Think Like a Commoner — MCP Server

An MCP server embedding David Bollier's commons framing from Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons (2nd edition, 2024).

Build for: commons stewards, organizers, and movement strategists. Use it inside Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-compatible client to apply Bollier's framing to a real situation — name an enclosure, find precedent commons, design social protocols, or reframe a market-mind problem.

License

Dual-licensed. Source code: MIT. Embedded book content (catalogs, quotes, glossary): CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (attribution to David Bollier required, non-commercial only). See LICENSE.

Source book: https://thinklikeacommoner.com/second-edition/ — read it free, or order from New Society Publishers.

Tools (12)

Routing: start_analysis, suggest_next_step Diagnostic: classify_situation, find_enclosure_pattern, find_precedent_commons, list_response_strategies Design: assess_ostrom_principles, find_similar_commons, suggest_commoning_protocols Reference: apply_ontoshift, get_glossary_term, find_quote

Use it (remote)

Add to your Claude Desktop / Claude Code MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "think-like-a-commoner": {
      "url": "https://think-like-a-commoner-mcp-production.up.railway.app/mcp",
      "transport": "http"
    }
  }
}

(Update the URL with the actual deploy URL from Railway after Task 12.)

Use it (local)

git clone https://github.com/zhiganov/think-like-a-commoner-mcp.git
cd think-like-a-commoner-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Then add to MCP config:

claude mcp add-json think-like-a-commoner '{"command":"node","args":["<absolute-path>/dist/index.js"],"type":"stdio"}' -s local

Workflows

Strategist (naming an enclosure):

start_analysis(situation: "naming_enclosure") → get scaffold
classify_situation(...) → ground in Bollier's framing
find_enclosure_pattern(...) → match to a named pattern
list_response_strategies(...) → surface commoning counters
find_quote("financialization of nature") → for the writeup

Steward (designing a commons):

start_analysis(situation: "designing_commons") → get scaffold
find_similar_commons(...) → learn from precedent
assess_ostrom_principles(...) → walk the 8-principle rubric
suggest_commoning_protocols(...) → protocol patterns by category

Development

Source: TypeScript ESM, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk, zod. Stack documented in CLAUDE.md.

Catalogs are extracted from the source markdown via npm run extract (requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in .env). Re-runs are idempotent in shape; IDs may drift slightly across runs.

Sibling commons-themed MCPs in development: Plurality (Weyl & Tang), Governable Spaces (Schneider). All under the book-power umbrella.

MCP Servers