Project Gutenberg MCP

project-gutenberg-mcp

An MCP server for reading books from Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg Terms of Service

Project Gutenberg's robot access policy states that the site is intended for human users only. Automated access may result in your IP being blocked.

To use this MCP server you must run your own mirror. Project Gutenberg explicitly supports and encourages mirroring — see their mirroring guide for details.

This repository includes a ready-to-run mirror server in the mirror/ directory.

Mirror Setup

The mirror server downloads the Project Gutenberg catalog on startup (~5 MB compressed) and caches book files locally on first access. It exposes the URL structure that this MCP server expects.

Docker Compose (recommended)

Runs the mirror and MCP server together. The MCP server is exposed on HTTP at port 8081.

docker compose up

The mirror is available at http://localhost:8080 and the MCP server at http://localhost:8081/mcp.

Mirror only (stdio)

Build and start just the mirror, then connect an MCP client via stdio.

task build:mirror
task start:mirror

The mirror runs at http://localhost:8080. Example MCP client config (stdio):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "project-gutenberg-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_TOOLS=search_books,get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage",
        "roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables.

Variable	Required	Description
GUTENBERG_BASE_URL	Yes	Base URL of your Gutenberg mirror (see Mirror Setup above)
GUTENBERG_TOOLS	Yes	Comma-separated list of tools to expose (see below)
GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID	No	Project Gutenberg book ID to use as default
GUTENBERG_CHUNK_SIZE	No	Passage size in bytes (default: 4096)
GUTENBERG_LANGUAGE	No	Default ISO 639-1 language code for search_books (default: en)

Tools

Tool	Description
search_books	Search for books by title or author
get_book_metadata	Fetch metadata (title, authors, formats) for a book
fetch_book_text	Download the full plain text of a book
list_passages	List fixed-size passage keys for a book
get_passage	Fetch a specific passage by its key

When GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID is set, tools that take a book ID will use it as the default. When it is not set, include search_books in your tools list so an agent can discover IDs first.

Running

stdio

GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
./project-gutenberg-mcp --transport stdio

HTTP

GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
./project-gutenberg-mcp --transport http --addr :8081

Docker

Pulling pre-built images

# MCP server
docker pull roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0

# Mirror
docker pull roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0

Building locally

Both Dockerfiles use Docker Hardened Images (DHI) for enhanced security. Building requires authentication to Docker Hub:

docker login

Then build:

# Build MCP server
docker build -t project-gutenberg-mcp .

# Build mirror
docker build -f mirror/Dockerfile -t gutenberg-mirror ./mirror

Running the MCP server

# HTTP
docker run -p 8081:8081 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
  -e GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
  roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp --transport http --addr :8081

# stdio
docker run -i --rm \
  -e GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080 \
  -e GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680 \
  -e GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage \
  roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp

Running the mirror

# Create a named volume for cache persistence
docker volume create gutenberg-cache

# Run mirror (serves on http://localhost:8080)
docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v gutenberg-cache:/data \
  --name gutenberg-mirror \
  roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0

Multi-architecture builds

Both images support linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 architectures. To build and push multi-arch images:

# Create a builder instance
docker buildx create --name multiarch --use

# Build and push MCP server
docker buildx build \
  --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
  -t roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0 \
  -t roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:latest \
  --push \
  .

# Build and push mirror
docker buildx build \
  --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
  -t roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:1.2.0 \
  -t roberthouse224/gutenberg-mirror:latest \
  --push \
  -f mirror/Dockerfile \
  ./mirror

MCP client config (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "project-gutenberg-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:8080",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_BOOK_ID=2680",
        "-e", "GUTENBERG_TOOLS=get_book_metadata,list_passages,get_passage",
        "roberthouse224/project-gutenberg-mcp:1.2.0"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Local builds (non-Docker)

task build         # outputs to build/project-gutenberg-mcp
task build:mirror  # outputs to mirror/build/mirror
task test

Book IDs

A few useful IDs:

Book	ID
Meditations — Marcus Aurelius	2680
The Republic — Plato	1497
Thus Spoke Zarathustra — Nietzsche	1998
Moby Dick — Melville	2701
Pride and Prejudice — Austen	1342