Once Claude Code, Codex or another MCP client is connected, you work with the collection by describing what you want. The agent chooses the tools, reads what it needs, and reports back with links to the records it touched.
What an agent can do
| Tools | What they do |
|---|---|
omeka_info |
Describes the site: your role, the rules for new resources, sites, item sets, templates and vocabularies. Agents usually start here. |
search_vocabulary, get_resource_template |
Find the right property terms, and the fields, guidance and required values of a resource template. |
search_resources, get_resource |
Search items, item sets and media, and read full records. get_resource can attach an image so the agent can look at it. |
create_items, create_item_set |
Create records, optionally from a template, in item sets and sites, with media fetched from web addresses. |
update_resources |
Set, add, remove or clear values on many records at once; change visibility, template, class, item sets and sites, and the alt text of images. Supports a dry run. |
add_media, request_upload |
Attach media from web addresses (files, IIIF, YouTube, oEmbed, HTML) or from files on your computer. |
delete_resources |
Delete records. Only available when an administrator allows it. |
get_site, get_page, list_themes, get_theme_settings |
Read a site's pages, navigation and settings, the installed themes, and every setting of a site's theme. |
describe_block_layouts |
List the blocks pages are built from (including those from modules such as BlockSuite and Blog) and their settings. |
create_site, update_site |
Create sites, change their title, theme, homepage, settings and featured item sets, and add the items that match a search. |
create_page, update_page, update_navigation |
Build pages from blocks, with your theme's templates, and arrange the menu. |
update_theme_settings |
Change colors, fonts, header, footer and other theme settings, and the blocks on item pages. Supports a dry run. |
list_assets, request_asset_upload |
Find and upload the images themes, pages and posts use: logos, banners, featured images. |
delete_page |
Delete a page. Only available when an administrator allows it. |
blog_* |
With the Blog module: read, write, schedule and categorize posts. |
The agent works as you: it sees and changes only what your Omeka account can. If you gave it read-only access when you signed in, or your role cannot create items, the editing tools are not offered at all.
Describe the work
Say what result you want and which records it applies to. Some examples:
- "Summarize this collection: item sets, resource templates, and roughly what kinds of items it holds."
- "Find items in the Smith Family Papers set that have no dcterms:date, and list them with their titles."
- "Create an item for each scan in ./letters using the Correspondence template. Take the metadata from inventory.xlsx, keep the items private, and attach each scan."
- "Look at every image in item set 37 and write alt text for each one. Show me a dry run before saving."
- "Change the dates in item set 12 to the YYYY-MM-DD format. Preview the changes first."
- "Create a site for the Steam Era item set with the Vitrine theme in our brand colors, a home page with a hero image and the newest items, and an About page in the menu."
- "Draft a blog post announcing the new exhibit, in the News category, for the public site."
Naming a resource template helps: the agent reads its fields and required values before creating records, so new items follow your cataloguing rules.
Preview before large edits
update_resources can run as a dry run, which returns the before and after values of every record without saving anything. Ask for one before edits that touch many records, check the result, then tell the agent to go ahead.
Edits only touch the properties they name. Replacing the subjects of an item, for example, leaves its title, dates and other values as they were.
Build and style sites
An agent builds a site the way you would in the admin: it creates the site, adds pages made of blocks, arranges the navigation and fills in the theme settings. Before it rewrites a page or the menu it reads the current version, because update_page blocks and update_navigation replace the whole list. Ask for a dry run of theme setting changes if you want to see them first.
Themes themselves are installed on the server by an administrator; an agent can choose among the installed ones and configure them. Images for logos, banners and featured images are uploaded as assets (request_asset_upload), not as item media.
Upload files from your computer
A coding agent attaches local files in two steps:
- It asks the site for a one-time upload address for an item (
request_upload). - It sends each file to that address with
curl, for examplecurl -F "file=@scan-001.tif" "<upload address>".
Each file becomes a media on the item, and the agent can then describe it with update_resources. Your coding agent asks before running curl; approve it. Upload addresses:
- work for one hour,
- accept the number of files the agent asked for,
- take files up to the size limit of your server's PHP settings, of a type your site accepts (see Admin > Settings > Security).
Chat apps such as Claude and ChatGPT cannot read files on your computer. They can still add media from web addresses.
Review what the agent did
- New items, item sets and media are private unless the site is set up otherwise, or you asked for them to be public. Staff can review them before publishing.
- An administrator can choose an intake item set that every new item is added to, so new records are easy to find.
- Every change is made under your name. With the Audit Trail and Resource Versioning modules installed, each change is logged and can be rolled back.
Keep access safe
- Give read-only access when you only need searching and reading: untick Create and edit when you sign in.
- An agent that reads untrusted text, such as contributed descriptions or OCR, can be misled by instructions hidden in it. Review its edits, and use dry runs.
- Disconnect agents you no longer use on Admin > MCP connections, or delete their API keys on your user page.