Are.na
Are.na is a platform for collecting, organizing, and connecting ideas, images, links, and other creative research.
Verdict
Common use cases
- Pull mood board images into design briefs
- Cross-reference research channels during planning
- Archive meeting links into project channels
- Generate channel summaries for client decks
- Suggest connections between scattered references
Integration
- Vendor
- Are.na
- Category
- other
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Tools
- 10
- Composio slug
arena
Tools
- Add To Channels
Add an existing Are.na block or channel to one or more target channels without duplicating the underlying resource.
- Create Channel
Create a user-owned Are.na channel, closed by default, and return its stable numeric ID and generated slug.
- Delete Channeldestructive
Permanently delete one Are.na channel the authenticated user is allowed to destroy. This cannot be undone.
- Get Block
Get the details of one Are.na block by ID, including its subtype, content, source, creator, and metadata.
- Get Channel
Get an Are.na channel by numeric ID or slug, including visibility, counts, owner, and the current user's permissions.
- Get Current User
Return the identity and account details for the authenticated Are.na user.
- Get My Feed
Return one page of the authenticated user's personalized Are.na activity feed, newest first. Call again with next_cursor only when another page is needed.
- List Channel Contents
Return one page of blocks and nested channels from an Are.na channel, with optional sorting and contributor filtering.
- Remove From Channeldestructive
Remove one block or nested channel placement from an Are.na channel. This deletes only the connection; the underlying block or channel remains intact and may still exist in other channels.
- Update Channel
Update selected fields of an Are.na channel the authenticated user can edit. Fields omitted from the request remain unchanged.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. Open your Switchy workspace settings and navigate to the Integrations tab. 2. Click 'Add MCP' and select Are.na from the catalog. 3. In a new browser tab, log into Are.na and visit arena.com/settings/applications to generate a personal access token. 4. Copy the token and paste it into the API Key field in Switchy, then click Connect. 5. Switchy will confirm the connection by fetching your Are.na user profile. 6. Inside any Project, type '@Are.na get my feed' and send — if you see recent activity from your Are.na account, the integration is live. 7. To add a block to a channel, find the channel's slug (the URL fragment after arena.com/) and use '@Are.na add to channels' with the block ID and target slug.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Are.na are scoped to the Project (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Projects have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Summarize Research Channel
@Are.na list the contents of channel 'brand-inspo-q2' sorted by position, then write a summary of the visual themes and note any recurring references or contributors.
Create Project Archive
@Are.na create a new channel called 'Q1 Campaign Assets' and make it closed, then give me the slug so I can start adding blocks to it.
Find Related Channels
@Are.na get the details for channels 'typography-refs' and 'web-design-inspo', then tell me which blocks appear in both and what themes connect them.
Add Links in Bulk
@Are.na I have five article links I want to save — add each one as a new block to my 'reading-list' channel and confirm when done.
Audit Feed Activity
@Are.na get my feed from the past week and list any new channels I've been added to or collaborators who've been active in my boards.
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@arena show me the latest 15 items from my feed and summarize what themes or topics people I follow have been collecting this week
Retrieved 15 recent items from your Are.na feed. This week's collections center around three themes: experimental typography (6 blocks across 3 channels, mostly from @designuser), archival photography of brutalist architecture (4 blocks in 'Concrete Dreams'), and speculative fiction book covers (5 blocks from two contributors). The typography work leans heavily into variable fonts and kinetic web experiments, while the architecture blocks focus on Eastern European housing estates from the 1970s.
This example pairs Are.na's feed retrieval with AI synthesis to surface patterns across disparate collections. Requires read scope on your API key. The feed returns blocks and channels chronologically; the AI interprets content metadata and titles to identify themes. Results depend on your follow graph's recent activity.
@arena create a new channel called 'Q1 Brand Refresh References' and add blocks 8472615, 8401293, and 8456720 to it
Created channel 'Q1 Brand Refresh References' (ID: 3847261, slug: q1-brand-refresh-references-john-d). The channel is set to closed visibility by default. Successfully added three blocks: a color palette screenshot, a Figma prototype link, and a typography specimen PDF. All three blocks now appear in the new channel while remaining in their original locations.
Demonstrates Are.na's non-destructive linking model—blocks exist in multiple channels without duplication. Requires write scope. The generated slug appends your username for uniqueness. You'll need block IDs from prior searches or channel listings; the MCP doesn't auto-discover blocks by description alone.
@arena get the contents of channel 'design-system-audit' sorted by updated date and tell me which blocks haven't been touched in over 90 days
Retrieved 42 blocks from 'design-system-audit' sorted by last update. 11 blocks haven't been modified in over 90 days: 5 are component screenshots from March 2024, 4 are links to deprecated Storybook instances, and 2 are text notes about color token migration. The oldest untouched block is a Figma embed from 87 days ago titled 'Button States v2'. The remaining 31 blocks have activity within the last month.
Showcases combining Are.na's channel listing with date-based filtering logic in the AI layer. The MCP returns block metadata including updated_at timestamps; the AI performs the 90-day calculation. Useful for content audits in research channels. Requires read access to the target channel (public, closed-but-shared, or your own).
Use-case deep-dives
When Are.na beats Notion for client moodboards
A 6-person branding agency runs discovery for three clients at once. Each project needs a living moodboard where designers drop references—screenshots, URLs, competitor sites—and the account lead reviews weekly. Are.na wins here because every asset becomes a reusable block: one designer saves a color palette, another adds it to two different client channels without duplicating storage. The Get Channel and List Channel Contents tools let Switchy pull the latest refs into a standup prompt or client deck script. The threshold: if your team needs inline comments or task assignment on each asset, Are.na's lightweight structure won't cut it—stick with Figma or Miro. But for pure visual research where the same inspiration fuels multiple projects, this MCP turns Are.na into a queryable reference library your AI can actually navigate.
Why editorial teams use Are.na for evergreen sources
A 3-person content team at a SaaS company maintains a channel of competitor blog posts, industry reports, and case studies they reference when drafting thought leadership. Every quarter they prune dead links and tag new themes. The Are.na MCP's Get Block and Add To Channels tools let Switchy scan the library, flag 404s, and suggest which new articles belong in multiple topic channels—all without a human opening the Are.na UI. The trade-off: Are.na has no native tagging or full-text search inside blocks, so if your library tops 500 links, you'll spend more time scrolling than researching. Below that threshold, though, the MCP turns your Are.na channels into a structured knowledge base that an AI can query by theme, recency, or contributor—perfect for a weekly content brief automation.
When this MCP replaces a bookmarks folder
A solo founder building a fintech app saves 20-30 product screenshots and feature ideas every week—competitor flows, UI patterns, onboarding sequences. They used to dump everything into browser bookmarks or a Notion database, but neither surfaced old inspiration when it mattered. With the Are.na MCP, Switchy can pull blocks from multiple channels ("Onboarding Flows", "Pricing Pages") into a single prompt when the founder asks "show me how competitors handle free trials." The Create Channel and Add To Channels tools mean new ideas land in the right buckets automatically. The limit: if you need version history on each block or want to annotate screenshots with design specs, Are.na's simplicity becomes a liability. But for a founder who just needs a visual memory that an AI can query, this MCP makes Are.na the fastest way to turn scattered inspiration into actionable context.
Frequently asked
What does the Are.na MCP let me do in Switchy?
It connects your Are.na research boards to AI conversations. You can pull blocks and channels into prompts, create new channels from chat, add content to existing boards, and query your feed. Think of it as making your visual research library queryable and editable through natural language instead of clicking through the web interface.
Do I need an Are.na premium account to use this MCP?
No. The MCP uses Are.na's API key authentication, which works with free accounts. You generate the key in your Are.na settings under Applications. The key inherits your account permissions, so if you can edit a channel in the web app, the MCP can edit it too.
Can the MCP search across all my Are.na channels at once?
No. The MCP reads one channel at a time by ID or slug, or fetches your personalized feed. There's no full-text search tool. If you need to find a block across hundreds of channels, you're better off using Are.na's web search, then feeding the channel ID to Switchy once you've located it.
How is this different from just copying Are.na links into chat?
Pasting a link makes the AI guess. The MCP fetches structured data: block content, image URLs, source attribution, connection counts, contributor lists. It also writes back, so you can create channels or add blocks mid-conversation without leaving Switchy. You're automating the round-trip to the Are.na interface.
Should everyone on my team connect their own Are.na account?
Only if they manage separate research boards. Are.na is personal by default; one person's API key can't access another's private channels. If you share a team Are.na account, one connection works for everyone. If each person curates their own boards, each needs their own key in Switchy.