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OpenFormatDB

Official registry Other

Identify a file, find open tools for its format, convert it locally with WebAssembly.

Source code Website Documentation

Install

Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).

NPM package @openformatdb/mcp
Claude Code 
claude mcp add openformatdb -- npx -y @openformatdb/mcp@0.3.0
JSON configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) 
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openformatdb": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@openformatdb/mcp@0.3.0"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Documentation

From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.

OpenFormatDB

An open directory of file formats: how to recognise each one, which open tools read, write and convert it, how far its structure is documented or reverse engineered, and what a conversion loses — so that nobody, human or AI agent, redoes work that already exists.

  • Humans: browse the directory and format pages, identify a file and find a conversion on openformatdb.org (site/).
  • Agents: query it through the MCP server (packages/mcp) before opening, converting or reverse engineering a file: identify_file, lookup_format, search_formats, find_conversion, claim_format, publish_findings.
  • Existing sources (PRONOM, Wikidata, Archive Team's File Formats Wiki, Library of Congress FDD, Kaitai Struct, MIME databases, converter format lists…) are aggregated by importers (packages/importers; PRONOM, Wikidata, the File Formats Wiki, Kaitai Struct and converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice) today), with a link back to each source.

Sister project of OpenDeviceDB.

See SPEC.md for the design and POLICY.md for what we accept. The record format is schema/format.schema.json.

npm install
npm test                  # unit tests of every package
npm run validate          # check every record against schema/format.schema.json
npm run import -- all     # refresh data/imported/ snapshots (PRONOM_DIR, WIKIDATA_DIR, FFW_DIR, KAITAI_DIR: local copies)
npm run mcp               # MCP server on stdio
npm run build             # static site and JSON API in site/dist (npm run dev: localhost)

Code: AGPL-3.0-or-later (see LICENSE). Data: CC BY-SA 4.0 (see LICENSE-DATA.md).

Frequently asked questions

What is OpenFormatDB?

Identify a file, find open tools for its format, convert it locally with WebAssembly.

How do I install OpenFormatDB?

It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add openformatdb -- npx -y @openformatdb/mcp@0.3.0. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.

Does OpenFormatDB need an API key?

Its registry entry lists no required key or secret. Some features may still need an account with the service it connects to.

Is OpenFormatDB open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license.

Who maintains OpenFormatDB?

It is published by openformatdb. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.