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project-gutenberg-mcp

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An MCP server for reading books from Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg Terms of Service

Project Gutenberg's robot access policy states that the site is intended for human users only. Automated access may result in your IP being blocked.

To use this MCP server you must run your own mirror. Project Gutenberg explicitly supports and encourages mirroring — see their mirroring guide for details.

This repository includes a ready-to-run mirror server in the mirror/ directory.

Related MCP server: gutenberg-mcp

Mirror Setup

The mirror server downloads the Project Gutenberg catalog on startup (~5 MB compressed) and caches book files locally on first access. It exposes the URL structure that this MCP server expects.

Docker Compose (recommended)

Runs the mirror and MCP server together. The MCP server is exposed on HTTP at port 8081.

docker compose up

The mirror is available at http://localhost:8080 and the MCP server at http://localhost:8081/mcp.

Mirror only (stdio)

Build and start just the mirror, then connect an MCP client via stdio.

task build:mirror
task start:mirror

The mirror runs at http://localhost:8080. Example MCP client config (stdio):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "project-gutenberg-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_TOOLS=search_books,get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage",
        "roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables.

Variable

Required

Description

GUTENBERG_BASE_URL

Yes

Base URL of your Gutenberg mirror (see Mirror Setup above)

GUTENBERG_TOOLS

Yes

Comma-separated list of tools to expose (see below)

GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID

No

Project Gutenberg book ID to use as default

GUTENBERG_CHUNK_SIZE

No

Passage size in bytes (default: 4096)

GUTENBERG_LANGUAGE

No

Default ISO 639-1 language code for search_books (default: en)

Tools

Tool

Description

search_books

Search for books by title or author

get_book_metadata

Fetch metadata (title, authors, formats) for a book

fetch_book_text

Download the full plain text of a book

list_passages

List fixed-size passage keys for a book

get_passage

Fetch a specific passage by its key

When GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID is set, tools that take a book ID will use it as the default. When it is not set, include search_books in your tools list so an agent can discover IDs first.

Running

stdio

GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
./project-gutenberg-mcp --transport stdio

HTTP

GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
./project-gutenberg-mcp --transport http --addr :8081

Docker

Pulling pre-built images

# MCP server
docker pull roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0

# Mirror
docker pull roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0

Building locally

Both Dockerfiles use Docker Hardened Images (DHI) for enhanced security. Building requires authentication to Docker Hub:

docker login

Then build:

# Build MCP server
docker build -t project-gutenberg-mcp .

# Build mirror
docker build -f mirror/Dockerfile -t gutenberg-mirror ./mirror

Running the MCP server

# HTTP
docker run -p 8081:8081 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
  -e GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
  roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp --transport http --addr :8081

# stdio
docker run -i --rm \
  -e GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
  -e GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
  roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp

Running the mirror

# Create a named volume for cache persistence
docker volume create gutenberg-cache

# Run mirror (serves on http://localhost:8080)
docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v gutenberg-cache:/data \
  --name gutenberg-mirror \
  roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0

Multi-architecture builds

Both images support linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 architectures. To build and push multi-arch images:

# Create a builder instance
docker buildx create --name multiarch --use

# Build and push MCP server
docker buildx build \
  --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
  -t roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0 \
  -t roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:latest \
  --push \
  .

# Build and push mirror
docker buildx build \
  --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
  -t roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0 \
  -t roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:latest \
  --push \
  -f mirror/Dockerfile \
  ./mirror

MCP client config (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "project-gutenberg-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage",
        "roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Local builds (non-Docker)

task build         # outputs to build/project-gutenberg-mcp
task build:mirror  # outputs to mirror/build/mirror
task test

Book IDs

A few useful IDs:

Book

ID

Meditations — Marcus Aurelius

2680

The Republic — Plato

1497

Thus Spoke Zarathustra — Nietzsche

1998

Moby Dick — Melville

2701

Pride and Prejudice — Austen

1342

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