Skip to main content
Glama
caelum29

calibre-mcp

by caelum29

Server Configuration

Describes the environment variables required to run the server.

NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
CALIBRE_MCP_RERANKNoCross-encoder rerank stage on semantic search (~576 MB model, seconds of CPU per query); set off/false/0 to disableon
CALIBRE_MCP_LIBRARYNoLibrary name; empty = the server’s default library
CALIBRE_MCP_ADD_ROOTSNoFolders calibre_add_book may import from (path-delimiter separated)~/Documents, ~/Downloads
CALIBRE_MCP_INDEX_DIRNoSemantic index + embedding-model cacheplatform data dir
CALIBRE_MCP_SERVER_URLNoCalibre Content Server base URLhttp://localhost:8080
CALIBRE_MCP_BOARD_STYLENoSearch-results widget style in MCP Apps hosts: shelf (scrolling cover shelf) or coverflow (3D cover flow)shelf
CALIBRE_MCP_ENABLE_WRITENoMaster write gate (1/true/yes)off
CALIBRE_MCP_CALIBREDB_PATHNocalibredb binary; found via standard install paths, then PATH
CALIBRE_MCP_MAX_BOOK_BYTESNoLargest book download calibre_build_index / calibre_get_content will extract; bigger books are skipped268435456
CALIBRE_MCP_SEMANTIC_FLOORNoCosine score below which semantic results are flagged low-confidence0.78

Capabilities

Features and capabilities supported by this server

CapabilityDetails
tools
{
  "listChanged": true
}
resources
{
  "listChanged": true
}

Tools

Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions

NameDescription
calibre_list_librariesA

List the Calibre libraries available on the Content Server and which one is the default. Call this first to discover valid library names.

calibre_searchA

Find books by exact title, author, ISBN, tag, or Calibre query syntax (mode=meta), or by full text (mode=fts). scope=book returns short keyword snippets from inside one book; first hits often land in TOC/front matter — for definitional or topic questions within a book prefer calibre_semantic_search scope=book (ranked passages with char offsets). Use calibre_semantic_search for meaning/topic queries. For "how many" questions use countOnly=true (returns only the count).

calibre_get_bookA

Get full metadata (authors, ISBN, formats, comments, cover) for one book by its id or uuid (id and bookId are interchangeable — pass the bookId from a search result). Set include_cover=true only when the cover image itself must be inspected.

calibre_get_contentA

Extract a book's text as a capped, fenced excerpt; pass the returned nextCursor token verbatim to walk the whole book, or jump to a char position with offset (e.g. a search passage's charStart). Set structure=true for a chapter map with per-chapter cursors. To find text inside a book, use calibre_search scope=book.

calibre_get_figuresA

List a book's figures — images the text references, identified by caption (Figure 1-2 / Рис. 3.1) — with page + caption per figure, then fetch chosen ones as images via indexes (≤3 per call). Captions let you pick figures before spending image tokens. In MCP Apps hosts the fetched figures also render for the user in an in-chat viewer, so you can point at them by figure number — but describe only what the pixels you received actually show.

calibre_list_categoriesA

Browse library categories (Authors, Tags, Series, Languages, Publisher). No field → list the categories; with a field → its values + counts, filterable via a valueFilter regex (case-insensitive by default; a leading inline flag like (?i) is accepted).

calibre_semantic_searchA

Meaning-based search over the local index. scope=library ranks books; scope=book (needs bookId) ranks passages within one book. target=figures searches figure captions instead of text — use when the user asks for a diagram/chart/schema; hits point at calibre_get_figures for the pixels. mode=hybrid (default) fuses semantic + keyword matches; mode=vector is semantic-only; mode=keyword is exact keyword/FTS (no model at query time). All modes need an index built by calibre_build_index.

calibre_build_indexA

Build the semantic index for specific books (required: bookId, ids, or query — full-library indexing is deferred). Extracts, chunks, and embeds each book. Set keywordOnly=true (or when the embedding model is absent, it happens automatically) to build a keyword-only index that powers mode:"keyword" search with zero ML dependencies. Re-run after adding books; use force to re-index unchanged ones. Set prune=true to also drop index entries for books that no longer exist in the library (removals/merges leave searchable orphans behind).

calibre_find_duplicatesA

Find probable duplicate books. mode=identical (exact title+authors) or similar (fuzzy) group the library (or ids/query subset) with a merge-safety score; mode=compare diffs 2+ ids field-by-field. Read-only — never merges.

calibre_quality_reportA

Scan books for metadata problems: missing fields, raw-filename titles, invalid ISBNs, author-sort mismatches, series gaps. Defaults to the whole library; narrow with ids/query or specific checks. Read-only.

calibre_recover_metadataA

Propose real metadata for a book with a missing/raw-filename title via online provider lookup (ISBN from its identifiers or text, else title/author) on Open Library and Google Books. Preview only — returns a changes object for calibre_update_book; never writes.

calibre_board_dataA

Internal endpoint for the in-chat cover-board widget. Returns the cached payload of a recent search. Do not call as the model — search results already contain everything this returns.

calibre_open_bookA

Internal endpoint for the in-chat widgets' Open button. Launches a book in the local Calibre viewer via the calibre:// scheme. Do not call as the model — use calibre_get_book to show a book instead.

calibre_pingA

Health check: confirms the MCP server can reach the running Calibre Content Server via calibredb, and reports semantic-search status (embedding model, dependency, index vector count). Returns library categories on success.

Prompts

Interactive templates invoked by user choice

NameDescription

No prompts

Resources

Contextual data attached and managed by the client

NameDescription
Cover board (search)In-chat cover board for calibre_search results.
Cover board (semantic search)In-chat cover board for calibre_semantic_search results.
Book cardIn-chat book details card for calibre_get_book.
Book figuresReading pane for the figures calibre_get_figures fetched.

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

We provide all the information about MCP servers via our MCP API.

curl -X GET 'https://glama.ai/api/mcp/v1/servers/caelum29/calibre-mcp'

If you have feedback or need assistance with the MCP directory API, please join our Discord server