Source Library MCP server

Read from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.

• check_duplicate

  Check if a book already exists in Source Library before importing. Uses 4-tier matching: source fingerprint, title+author normalization, keyword search, and semantic similarity. Returns confidence level, matches with URLs, and a suggestion (safe to import / review matches / likely duplicate). Use this BEFORE every import to avoid duplicates.

• get_book

  Get a book's AI-generated summary, chapter list, index stats, edition metadata, DOI, page counts, and processing status. THIS IS THE RIGHT FIRST CALL whenever the user has named a specific author or work — the summary is typically a multi-paragraph orientation covering the book's argument, structure, and significance, often answering the question without any further searching. Pair with get_book_t

• get_book_text

  READ A BOOK — start here. Preferred: use 'chapter' param to read one chapter at a time (includes page markers like [Page 42] for citation). Or use page ranges (from/to) for focused reading. Call get_book first to see the chapter list. TRUNCATION: the response always includes truncated: true/false. When truncated=true, the truncation_note field gives the exact next from/to values to call — this mea

• get_quote

  Get the exact translated text of a single page for quoting. Returns the full translation, original OCR text, and a formatted citation. ALWAYS use this tool before putting text in quotation marks — copy the exact text from the response. Do not paraphrase or reconstruct from memory.

• list_books

  Browse the catalog by metadata — filter by author/title fragment, language, category, or translation recency. Returns books with title, author, language, year, page counts, and translation progress. Use this to discover WHAT EXISTS by an author or in a tradition before searching content; for content matches (passages on a topic) use search_translations or search_concept.

• search_concept

  Conceptual / semantic passage search across the whole library. Use when the modern term won't literally appear in historical texts — e.g. "distributed cognition" maps to passages about active intellect, art of memory, wax tablet metaphors; "social contract" maps to pre-Hobbesian discussions of consent and authority. Ranks passages by cosine similarity on Gemini embeddings, so paraphrases and conce

• search_images

  Search the visual collection: 50,000+ illustrations extracted from book pages PLUS 23,000+ standalone artworks (paintings, frescoes, prints, sculptures from Met, Rijksmuseum, Wikimedia, NGA). Filter by type, subject, figure, symbol, year, book, or text query. Each result has a `source` field — `gallery` (illustration in a book) or `artwork` (standalone museum work). Use `type=painting` or `type=fr

• search_library

  Full-text search across Source Library's 22,000+ rare historical books. Searches titles, authors, translations, and OCR text. Returns matching books and page snippets with citation URLs. ORIENTATION HINT: when the user has named a specific author or work, call get_book directly (or list_books to find the ID first) — the AI-generated book summary is usually the right first answer and saves repeated

• search_translations

  Search inside translated page text across the entire library. THE tool for sweeping across many books for evidence on a theme. Unlike search_library (which matches titles/authors), this searches inside the actual text. Returns passage snippets with page numbers, book info, and citation URLs. ORIENTATION HINT: if the user has named a specific author or work, prefer get_book first — every book has a

• search_within_book

  Search inside a specific book's pages (OCR and translations). Returns matching pages with snippets and citation URLs. Use after finding a book to locate specific passages.

• submit_feedbackwrite action

  Submit feedback, bug reports, feature requests, or comments to the Source Library team. Messages go directly to the maintainers.

• Code scan7 source files scanned25/25
• –Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
• –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
• Auth qualitylocal package, no credentials required12/15
• Maintenancelast push 0 days ago15/15
• Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner7/10

Safety score

91/100

higher than 88% of 3,470 Web search servers

Tools

11

the typical Web search server has 5

Tools that change things

9%

typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break

GitHub stars

19

more than 89% of 1,786 Web search servers

Downloads a week

95

more than 55% of 827 Web search servers with a package

Source Library: common questions

Is Source Library MCP server safe?

Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (91/100). Read the Source Library safety report

How do I install Source Library?

It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.

Does Source Library need an API key?

Not as far as the registry entry and our scan can tell: no credentials are declared or required.

Is Source Library maintained?

The last commit was 38 days ago (2026-09-27). The latest release is v4.3.0.

What can I use instead of Source Library?

Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Brave Search MCP server, Zotero MCP server and Zotero MCP server.

How does Source Library compare with other Web search MCP servers?

safety score 91/100 (higher than 88% of 3,470 Web search servers); tools 11 (the typical Web search server has 5); tools that change things 9% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.