Source Library MCP Server

Search, read, and cite 1,200+ rare historical texts from the terminal or via MCP. 7 research tools, CLI + MCP server, no API key needed.

Quick Start

Claude Code

claude mcp add source-library -- npx -y @source-library/mcp-server

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "source-library": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@source-library/mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

CLI

# Install globally
npm install -g @source-library/mcp-server

# Or run directly
npx @source-library/mcp-server search "philosopher's stone"

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Embassy-of-the-Free-Mind/sourcelibrary-v2.git
cd sourcelibrary-v2/mcp-server
npm install && npm run build
npm start

7 Tools

Search & Discovery

search_library

Full-text search across books and page content. Returns matching books and pages with citation URLs.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | query | string | Yes | Search query | | language | string | No | Filter: Latin, German, Greek, Sanskrit, etc. | | year_from | number | No | Publication year start | | year_to | number | No | Publication year end | | has_doi | boolean | No | Only books with DOIs | | has_translation | boolean | No | Only translated books | | sort | string | No | relevance, date_asc, date_desc, title | | limit | number | No | Max results (default 10, max 100) |

search_translations

Search inside translated text across the entire library. Find what historical authors wrote about any topic. Returns passage snippets with page numbers, book info, and citation URLs.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | query | string | Yes | Search inside page text | | language | string | No | Filter by book's original language | | year_from | number | No | Publication year start | | year_to | number | No | Publication year end | | book_id | string | No | Search within a specific book only | | limit | number | No | Max results (default 20, max 50) |

search_within_book

Search inside a specific book's pages. Returns matching pages with snippets and citation URLs.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | book_id | string | Yes | The book ID to search within | | query | string | Yes | Search query |

list_books

Browse the collection with filters. Returns title, author, language, year, and translation progress.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | search | string | No | Filter by title/author (diacritic-insensitive) | | language | string | No | Filter by language | | category | string | No | Filter by category | | sort | string | No | recent-translation, recent, title-asc, title-desc | | limit | number | No | Max results (default 100, max 200) |

Reading

get_book

Detailed book metadata: summary, index stats, chapters, edition info, DOI.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | book_id | string | Yes | Book ID |

get_book_text

Read a book. Returns 50+ pages of text in one call, each with a citation URL. OCR, translation, or both.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | book_id | string | Yes | Book ID | | content | string | No | ocr, translation, or both (default) | | from | number | No | Start page (inclusive) | | to | number | No | End page (inclusive) | | format | string | No | json (structured) or plain (concatenated text) |

Gallery

search_images

Search 50,000+ historical illustrations, emblems, engravings, and diagrams.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | query | string | No | Text search across descriptions | | type | string | No | woodcut, engraving, emblem, diagram, etc. | | subject | string | No | Subject (alchemy, astronomy, anatomy) | | figure | string | No | Depicted figure (Mercury, philosopher, king) | | symbol | string | No | Symbol (ouroboros, caduceus, sun) | | year_from | number | No | Publication year start | | year_to | number | No | Publication year end | | book_id | string | No | Only images from a specific book | | min_quality | number | No | Min quality score 0-1 (default 0.5) | | limit | number | No | Max results (default 20, max 50) |

CLI

The same 7 tools are available as a standalone CLI with colored terminal output.

# Search the collection
source-library search "Paracelsus" --language=German

# Search inside translations
source-library translations "harmony of the spheres"

# Read a book
source-library text 694f49d3... --from=1 --to=50

# Book details
source-library book 694f49d3...

# Browse the gallery
source-library images --subject=alchemy --type=emblem

# JSON output for piping
source-library search "alchemy" --json | jq .results

Example Research Prompts

"Search for references to 'prima materia' across the collection. Which authors discuss it, and how do their treatments differ?"

"Read the full translation of Fludd's History of Both Worlds, pages 1-50. Summarize the cosmological framework."

"Find all alchemical emblems depicting the ouroboros. What texts are they from?"

"What does Copernicus say about the Sun's centrality in De Revolutionibus? Find the key passages with citation URLs."

Citation URLs

Every page returned by the tools includes a citation URL:

https://sourcelibrary.org/book/fludd-utriusque?page=57

Published editions include DOIs minted via Zenodo.

Development

npm run dev    # Run with hot reload (tsx)
npm run build  # Compile TypeScript
npm start      # Run compiled version
npm run cli    # Run CLI in dev mode

License

MIT

Links

• Website: sourcelibrary.org
• Developers: sourcelibrary.org/developers
• GitHub: Embassy-of-the-Free-Mind/sourcelibrary-v2