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