Gutenberg Mcp Server
Discover and fetch full plain-text public-domain books from Project Gutenberg through your agent—for RAG corpora, reading apps, or content products without hunting mirror sites.
Overview
Gutenberg MCP Server is a MCP server for the Idea phase that searches Project Gutenberg and retrieves full plain-text public-domain ebooks for your agent.
What is this MCP server?
- Project Gutenberg catalog access with full plain-text ebook retrieval
- Corpus scale stated in README: 75,000+ public-domain ebooks
- No API key in manifest—stdio or localhost:3010 HTTP; v0.1.1 @cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server
- MCP_LOG_LEVEL for debugging agent batch downloads
- Supports grow-phase content and build-phase RAG seed data for indie tools
- 75,000+ public-domain ebooks per server description
- Server version 0.1.1
- npm package @cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server
Community signal: 1 GitHub stars.
What problem does it solve?
You waste hours on mirror sites and manual downloads when your agent could not programmatically search or fetch public-domain book text.
Who is it for?
Indie builders making reading tools, quote bots, datasets, or educational content from free classics.
Skip if: Products that need current bestsellers, DRM ebooks, or publisher-licensed modern titles outside the public domain.
What do I get? / Deliverables
After install, your agent can query Gutenberg and return full plain-text works suitable for prototypes, RAG indexes, or content pipelines.
- Catalog search hits from Project Gutenberg
- Full plain-text ebook content in agent-accessible form
- Seed material for RAG, apps, or content products
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Journey fit
The discover subphase is about finding raw material and references; Gutenberg’s 75,000+ titles are a free corpus for prototypes, datasets, and educational products. Discover fits catalog search and retrieval of existing works before you validate scope or build ingestion pipelines—not paid ebook marketplaces.
How it compares
Public-domain ebook catalog MCP, not an EPUB store integration or a single-book paste skill.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is Gutenberg MCP Server for?
It is for developers and agent users who need searchable access to Project Gutenberg’s public-domain library with full plain-text retrieval in MCP clients.
When should I use Gutenberg MCP Server?
Use it when discovering or ingesting classic texts for RAG, reading apps, research corpora, or content generation during idea, validate, or build.
How do I add Gutenberg MCP Server to my agent?
Add @cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server to MCP settings, run start:stdio or point to http://localhost:3010/mcp, set MCP_LOG_LEVEL if needed, and restart your client.