gutenberg-mcp-server
MCP server for Project Gutenberg — 75,000+ public-domain ebooks with full plain-text retrieval.
Community: Submitted by a user or imported; check the owner before granting accessOnlineNo sign-inGlobalFreeRead-only
What it can do
- Gutenberg Search Books: Search the Project Gutenberg catalog of 78,000+ public-domain books. Matches title and author name with query words; filters by topic (subject or bookshelf keyword), language,
- Gutenberg Get Book: Fetch complete metadata for a Project Gutenberg book by ID — title, authors (with birth/death years), translators, editors, subjects, bookshelves, languages, copyright status, and
- Gutenberg Get Text: Retrieve the plain-text content of a Project Gutenberg book, stripped of the standard license header and footer so the response contains only the literary work. For long works — no
What data it sees
Do you need an account
No: the server works without sign-in
MCP server for Project Gutenberg — 75,000+ public-domain ebooks with full plain-text retrieval.
Server tool list (4)
Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.
| gutenberg_search_books | Search the Project Gutenberg catalog of 78,000+ public-domain books. Matches title and author name with query words; filters by topic (subject or bookshelf keyword), language, author lifespan, or a specific list of Gutenberg IDs. Results are ordered by popularity (download count) by default. Returns book ID, title, authors, languages, subjects, and download count — use gutenberg_get_book for the full formats map before fetching text. |
| gutenberg_get_book | Fetch complete metadata for a Project Gutenberg book by ID — title, authors (with birth/death years), translators, editors, subjects, bookshelves, languages, copyright status, and the full formats map with download URLs for each available format (plain text, HTML, EPUB, cover image, etc.). Use this before gutenberg_get_text to confirm a plain-text format is available and to get the direct download URL. |
| gutenberg_get_text | Retrieve the plain-text content of a Project Gutenberg book, stripped of the standard license header and footer so the response contains only the literary work. For long works — novels routinely run 500KB–2MB — use offset and limit to read in chunks rather than fetching the whole book at once. The response reports totalChars and remainingChars so the caller can page through without guessing. Prefers UTF-8 plain text; falls back to ASCII plain text; refuses audio books (media_type "Sound") with a clear error. |
| gutenberg_browse_popular | Browse the most-downloaded Project Gutenberg books, ordered by popularity. Returns up to 32 titles with their Gutenberg IDs, authors, languages, and download counts. Optionally filter by language or topic. Use this as a discovery entry point — "what are the most popular classics in French?" — or as a heartbeat check that the catalog is reachable. |