LibraLM Reader

An MCP App for reading EPUBs, PDFs, and RSS feeds directly inside Claude Desktop. Point it to your books folder, subscribe to your favorite feeds, and enjoy a beautiful reading experience with AI-powered assistance.

Features

• Library View - Browse your book collection with cover images in a clean grid
• EPUB & PDF Support - Read both formats with full navigation
• RSS Reader - Subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds and read articles without leaving Claude
• Highlights & Notes - Annotate as you read, with color-coded highlights
• Reading Position - Automatically remembers where you left off
• Claude Integration - Ask Claude about what you're reading: summaries, explanations, questions

Feature Gallery

| EPUB Reading | PDF Reading | Highlighting | |:---:|:---:|:---:| | | | | | Beautiful EPUB rendering | Full PDF support with page navigation | Select text and add color-coded highlights |

| Notes | Export to Markdown | Library Research | |:---:|:---:|:---:| | | | | | Add notes to any passage | Export your annotations | Ask Claude questions across your entire library |

| RSS Feed List | RSS Article Reading | |:---:|:---:| | | | | Subscribe and browse your favorite feeds | Read articles with Claude assistance |

See It In Action

Installation (Claude Desktop)

Add LibraLM Reader to your Claude Desktop configuration:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "libralm-reader": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "libralm-reader", "--stdio"],
      "env": {
        "BOOK_PATH": "/path/to/your/books"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/your/books with the directory containing your EPUB and PDF files.

Then restart Claude Desktop. The view_library tool will be available.

Usage

1. Open your library: Ask Claude to "show my library" or "open LibraLM Reader"
2. Browse books: Click a book cover to start reading
3. Navigate: Use arrow keys or click page edges to turn pages
4. Highlight text: Select text and choose a highlight color
5. Add notes: Click the notes icon to add annotations
6. Ask Claude: "What am I reading?" or "Summarize this chapter"

Sample Prompts

Once you have LibraLM Reader installed, try these prompts with Claude:

Getting Started

• "Open my library in the libralm-reader app"
• "Show me my book collection"
• "What books do I have?"

Understanding What You're Reading

• "Summarize what I'm currently reading"
• "What are the main themes of this book?"
• "Explain this concept to me like I'm 5"
• "What's the author's main argument in this chapter?"

Deep Analysis

• "Create a character map showing relationships between all the characters"
• "What are the key takeaways from each chapter?"
• "Compare the ideas in this book to [another book in my library]"
• "Find contradictions or tensions in the author's arguments"

Personal Application

• "How can I apply this framework to my own situation at work?"
• "Based on what I've highlighted, what seems to resonate with me most?"
• "Create an action plan based on the advice in this book"
• "What questions should I be asking myself after reading this?"

Cross-Library Insights

• "What common themes appear across my business books?"
• "Which of my books discuss [topic]?"
• "Create a reading order for my books on [subject] from beginner to advanced"

Creative Exploration

• "Write a dialogue between the authors of [Book A] and [Book B] debating their ideas"
• "What would [author] think about [current event]?"
• "Generate discussion questions for my book club"
• "Create flashcards from my highlights"

RSS Feeds

• "Show me my RSS feeds"
• "Subscribe to https://example.com/feed.xml"
• "What's new in my feeds?"
• "Summarize this article"
• "Search my feeds for articles about [topic]"

Configuration

| Environment Variable | Default | Description | |---------------------|---------|-------------| | BOOK_PATH | /path/to/your_books | Directory containing your EPUB/PDF files | | DATA_PATH | ~/.libralm | Where to store library data and annotations | | PORT | 3001 | HTTP server port (for development) |

How It Works

LibraLM Reader is an MCP App - a special type of MCP server that also renders a UI. When you call the view_library tool, Claude Desktop displays the reader interface in an embedded panel.

Architecture

Claude Desktop
    │
    ├── MCP App iframe (React UI)
    │       ├── Library grid with covers
    │       ├── EPUB reader (react-reader)
    │       └── PDF viewer
    │
    └── callServerTool() ←→ LibraLM MCP Server
                                 ├── EPUB/PDF parsing
                                 ├── Annotation storage (SQLite)
                                 └── Reading context sync

MCP Tools

Book Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | view_library | Opens the library UI | | get_current_context | Gets current reading position and visible text | | search_highlights | Searches through your highlights | | search_notes | Searches through your notes |

RSS Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_subscriptions | Lists all subscribed RSS feeds | | get_rss_context | Gets the article currently being read | | search_rss_articles | Searches across all RSS articles | | get_saved_articles | Gets starred/saved articles |

Data Storage

LibraLM stores data in ~/.libralm/:

~/.libralm/
├── library.json      # Book catalog and metadata
├── session.json      # Reading positions
└── annotations.db    # SQLite database for highlights and notes

Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/libralm-ai/libralm-reader
cd libralm-reader

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build everything
npm run build

# Run in HTTP mode (for testing with basic-host)
BOOK_PATH=/path/to/your_books npm run serve

# Development watch mode
npm run dev

Local Development with Claude Desktop

To test local changes in Claude Desktop, use bootstrap.ts with tsx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "libralm-reader": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--silent", "tsx", "/path/to/libralm-reader/src/bootstrap.ts", "--stdio"],
      "env": {
        "BOOK_PATH": "/path/to/your/books"
      }
    }
  }
}

This runs TypeScript directly without needing to rebuild after each change.

Testing with basic-host

# Terminal 1: Run LibraLM
BOOK_PATH=/path/to/your_books npm run serve

# Terminal 2: Clone and run basic-host
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps.git /tmp/mcp-ext-apps
cd /tmp/mcp-ext-apps/examples/basic-host
npm install
SERVERS='["http://localhost:3001/mcp"]' npm run start
# Open http://localhost:8080

Troubleshooting

Books not showing up?

• Verify BOOK_PATH points to a directory containing .epub or .pdf files
• Restart Claude Desktop after changing the configuration

Check the logs:

• macOS: ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-libralm-reader.log
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp-server-libralm-reader.log

License

Apache 2.0

Credits

Built with:

• MCP Apps SDK - UI rendering in Claude Desktop
• react-reader - EPUB rendering (epub.js wrapper)
• PDF.js - PDF rendering
• epub2 - EPUB parsing
• rss-parser - RSS/Atom feed parsing
• Turndown - HTML to Markdown conversion