calibre-mcp

A minimal, read-only Model Context Protocol server for a local Calibre e-book library. It wraps the calibredb CLI (--for-machine JSON output), so it needs no content server and cannot modify your library — no write tools exist.

Defaults target Windows, but it runs anywhere calibredb does (macOS/Linux) — just set the two environment variables below.

Tools

Tool	Description
`search_books(query, limit=20, offset=0)`	Search using Calibre's search syntax (e.g. `author:Erikson`, `tag:Fantasy`, `series:"Malazan"`); page with `offset`.
`list_books(limit=50, offset=0, sort_by="timestamp", ascending=False)`	List/browse the library, sorted; page through it with `offset`.
`get_book(book_id)`	Full metadata for one book by its Calibre ID.
`list_recent(limit=10)`	Most recently added books.
`count_books()`	Total number of books in the library.

Requirements

Calibre installed (provides calibredb).
uv to manage the environment.

Install

git clone https://github.com/mmccarthy404/calibre-mcp.git
cd calibre-mcp
uv sync

Configuration

Set via environment variables (Windows defaults shown; change to your paths):

Variable	Default	Notes
`CALIBRE_LIBRARY_PATH`	`D:\Documents\Calibre Library`	Path to your Calibre library folder (contains `metadata.db`).
`CALIBREDB_PATH`	`C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredb.exe`	Path to `calibredb` (on macOS/Linux, usually just `calibredb`).

Run

uv run calibre-mcp        # or: uv run python calibre_mcp.py

Register with Claude Code

claude mcp add calibre --scope user -- \
  uv run --directory "/path/to/calibre-mcp" python calibre_mcp.py

Then, in a new Claude session, ask things like "search my Calibre library for Erikson" or "what are my 5 most recently added books?".

License

MIT