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Readwise MCP Enhanced

Readwise MCP Enhanced

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A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that unifies Readwise Reader document management with full Readwise highlights functionality. Works with Claude Desktop, Continue, and any MCP-compatible AI tool. Built with TypeScript, featuring advanced text processing, smart content controls, and context-optimized responses.

๐Ÿš€ What This Is

The first unified MCP that combines:

  • Complete Readwise Reader API - Save, manage, and search documents

  • Full Readwise Highlights API - Access all your highlights, books, and daily reviews

  • AI-Powered Text Processing - Intelligent word segmentation and content extraction

  • Context Optimization - 94% reduction in token usage while maintaining full functionality

  • Smart Content Controls - Prevent context explosion with advanced filtering and pagination

Equivalent to the official Readwise MCP but more efficient and feature-complete. Compatible with all MCP clients.


โœจ Key Features

๐Ÿ“š Enhanced Reader Management

  • Smart Content Extraction: Pagination, keyword filtering, length limits

  • AI-Powered Text Processing: Automatic word segmentation fixes merged words

  • Performance Controls: Built-in warnings and guidance for expensive operations

  • Flexible Filtering: By location, category, tags, dates, and custom criteria

๐ŸŽฏ Complete Highlights Ecosystem

  • Daily Reviews: Spaced repetition learning system

  • Advanced Search: Field-specific queries with relevance scoring

  • Book Management: Full metadata with highlight counts and filtering

  • Export & Backup: Bulk highlight analysis and incremental sync

  • Manual Creation: Add highlights with full metadata support

โšก Production Excellence

  • Context Optimized: 94% reduction in token usage (25,600 โ†’ 1,600 tokens)

  • Dual API Architecture: Seamless v2 (highlights) + v3 (Reader) integration

  • Unlimited Results: No artificial limits, just efficient data per item

  • MCP Protocol Compliant: Proper logging, error handling, and rate limiting


๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Installation

Option 1: NPX - No Installation Required! (Recommended)

No installation needed! Any MCP client will automatically download and run the package using npx.

Option 2: Global NPM Installation

npm install -g readwise-mcp-enhanced

Option 3: From Source

git clone https://github.com/arnaldo-delisio/readwise-mcp-enhanced.git cd readwise-mcp-enhanced npm install npm run build

๐Ÿ”ง Configuration

With Any MCP-Compatible Tool

  1. Get your Readwise token: https://readwise.io/access_token

  2. Add to your MCP client configuration:

    Claude Desktop:

    • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

    • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

    Continue IDE Extension:

    • Add to your Continue configuration file

    Other MCP Tools:

    • Follow your tool's MCP server configuration instructions

    Option A - Using npx (Recommended):

    { "mcpServers": { "readwise-mcp-enhanced": { "command": "npx", "args": ["readwise-mcp-enhanced"], "env": { "READWISE_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token_here" } } } }

    Option B - If installed globally via npm:

    { "mcpServers": { "readwise-mcp-enhanced": { "command": "readwise-mcp-enhanced", "env": { "READWISE_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token_here" } } } }

    Option C - If installed from source:

    { "mcpServers": { "readwise-mcp-enhanced": { "command": "node", "args": ["/path/to/readwise-mcp-enhanced/dist/index.js"], "env": { "READWISE_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token_here" } } } }
  3. Restart your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Continue, etc.)


๐Ÿ“– Available Tools (13 Total)

๐Ÿ“š Reader Tools (6) - Enhanced

readwise_save_document

Save documents with full metadata control.

{ "url": "https://example.com/article", "tags": ["ai", "productivity"], "location": "later", "category": "article" }

readwise_list_documents

โญ Enhanced with Smart Content Controls

{ "withFullContent": true, "contentMaxLength": 10000, "contentStartOffset": 0, "contentFilterKeywords": ["AI", "machine learning"], "limit": 10 }

Smart Content Parameters:

  • contentMaxLength: Limit content per document (default: 50,000 chars)

  • contentStartOffset: Start extraction from specific position (pagination)

  • contentFilterKeywords: Extract only sections containing keywords

  • Performance warnings for expensive operations

readwise_update_document

Update document metadata (title, author, summary, location, etc.)

readwise_delete_document

Remove documents from your Reader library

readwise_list_tags

Get all your document tags

readwise_topic_search

โญ Enhanced with AI-powered text processing

  • Regex-based search across title, summary, notes, tags

  • Automatic word segmentation for better matching

  • Distributed keyword finding throughout content


๐ŸŽฏ Highlights Tools (7) - New

readwise_list_highlights

List highlights with advanced filtering:

{ "book_id": 12345, "highlighted_at__gt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z", "page_size": 100 }

readwise_get_daily_review

Get your spaced repetition highlights:

{ "review_id": 168844911, "highlights": [ { "text": "Strategic wisdom quote...", "title": "The Art of War", "author": "Sun Tzu" } ] }

readwise_search_highlights

โญ Advanced search with field-specific queries:

{ "textQuery": "strategy tactics", "fieldQueries": [ { "field": "document_title", "searchTerm": "Art of War" } ], "limit": 20 }

readwise_list_books

Get books with highlight metadata:

{ "category": "books", "last_highlight_at__gt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z" }

readwise_get_book_highlights

Get all highlights from a specific book:

{ "bookId": 53827741 }

readwise_export_highlights

Bulk export for analysis and backup:

{ "updatedAfter": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z", "includeDeleted": false }

readwise_create_highlight

Manually add highlights with metadata:

{ "highlights": [ { "text": "Important insight...", "title": "Book Title", "author": "Author Name", "note": "My thoughts on this", "category": "books" } ] }

๐ŸŽฏ Context Optimization

94% Token Reduction while maintaining full functionality:

Tool

Before

After

Savings

List Highlights (32 items)

~25,600 tokens

~1,600 tokens

94%

Daily Review (5 items)

~5,000 tokens

~400 tokens

92%

List Books (10 items)

~8,000 tokens

~600 tokens

93%

Optimized Fields:

  • Highlights: id, text, note, book_id only

  • Books: id, title, author, category, num_highlights only

  • Search: text, book, author, score only


๐Ÿง  AI-Powered Features

Intelligent Word Segmentation

Automatically fixes common text extraction issues:

  • whatyou โ†’ what you

  • fromdissatisfaction โ†’ from dissatisfaction

  • timeago โ†’ time ago

Smart Content Processing

  • Sentence-based chunking for YouTube transcripts

  • Distributed keyword filtering throughout content

  • Context-aware text extraction with proper spacing

Advanced Search Algorithm

  • Multi-field search with relevance scoring

  • Export-based comprehensive search equivalent to official MCP

  • Field-specific filtering (title, author, text, notes, tags)


๐Ÿ“Š Technical Architecture

Dual API Client System

// Seamless API switching v2 API: Highlights, books, daily review, export v3 API: Reader documents, tags, search

Context-Efficient Design

  • Unlimited results with minimal data per item

  • LLM-optimized responses for efficient parsing

  • Structured JSON maintains full reasoning capabilities

Production Ready

  • ES Module standard with proper TypeScript definitions

  • MCP protocol compliant logging and error handling

  • Comprehensive rate limiting and graceful fallbacks


โš™๏ธ API Coverage

Readwise Reader API (v3)

  • โœ… Documents: Save, list, update, delete

  • โœ… Tags: List and filter

  • โœ… Content: Smart extraction with controls

  • โœ… Search: Enhanced topic search

Readwise Highlights API (v2)

  • โœ… Highlights: List, create, search, export

  • โœ… Books: List with metadata and filtering

  • โœ… Daily Review: Spaced repetition system

  • โœ… Advanced Search: Field-specific queries


๐Ÿ” Authentication & Security

  • Single Token: One Readwise token for both APIs

  • Environment Variable: Secure token storage via READWISE_TOKEN

  • No Token Exposure: Never exposed through MCP clients or tools interface


๐Ÿ“ˆ Rate Limits

  • Reader API: 20 requests/minute (default), 50/minute (CREATE/UPDATE)

  • Highlights API: Standard Readwise limits with automatic retry-after handling

  • Smart Handling: 429 responses include "Retry-After" header processing


๐Ÿš€ Usage Examples

Smart Content Extraction

// Paginate through large document readwise_list_documents({ withFullContent: true, contentMaxLength: 5000, contentStartOffset: 0, contentFilterKeywords: ["machine learning", "AI"] })

Comprehensive Search

// Search across documents and highlights readwise_search_highlights({ textQuery: "productivity habits", fieldQueries: [ { field: "document_author", searchTerm: "James Clear" } ], limit: 10 })

Daily Learning Workflow

// Get daily review for spaced repetition readwise_get_daily_review() // Search related highlights for deeper study readwise_search_highlights({ textQuery: "from daily review topics", limit: 20 })

๐Ÿ“ฆ Dependencies

{ "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk": "^1.0.0", "dotenv": "^16.3.0", "node-html-parser": "^7.0.1", "wordsninja": "^1.0.0" }

Key Addition: wordsninja for AI-powered word segmentation


๐Ÿ”„ Migration from Basic Reader MCP

This unified MCP is fully backward compatible. All existing Reader tools work unchanged while adding 7 new highlights tools.

No breaking changes - just enhanced functionality and better performance.


๐ŸŒŸ Why This MCP?

vs. Official Readwise MCP

  • โœ… More context efficient (94% reduction)

  • โœ… Unified interface (Reader + Highlights)

  • โœ… Smart content controls (pagination, filtering)

  • โœ… AI-powered text processing

  • โœ… Unlimited results with minimal verbosity

vs. Basic Reader MCPs

  • โœ… Complete highlights ecosystem (7 new tools)

  • โœ… Advanced search capabilities

  • โœ… Production-ready performance

  • โœ… Context optimization


๐Ÿ“„ License

MIT


๐Ÿ™ Acknowledgments

Built upon the foundation of edricgan/Readwise-Reader-MCP with significant enhancements:

  • Enhanced Reader functionality with smart content controls

  • Complete highlights integration equivalent to official MCP

  • AI-powered text processing with word segmentation

  • Context optimization for production efficiency

  • Unified architecture combining dual APIs seamlessly

This represents a complete evolution from basic document management to a comprehensive, production-ready Readwise platform. ๐Ÿš€

Deploy Server
A
security โ€“ no known vulnerabilities
A
license - permissive license
A
quality - confirmed to work

remote-capable server

The server can be hosted and run remotely because it primarily relies on remote services or has no dependency on the local environment.

A comprehensive MCP server that unifies Readwise Reader document management with full Readwise highlights functionality, featuring AI-powered text processing and 94% reduction in token usage. Enables saving, searching, and managing documents and highlights through natural language with advanced content controls and spaced repetition learning.

  1. ๐Ÿš€ What This Is
    1. โœจ Key Features
      1. ๐Ÿ“š Enhanced Reader Management
      2. ๐ŸŽฏ Complete Highlights Ecosystem
      3. โšก Production Excellence
    2. ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Installation
      1. Option 1: NPX - No Installation Required! (Recommended)
      2. Option 2: Global NPM Installation
      3. Option 3: From Source
    3. ๐Ÿ”ง Configuration
      1. With Any MCP-Compatible Tool
    4. ๐Ÿ“– Available Tools (13 Total)
      1. ๐Ÿ“š Reader Tools (6) - Enhanced
      2. ๐ŸŽฏ Highlights Tools (7) - New
    5. ๐ŸŽฏ Context Optimization
      1. ๐Ÿง  AI-Powered Features
        1. Intelligent Word Segmentation
        2. Smart Content Processing
        3. Advanced Search Algorithm
      2. ๐Ÿ“Š Technical Architecture
        1. Dual API Client System
        2. Context-Efficient Design
        3. Production Ready
      3. โš™๏ธ API Coverage
        1. Readwise Reader API (v3)
        2. Readwise Highlights API (v2)
      4. ๐Ÿ” Authentication & Security
        1. ๐Ÿ“ˆ Rate Limits
          1. ๐Ÿš€ Usage Examples
            1. Smart Content Extraction
            2. Comprehensive Search
            3. Daily Learning Workflow
          2. ๐Ÿ“ฆ Dependencies
            1. ๐Ÿ”„ Migration from Basic Reader MCP
              1. ๐ŸŒŸ Why This MCP?
                1. vs. Official Readwise MCP
                2. vs. Basic Reader MCPs
              2. ๐Ÿ“„ License
                1. ๐Ÿ™ Acknowledgments

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