FontsLike Developer API & MCP Protocol

FontsLike provides structured typography data for AI agents and software systems. The primary programmatic interface is a stateless Model Context Protocol (MCP) server operating over Streamable HTTP, alongside pre-rendered static JSON endpoints for all directory records.

Quick Connection (MCP)

Connect any MCP-compatible AI assistant to FontsLike:

• Endpoint URL: https://fontslike.com/mcp
• Transport: Streamable HTTP (spec version 2024-11-05)
• Authentication: None required (public read-only directory)
• Rate Limit: 15 requests per 10 seconds per IP address (enforced at Cloudflare edge)

Client Configurations

Claude Code (CLI)

Run in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http fontslike https://fontslike.com/mcp

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fontslike": {
      "url": "https://fontslike.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Cursor IDE

Add to .cursor/mcp.json or Cursor Settings > MCP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fontslike": {
      "url": "https://fontslike.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT / OpenAI Actions

Configure a custom GPT or connector using the OpenAPI specification at https://fontslike.com/openapi.json or Streamable HTTP connector pointing to https://fontslike.com/mcp.

MCP Tools Reference

The FontsLike MCP server exposes 6 focused tools designed for font discovery, licence permissions, similarity lookups, text transformation, and SVG typography rendering.

Licence Notice: A plain-English reading of the licence text; the licence text decides. Licence cards summarise permissions across standard commercial, logo, web, and application use cases.

1. search_fonts

Search open fonts by keyword, category, licence, language script, or style.

• Parameters:
  • query (string, max 80 chars, required): Search query matching font family, slug, or design tags.
  • category (enum, optional): sans-serif, monospace, serif, handwriting, display, other.
  • licence (enum, optional): OFL-1.1, UFL-1.0, Apache-2.0, CC0-1.0, Unlicense.
  • subset (enum, optional): Language subset (e.g. vietnamese, cyrillic, japanese, arabic).
  • style (enum, optional): Design style (e.g. gaming, pixel, horror, handwriting, retro).
  • limit (integer, 1–25, default 10): Maximum number of results to return.

Example Call:

{
  "name": "search_fonts",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "pixel",
    "category": "display",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

2. get_font

Retrieve the complete profile for an open font, including its resolved licence terms and top 6 lookalikes.

• Parameters:
  • slug (string, regex ^[a-z0-9-]{1,80}$, required): Font slug (e.g. montserrat, space-grotesk).

Example Call:

{
  "name": "get_font",
  "arguments": {
    "slug": "space-grotesk"
  }
}

3. find_similar

Find ranked open lookalikes for any target font (including commercial fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, or open fonts).

• Parameters:
  • font (string, max 80 chars, required): Font slug or family name (e.g. arial, helvetica, inter).
  • limit (integer, 1–12, default 6): Number of lookalikes to return.

Example Call:

{
  "name": "find_similar",
  "arguments": {
    "font": "arial",
    "limit": 6
  }
}

4. check_license

Look up what a font's licence allows for one use case against its licence terms. Supports both open fonts and reference system fonts.

• Parameters:
  • font (string, max 80 chars, required): Font slug or family name (e.g. roboto, arial).
  • use (enum, required): One of commercial, logo, web, app, modify, redistribute, sell, credit.

Example Call:

{
  "name": "check_license",
  "arguments": {
    "font": "arial",
    "use": "commercial"
  }
}

5. fancy_text

Convert input text into 23 distinct Unicode character styles (bold, cursive, old English, glitch, bubble, etc.) generated directly from Unicode character maps.

• Parameters:
  • text (string, max 500 chars, required): Plain text string to convert.
  • style (enum, required): One of bold, italic, bold-italic, cursive, bold-script, old-english, bold-fraktur, outline, monospace, sans-bold, sans-italic, small-caps, wide, bubble, negative-bubble, squared, parenthesized, small, subscript, upside-down, strikethrough, underline, glitch.

Example Call:

{
  "name": "fancy_text",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "Cyberpunk 2077",
    "style": "glitch"
  }
}

6. render_text

Generate a self-contained SVG markup string embedding the font's WOFF2 web font URL and rendering custom text. Supported strictly for redistributable open fonts (never reference or commercial fonts).

• Parameters:
  • font (string, regex ^[a-z0-9-]{1,80}$, required): Open font slug (e.g. orbitron, inter).
  • text (string, max 200 chars, required): Text string to render (XML-escaped).
  • size (integer, 8–256, default 48): Font size in pixels.
  • color (string, regex ^#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}$, required): Hex color code for the text (e.g. #ffffff).
  • background (string, regex ^#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}$, required): Hex color code for background rect (e.g. #1a1c23).
  • weight (integer, default 400): Font weight matching font styles.

Example Call:

{
  "name": "render_text",
  "arguments": {
    "font": "space-grotesk",
    "text": "Hello World",
    "size": 48,
    "color": "#ffffff",
    "background": "#14151b",
    "weight": 700
  }
}

Static JSON Endpoints

All directory data is pre-rendered at build time and served through static Cloudflare Worker assets with global CDN caching:

Dual Formats & Crawler Support

Every human-facing page on FontsLike has a corresponding Markdown twin served at /<path>.md and linked in HTTP <link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"> headers.

AI crawlers and machine readers are welcomed and never rate-limited or blocked on static pages. See /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt for index manifests.