Thingy Sign in

The Librarian MCP server

Connect your AI to Thingy

Bring Jamie Thingelstad’s whole archive into Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code. Your AI gets the same tools Thingy uses: it can search, read, count and trace across twenty-five years of writing, and link you to every source it uses. Weekly Thing subscribers sign in with their email; there is no password.

Building with it, or curious how it works? The Librarian MCP reference documents every tool with its parameters and results, the OAuth flow, budgets and protocol conventions, generated from the server’s own declarations.

The card catalog

What your AI can read

Plus the audio editions of the newsletter, the Another Thing podcast with its transcripts, and every Currently entry: what Jamie was reading, watching, playing and building, week by week. It is Jamie’s published writing only; nothing private is in it.

Try these in your AI

Five things to ask

  1. “What did Jamie publish on this day in past years?” The archive’s on this day, across the newsletter, the blog and the podcast, newest year first.

  2. “How has Jamie’s thinking about RSS changed since 2017?” A dated account in Jamie’s own words, from the first mention to the latest.

  3. “Has Jamie ever linked to this?” Paste a URL or name a site: every time it appeared, and what Jamie said about it.

  4. “Show me photos of bike rides along Minnehaha Creek.” Photos found by what they show, linked to the post or issue they appeared in.

  5. “What books was Jamie reading in 2024?” Straight from the Currently section of every issue that year.

MCP prompts

Clients that support MCP prompts also offer ready-made asks: a year in review, a reading path through a theme, and a research brief on a person or product.

Pick your client

Claude (claude.ai or the apps)

  1. Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste:

    MCP URL https://librarian.thingelstad.com/mcp

  2. Claude walks you through sign-in: enter your Weekly Thing email, type the six-digit code from the email (your Mac or iPhone will offer it automatically), and approve access.

  3. If you added the connector before, disconnect and reconnect it once so Claude picks up the current tools.

ChatGPT

  1. Custom MCP connectors need Developer mode (Plus, Pro, Business or Enterprise, on the web): Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → enable Developer mode.

  2. Then add a connector and paste:

    MCP URL https://librarian.thingelstad.com/mcp

  3. ChatGPT walks through the same email and six-digit-code sign-in.

Claude Code

  1. Terminal claude mcp add --transport http librarian https://librarian.thingelstad.com/mcp

  2. Then run /mcp inside Claude Code to sign in.

Any other MCP client

MCP URL https://librarian.thingelstad.com/mcp

  1. The endpoint speaks MCP streamable HTTP with OAuth 2.1 discovery.

  2. Point your client at the URL above and it finds the sign-in flow on its own.

  3. The reference walks through the flow step by step.

Apps that ask for a client ID

Some apps don’t sign up on their own. Instead they show a callback (redirect) URL and ask you for a client ID, an authorization URL and a token URL. Sign in to Thingy, open your profile, and under MCP connections choose Set up an app. Paste the app’s callback URL there, and Thingy gives you every value to copy back: the client ID, the two URLs, the scope (archive:read), and the MCP server URL. Leave the client secret blank and turn PKCE (code challenge) on. A client ID you set up works only for your own account, and deleting it disconnects the app.

Agents in your browser (WebMCP, beta)

beta

While you are signed in on the Thingy chat page, the page also registers its archive tools with your browser’s model context (the emerging WebMCP standard). An agent working in your browser, such as Gemini in Chrome or a desktop MCP client connected through a WebMCP bridge extension, can then search the archive with your session and no connector setup. The tools appear when you sign in and go away when you sign out; they only read, and they see nothing the chat itself cannot.

House rules

Fair use

Each reader can make 500 tool calls a day (1,000 for Supporting Members) and up to 300 an hour. That budget is separate from Thingy’s own chat. A busy research session uses a few dozen calls.