Ebook
A lightweight MCP server that allows LLMs to read and interact with your personal PDF and EPUB ebooks on your local machine. Ideal for building AI reading assistants or chat-based ebook interfaces.
What is Ebook?
Ebook is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to lightweight mcp server that allows llms to read and interact with your personal pdf and epub ebooks on your local machine. ideal for building ai reading assistants or chat-based ebook interfaces.
A lightweight MCP server that allows LLMs to read and interact with your personal PDF and EPUB ebooks on your local machine. Ideal for building AI reading assistants or chat-based ebook interfaces.
This server falls under the File Systems category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- A lightweight MCP server that allows LLMs to read and intera
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx ebookConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Ebook
Ebook MCP is a lightweight Python server that gives AI assistants direct access to your local PDF and EPUB library, enabling natural-language interactions with your personal ebook collection. It exposes tools for extracting book metadata, navigating tables of contents, and reading individual chapters or pages — all from files stored on your machine without uploading them to any cloud service. Developers and researchers use it to build AI reading assistants, chat with technical books, or automate literature review workflows.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or later installed
- uv package manager installed (pip install uv, or via the official uv installer)
- Local PDF or EPUB ebook files on your filesystem
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop or Cursor IDE
Clone the ebook-mcp repository
Clone the repository to your local machine where your ebook files are stored.
git clone https://github.com/onebirdrocks/ebook-mcp.git && cd ebook-mcpInstall dependencies with uv
Use uv to install the ebook-mcp package and all its dependencies in editable mode.
uv pip install -e .Test the server in development mode
Run the MCP server in development mode to verify it starts correctly and can find your ebook files.
uv run mcp dev src/ebook_mcp/main.pyConfigure Claude Desktop to use ebook-mcp
Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json, pointing to the directory containing your main.py file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"ebook-mcp": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/path/to/ebook-mcp/src/ebook_mcp/",
"run",
"main.py"
]
}
}
}Point the server to your ebook directory
When interacting through Claude, specify the directory path where your PDF and EPUB files are stored. The server scans that directory for supported formats.
Ebook Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop configuration for ebook-mcp using uv to run the server.
{
"mcpServers": {
"ebook-mcp": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/Users/you/projects/ebook-mcp/src/ebook_mcp/",
"run",
"main.py"
]
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts to interact with your local ebook library through the ebook-mcp server.
- "Show me all EPUB files in /Users/me/Books"
- "What is the table of contents of Designing Data-Intensive Applications?"
- "Read Chapter 3 of the book on machine learning in my library"
- "Extract the metadata (author, publisher, publication date) from this PDF: /Users/me/Books/paper.pdf"
- "Summarize pages 50 through 75 of my Go programming book"Troubleshooting Ebook
uv command not found
Install uv using the official installer: 'curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh' on macOS/Linux, or 'pip install uv'. Ensure the uv binary is on your PATH.
EPUB parsing fails or returns empty content
Some EPUB files use DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection that prevents extraction. Verify the EPUB opens correctly in a standard reader like Calibre. DRM-protected files cannot be read by ebook-mcp.
PDF page extraction returns garbled text
Scanned PDFs (image-only) do not contain extractable text. The server requires PDFs with embedded text layers. Use OCR software like Tesseract or Adobe Acrobat to add a text layer before using with ebook-mcp.
Frequently Asked Questions about Ebook
What is Ebook?
Ebook is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lightweight mcp server that allows llms to read and interact with your personal pdf and epub ebooks on your local machine. ideal for building ai reading assistants or chat-based ebook interfaces. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Ebook?
Follow the installation instructions on the Ebook GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Ebook?
Ebook works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Ebook free to use?
Yes, Ebook is open source and available under the Apache-2.0 license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up Ebook in Your Editor
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Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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