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gutenberg-mcp-server

Search Gutenberg Books

gutenberg_search_books
Read-onlyIdempotent

Search the Project Gutenberg catalog of 78,000+ books. Every query word matches a title or author substring; filter by topic, language, author lifespan, IDs, MIME prefix or copyright status. More than four query words require the local mirror. Empty matches succeed with criteria and a notice. Default popularity uses downloads in the last 30 days at the source snapshot. Returns IDs, titles, authors, languages, subjects, counts, and is_readable — use gutenberg_get_book for full metadata.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
idsNoNarrow results to these Gutenberg IDs, intersected with other filters. An empty list selects nothing; omit for unrestricted IDs. Use gutenberg_get_book for full single-ID metadata.
pageNoPage number for paginated results (1-indexed). Each page returns up to 32 books. Use totalCount to determine total pages.
sortNoResult ordering. "popular" (default) sorts by downloads in the last 30 days at the source snapshot, descending. "ascending" and "descending" sort by Gutenberg ID number.popular
queryNoEvery nonblank whitespace-separated word must match title or author name as a case-insensitive literal substring. More than four words require the local mirror; live fallback rejects longer queries. Example: "dickens expectations" matches Great Expectations.
topicNoCase-insensitive phrase to match against subjects and bookshelves. Example: "detective" returns books on the "Detective and Mystery Stories" bookshelf. Separate from query — topic searches categorization metadata, not title/author.
copyrightNoAny selected source copyright status: "true" copyrighted, "false" public domain in the USA, "null" unknown. Empty means all statuses; this is not worldwide legal clearance.
languagesNoFilter to books in any of these two-character ISO 639-1 language codes. Example: ["en"] for English, ["fr", "de"] for French or German.
mime_typeNoLiteral prefix of a format MIME key, such as "text/plain" or "text/html". Blank means unset.
author_year_endNoInclude only books with at least one author alive on or before this year. Example: author_year_start=1800 with author_year_end=1899 returns books with 19th-century authors.
author_year_startNoInclude only books with at least one author alive on or after this year (positive = CE, negative = BCE). Combine with author_year_end for a range.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
pageNoCurrent page number.
booksNoMatching books, ordered by the sort parameter.
errorNoPresent when the call failed. Absent on success.
noticeNoActionable guidance for an empty selection.
hasMoreNoTrue if there are additional pages of results.
totalCountNoTotal number of books matching the query across all pages.
effectiveCriteriaNoNormalized search criteria, including sort and page defaults.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed9 schema fields changed
    • addedInput schema / properties / copyright
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Any selected source copyright status: \"true\" copyrighted, \"false\" public domain in the USA, \"null\" unknown. Empty means all statuses; this is not worldwide legal clearance.",
      +  "items": {
      +    "enum": [
      +      "true",
      +      "false",
      +      "null"
      +    ],
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
    • changedInput schema / properties / ids / description
      Previous value: -"Narrow results to specific Gutenberg ID numbers. Other filters still apply. Useful for batch pre-fetching known IDs; use gutenberg_get_book for single-ID lookups."New value: +"Narrow results to these Gutenberg IDs, intersected with other filters. An empty list selects nothing; omit for unrestricted IDs. Use gutenberg_get_book for full single-ID metadata."
    • addedInput schema / properties / mime_type
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Literal prefix of a format MIME key, such as \"text/plain\" or \"text/html\". Blank means unset.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • changedInput schema / properties / query / description
      Previous value: -"Words to match against book titles and author names (case-insensitive, space-separated). Example: \"dickens expectations\" matches Great Expectations by Charles Dickens."New value: +"Every nonblank whitespace-separated word must match title or author name as a case-insensitive literal substring. More than four words require the local mirror; live fallback rejects longer queries. Example: \"dickens expectations\" matches Great Expectations."
    • changedOutput schema / anyOf
      Previous value: -[
      -  {
      -    "not": {
      -      "required": [
      -        "error"
      -      ]
      -    },
      -    "required": [
      -      "books",
      -      "totalCount",
      -      "page",
      -      "hasMore"
      -    ]
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "required": [
      -      "error"
      -    ]
      -  }
      -]New value: +[
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "error"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "books",
      +      "totalCount",
      +      "page",
      +      "hasMore",
      +      "effectiveCriteria"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "error"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / effectiveCriteria
      Added value: +{
      +  "additionalProperties": false,
      +  "description": "Normalized search criteria, including sort and page defaults.",
      +  "properties": {
      +    "author_year_end": {
      +      "description": "At least one author has a birth or death year on or before this year (CE positive, BCE negative).",
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "author_year_start": {
      +      "description": "At least one author has a birth or death year on or after this year (CE positive, BCE negative).",
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "copyright": {
      +      "description": "Any selected source copyright status: \"true\" copyrighted, \"false\" public domain in the USA, \"null\" unknown. Empty means all statuses; this is not worldwide legal clearance.",
      +      "items": {
      +        "enum": [
      +          "true",
      +          "false",
      +          "null"
      +        ],
      +        "type": "string"
      +      },
      +      "type": "array"
      +    },
      +    "ids": {
      +      "description": "Restrict to these Gutenberg IDs, intersected with other filters. An empty list selects nothing; omit for unrestricted IDs.",
      +      "items": {
      +        "exclusiveMinimum": 0,
      +        "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +        "type": "integer"
      +      },
      +      "type": "array"
      +    },
      +    "languages": {
      +      "description": "Any listed two-character ISO 639-1 language code; empty means all languages.",
      +      "items": {
      +        "maxLength": 2,
      +        "minLength": 2,
      +        "type": "string"
      +      },
      +      "type": "array"
      +    },
      +    "mime_type": {
      +      "description": "Literal prefix of a format MIME key, such as \"text/plain\" or \"text/html\". Blank means unset.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    },
      +    "page": {
      +      "default": 1,
      +      "description": "One-indexed page of at most 32 matches. Pages beyond the result range are errors.",
      +      "exclusiveMinimum": 0,
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "query": {
      +      "description": "Every nonblank word must occur in the title or an author name, case-insensitively, as a literal substring. More than four words require the local mirror; live fallback rejects longer queries. Whitespace separates words.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    },
      +    "sort": {
      +      "default": "popular",
      +      "description": "Popular orders by source-snapshot downloads in the last 30 days, with ID tie-breaks locally; ascending and descending order by Gutenberg ID.",
      +      "enum": [
      +        "popular",
      +        "ascending",
      +        "descending"
      +      ],
      +      "type": "string"
      +    },
      +    "topic": {
      +      "description": "Case-insensitive phrase in a subject or bookshelf; blank means unset.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    }
      +  },
      +  "required": [
      +    "sort",
      +    "page"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "object"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description
      Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `no_results`: The query matched no books in the catalog. `page_out_of_range`: The requested page number is past the last page of results for this query. `catalog_unavailable`: The Project Gutenberg catalog did not answer within the time this server allows for one search. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `query_requires_mirror`: More than four query words were supplied while the local mirror could not answer. `page_out_of_range`: The requested page number is past the last page of results for this query. `catalog_unavailable`: The Project Gutenberg catalog did not answer within the time this server allows for one search. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples
      Previous value: -[
      -  "no_results",
      -  "page_out_of_range",
      -  "catalog_unavailable"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "query_requires_mirror",
      +  "page_out_of_range",
      +  "catalog_unavailable"
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / notice
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Actionable guidance for an empty selection.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
  2. Changed5 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / sort / description
      Previous value: -"Result ordering. \"popular\" (default) sorts by download count descending. \"ascending\" and \"descending\" sort by Gutenberg ID number."New value: +"Result ordering. \"popular\" (default) sorts by downloads in the last 30 days at the source snapshot, descending. \"ascending\" and \"descending\" sort by Gutenberg ID number."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / download_count / description
      Previous value: -"Total downloads from Project Gutenberg — a real popularity signal reflecting actual reader interest."New value: +"Downloads in the last 30 days at the source snapshot."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / has_plain_text / description
      Previous value: -"True if the book has media_type \"Text\" AND a UTF-8 text/plain format available — prerequisite for gutenberg_get_text."New value: +"True for Text records with UTF-8 plain text; HTML-only editions can still have is_readable=true."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / is_readable
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "True for non-Sound records with UTF-8 plain text or HTML supported by gutenberg_get_text.",
      +  "type": "boolean"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / books / items / required
      Previous value: -[
      -  "id",
      -  "title",
      -  "authors",
      -  "languages",
      -  "subjects",
      -  "download_count",
      -  "has_plain_text"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "id",
      +  "title",
      +  "authors",
      +  "languages",
      +  "subjects",
      +  "download_count",
      +  "has_plain_text",
      +  "is_readable"
      +]
  3. Changed4 schema fields changed
    • removedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / authors / items / properties / birth_year / anyOf
      Removed value: -[
      -  {
      -    "type": "number"
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "type": "null"
      -  }
      -]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / authors / items / properties / birth_year / type
      Added value: +[
      +  "number",
      +  "null"
      +]
    • removedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / authors / items / properties / death_year / anyOf
      Removed value: -[
      -  {
      -    "type": "number"
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "type": "null"
      -  }
      -]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / authors / items / properties / death_year / type
      Added value: +[
      +  "number",
      +  "null"
      +]
  4. Changed2 schema fields changed
    • changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description
      Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `no_results`: The query matched no books in the catalog. `page_out_of_range`: The requested page number is past the last page of results for this query. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `no_results`: The query matched no books in the catalog. `page_out_of_range`: The requested page number is past the last page of results for this query. `catalog_unavailable`: The Project Gutenberg catalog did not answer within the time this server allows for one search. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples
      Previous value: -[
      -  "no_results",
      -  "page_out_of_range"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "no_results",
      +  "page_out_of_range",
      +  "catalog_unavailable"
      +]
  5. Changed6 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedInput schema / additionalProperties
      Added value: +false
    • changedOutput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedOutput schema / anyOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "error"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "books",
      +      "totalCount",
      +      "page",
      +      "hasMore"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "error"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / error
      Added value: +{
      +  "additionalProperties": {},
      +  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
      +  "properties": {
      +    "code": {
      +      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "data": {
      +      "additionalProperties": {},
      +      "properties": {
      +        "reason": {
      +          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `no_results`: The query matched no books in the catalog. `page_out_of_range`: The requested page number is past the last page of results for this query. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
      +          "examples": [
      +            "no_results",
      +            "page_out_of_range"
      +          ],
      +          "type": "string"
      +        },
      +        "recovery": {
      +          "additionalProperties": {},
      +          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
      +          "properties": {
      +            "hint": {
      +              "type": "string"
      +            }
      +          },
      +          "required": [
      +            "hint"
      +          ],
      +          "type": "object"
      +        },
      +        "retryable": {
      +          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
      +          "type": "boolean"
      +        }
      +      },
      +      "type": "object"
      +    },
      +    "message": {
      +      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    }
      +  },
      +  "required": [
      +    "code",
      +    "message"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "object"
      +}
    • removedOutput schema / required
      Removed value: -[
      -  "books",
      -  "totalCount",
      -  "page",
      -  "hasMore"
      -]
  6. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedOutput schema / properties / books / items / properties / has_plain_text / description
      Previous value: -"True if the book has media_type \"Text\" AND a text/plain format available — prerequisite for gutenberg_get_text."New value: +"True if the book has media_type \"Text\" AND a UTF-8 text/plain format available — prerequisite for gutenberg_get_text."
  7. First observed

TDQS

A4.2/5.0
Behavior4/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already cover the safety profile (readOnly, idempotent, openWorld), but the description adds genuinely non-obvious behavior: the four-word query ceiling with live-fallback rejection, that empty matches still succeed with criteria and a notice, and that 'popular' reflects 30-day downloads at the source snapshot. That is real value beyond the structured fields, though pagination/rate behavior is left to the schema.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Information-dense and front-loaded: purpose first, then matching semantics, constraints, defaults, and return shape. Every sentence carries signal, though the return-value sentence is somewhat redundant given an output schema exists.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

For a 10-parameter, all-optional search tool with an output schema and full annotation coverage, the description supplies everything an agent needs: scope, matching semantics, the mirror constraint, empty-result behavior, sort default, and the handoff to gutenberg_get_book.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so every parameter is already documented in the schema with examples and defaults. The description only summarizes the filter families (topic, language, author lifespan, IDs, MIME prefix, copyright) without adding syntax or format meaning beyond that. Baseline 3 is appropriate when the schema does the heavy lifting.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource ('Search the Project Gutenberg catalog of 78,000+ books') and quantifies scope. It explicitly distinguishes itself from the sibling gutenberg_get_book, so an agent can route between catalog search and single-book metadata without opening schemas.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Names an alternative and its condition ('use gutenberg_get_book for full metadata') and flags an operational constraint ('More than four query words require the local mirror'). It stops short of explaining when to prefer gutenberg_browse_popular or gutenberg_get_text, so it is clear context rather than a full when/when-not map.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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