BookStack MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI assistants full access to your BookStack documentation — search, read, create, and manage content.

npx bookstack-mcp

Features

• 20 read-only tools + 18 write tools for complete BookStack API coverage

• Books, chapters, pages, shelves, attachments, and comments — full CRUD

• Recycle bin support — restore or permanently delete soft-deleted content

• Type-safe input validation with Zod (auto-coerces string/number params for broad client compatibility)

• Embedded URLs and content previews in all responses

• Markdown export fallback for HTML-authored pages, so AI clients always get usable content

• Write operations disabled by default for safety

• Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, LibreChat, and any MCP-compatible client

• Stdio and Streamable HTTP transports

Related MCP server: PDF RAG MCP Server

Quick Start

Install from npm

npx bookstack-mcp

Or clone and build

git clone https://github.com/ttpears/bookstack-mcp.git
cd bookstack-mcp
npm install && npm run build
npm start

Environment Variables

BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL=https://your-bookstack.com   # Required
BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID=your-token-id                # Required
BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET=your-token-secret        # Required
BOOKSTACK_ENABLE_WRITE=false                    # Optional, default false
BOOKSTACK_INSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY=false        # Optional, default false

Security warning: BOOKSTACK_INSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY=true disables TLS certificate verification for outgoing requests to BookStack. Use only for self-signed certs on a trusted LAN — connections become vulnerable to MITM attacks. The server logs a WARNING line at startup whenever this is enabled.

Client Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bookstack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "bookstack-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL": "https://your-bookstack.com",
        "BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID": "your-token-id",
        "BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET": "your-token-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

LibreChat (stdio, single-user)

Add to your librechat.yaml:

mcpServers:
  bookstack:
    command: npx
    args:
      - -y
      - bookstack-mcp
    env:
      BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL: "https://your-bookstack.com"
      BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID: "your-token-id"
      BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET: "your-token-secret"

LibreChat (Streamable HTTP, recommended for production / Docker)

Run the server as a long-lived HTTP service and point LibreChat at the URL. This is the right setup for multi-user or containerized deployments.

Start the server in HTTP mode:

MCP_TRANSPORT=http \
MCP_HTTP_PORT=8080 \
BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL=https://your-bookstack.com \
BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID=your-token-id \
BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET=your-token-secret \
npx bookstack-mcp

Then configure LibreChat:

mcpServers:
  bookstack:
    type: streamable-http
    url: http://bookstack-mcp:8080/mcp

3.0.0 breaking change: the deprecated HTTP+SSE transport (GET /sse + POST /messages) has been removed. Streamable HTTP at /mcp already speaks SSE for streaming responses, and is the only HTTP transport in current MCP clients. If you're on an older client that needs the legacy endpoints, pin to bookstack-mcp@2.x.

HTTP transport environment variables

When binding to 0.0.0.0 (e.g. inside a container reachable from other services), set MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_HOSTS to the hostnames LibreChat will use to reach this server, e.g. MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_HOSTS=bookstack-mcp,bookstack-mcp.internal.

Restart LibreChat after config changes.

Claude Code (CLI)

The recommended path is the ttpears/claude-plugins marketplace, which ships this repo's plugin manifest (.claude-plugin/plugin.json):

/plugin marketplace add ttpears/claude-plugins
/plugin install bookstack-mcp@ttpears-plugins

Then set the BOOKSTACK_* environment variables in your shell so the plugin's MCP server can authenticate:

export BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL=https://your-bookstack.com
export BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID=your-token-id
export BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET=your-token-secret

Manual install (alternative)

If you'd rather not use the marketplace, register the server directly with claude mcp add. Repeat --env for each variable, put all flags before the server name, and use -- to mark the start of the command Claude Code will spawn:

claude mcp add bookstack \
  --transport stdio \
  --scope user \
  --env BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL=https://your-bookstack.com \
  --env BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID=your-token-id \
  --env BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET=your-token-secret \
  -- npx -y bookstack-mcp

Scope picks where the entry is written:

The resulting config entry looks like this (in .mcp.json for project scope, or ~/.claude.json otherwise):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bookstack": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "bookstack-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BOOKSTACK_BASE_URL": "https://your-bookstack.com",
        "BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID": "your-token-id",
        "BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET": "your-token-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tip for committed .mcp.json: Claude Code expands ${VAR} and ${VAR:-default} references in .mcp.json from the surrounding shell. Use that to keep secrets out of git: set "BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET": "${BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET}" in the file and have each developer export the variable in their shell.

MCP Resources

Books and pages are also exposed as MCP resources, so clients that browse resources (Claude Desktop, MCP Inspector, etc.) can @-mention them directly:

Both templates support id autocompletion: as you type, the server searches BookStack and returns matching IDs so you don't have to remember numeric IDs by hand.

Available Tools

Read Operations (always available)

Write Operations (requires BOOKSTACK_ENABLE_WRITE=true)

BookStack API Setup

1. Log into BookStack as an admin

2. Go to Settings > Users > Edit your user

3. Ensure the user has Access System API permission

4. In the API Tokens section, create a new token

5. Copy the Token ID and Token Secret

Security

• Write operations are disabled by default

• Use HTTPS for production instances

• Store API tokens securely (never commit to git)

• Consider a dedicated BookStack user with limited permissions

Development

npm run dev          # Hot reload with tsx
npm run type-check   # Type checking only
npm run build        # Production build

License

MIT