Source Library MCP Server

Source Library MCP Server

Search, read, and cite 22,000+ rare pre-modern texts (alchemy, Hermetica, Kabbalah, theology, early science) with AI-generated English translations. 11 tools (full-text + semantic search, reading, exact quoting, image search, duplicate detection, feedback). 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

11 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_concept

Semantic passage search using Gemini embeddings. Finds conceptually related passages even when the modern term won't literally appear — e.g. "distributed cognition" maps to passages about active intellect, art of memory, wax-tablet metaphors. Prefer search_translations for literal phrases; use search_concept when the concept matters more than the wording.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	Concept or natural-language description
language	string	No	Filter by original language (set explicitly to surface non-Latin/German texts)
year_from	number	No	Publication year start
year_to	number	No	Publication year end
limit	number	No	Max passages (default 15, 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. Prefer chapter for chapter-at-a-time reading; falls back to from/to page ranges. Each response includes a truncated flag with a truncation_note giving the next from/to values when content was cut by the page-budget limit — agents must check truncated rather than infer end-of-book from pages_returned.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
book_id	string	Yes	Book ID
chapter	number	No	Chapter index (0-based); preferred over from/to
part	number	No	Part number (1-based) for chapters split across parts
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)
include_metadata	boolean	No	Include page-level metadata (model, language, etc.)

get_quote

Get the exact translated text of a single page for quoting. Returns the full translation, original OCR, and a formatted citation. Always use this before putting text in quotation marks — never paraphrase from memory.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
book_id	string	Yes	Book ID or slug
page	number	Yes	Page number to quote from

Gallery

search_images

Search the visual collection: 50,000+ illustrations extracted from book pages PLUS 23,000+ standalone artworks (paintings, frescoes, prints, sculptures from Met, Rijksmuseum, Wikimedia, NGA). Each result has a source field: gallery (book illustration) or artwork (standalone work).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	No	Text search across descriptions, subjects, figures, artists
source	string	No	all (default), gallery, or artworks
type	string	No	woodcut, engraving, emblem, diagram, painting, fresco, 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 or artwork id
min_quality	number	No	Min gallery quality score 0-1 (default 0.5)
limit	number	No	Max results (default 20, max 50)

Curation

check_duplicate

Check whether a book already exists in Source Library before importing. Uses 4-tier matching (source fingerprint, title+author normalization, keyword search, semantic similarity) and returns a confidence level + suggestion. Use this before every import to avoid duplicates.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
title	string	Yes	Book title (original or English)
author	string	No	Author name (any format)
year	string	No	Publication year (optional context)
language	string	No	Language hint for semantic search
ia_id	string	No	Internet Archive identifier (exact fingerprint match)
manifest	string	No	IIIF manifest URL (exact fingerprint match)

Feedback

submit_feedback

Submit feedback, bug reports, or feature requests directly to the Source Library team.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
message	string	Yes	Your feedback (2-5000 characters)
name	string	No	Your name
email	string	No	Email for follow-up
page	string	No	Related page URL

CLI

Most tools are also available as a standalone CLI with colored terminal output. (search_concept and check_duplicate are MCP-only for now.)

# 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

# Submit feedback
source-library feedback "Great translation of Fludd!" --name="Jane"

# 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