platform**: Works seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux
- **Modern Development**: Full type checking, linting, testing, and CI/CD pipeline
- **High Performance**: Async/await patterns with intelligent caching — and cached results say so, with a per-request refresh bypass
- **Continuable Reads**: A menu or page cut at the render limit reports where it stops, so offset reads the rest instead of leaving a partial view
Protocols in scope
Gopher (RFC 1436, including the de-facto item types in common use) and Gemini,
both read-only. That is the whole surface, and the neighbouring protocols are
deliberately out of scope rather than merely unbuilt:
- **Titan** and **Misfin** are write protocols — upload and mail. A tool an LLM
drives should not be able to publish to someone's capsule or send mail as
them, and adding either would make every safeguard here (robots, rate limits,
allowlists) protect a much smaller share of what the tool can do.
- **Spartan** and **Nex** are separate protocols with their own parsers and
their own failure modes, serving a small fraction of the hosts these two do.
They would double the security-relevant surface for a rounding error in reach.
- **Gopher+** is not implemented. The : item type is recognised because it
appears in ordinary menus, but no Gopher+ attribute or metadata request is
ever sent.
If you need one of these, an MCP server that does it well is a better answer
than a flag on this one.
Documentation
Complete documentation is available at **cameronrye.github.io/gopher-mcp**
- Installation Guide
- Configuration Guide
- API Reference
- AI Assistant Guide
- Migration Guide and
Changelog — what changed,
and what an upgrade asks of you
Quick Start
Prerequisites
- **Python 3.11+** - Download here
- **uv package manager** - Install uv
Installation
Option 1: Zero-install with uvx (Recommended)
No clone, no checkout — uv fetches and runs the
published package on demand:
Option 2: PyPI Installation
Option 3: Development Installation
Option 4: Docker
Tagged releases publish a slim, non-root image to
ghcr.io/cameronrye/gopher-mcp, tagged with the release version plus :latest
for stable (non-pre-release) tags:
To run a modified tree, the repository ships the Dockerfile the published