# Fix: BookStack Manage Content Not Working
## Problem
The `bookstack_manage_content` tool (and all other BookStack tools) were failing because the required environment variables were not being loaded from the `.env` file.
### Root Cause
The Python FastMCP server (`my_server.py` and `run_stdio.py`) were not loading environment variables from the `.env` file. The tools require these environment variables to connect to the BookStack API:
- `BS_URL` - BookStack instance URL
- `BS_TOKEN_ID` - API token ID
- `BS_TOKEN_SECRET` - API token secret
When these variables were missing, the `_require_env()` function in `tools.py` would raise a `ToolError`, causing all BookStack operations to fail.
## Solution
Added `python-dotenv` to automatically load environment variables from the `.env` file when the server starts.
### Changes Made
1. **Updated `requirements.txt`**
- Added `python-dotenv>=1.0,<2` dependency
2. **Updated `my_server.py`**
- Added import for `dotenv` and `Path`
- Added code to load `.env` file from parent directory
- Added helpful messages indicating whether `.env` was found
3. **Updated `run_stdio.py`**
- Added same environment loading logic for MCP Inspector compatibility
- Messages go to stderr to avoid interfering with stdio transport
### Installation
To apply the fix:
```bash
cd Bookstack-MCP/fastmcp_server
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
### Verification
You can verify the fix works by running:
```bash
cd Bookstack-MCP/fastmcp_server
python test_env_loading.py
```
Expected output:
```
✅ Loaded environment variables from U:\bookstack-mcp\Bookstack-MCP\.env
Checking environment variables after loading .env:
BS_URL: https://knowledge.oculair.ca
BS_TOKEN_ID: POnHR9Lbvm...
BS_TOKEN_SECRET: 735wM5dScf...
✅ All environment variables are properly loaded!
```
### Testing the Tool
You can test that `bookstack_manage_content` works with:
```bash
cd Bookstack-MCP/fastmcp_server
python test_manage_content_live.py
```
This will:
1. Load environment variables
2. Register BookStack tools
3. List books from your BookStack instance
4. Read a specific book
## Docker Usage
If you're using Docker, the environment variables are already loaded via `docker-compose.yml`:
```yaml
env_file:
- .env
environment:
- BS_URL=${BS_URL}
- BS_TOKEN_ID=${BS_TOKEN_ID}
- BS_TOKEN_SECRET=${BS_TOKEN_SECRET}
```
So Docker deployments should work without any changes.
## Summary
The `bookstack_manage_content` tool is now working correctly. The issue was simply that environment variables weren't being loaded from the `.env` file when running the Python server directly (non-Docker). This has been fixed by adding `python-dotenv` and loading the `.env` file at server startup.
