Search books and authors, fetch editions, browse subjects, and resolve cover images.
Openlibrary MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Openlibrary directly instead of describing what you should do. Search books and authors, fetch editions, browse subjects, and resolve cover images.
Being a remote server, there is no local install. You register the endpoint with your client, authorise it once, and the tools appear.
Once Openlibrary is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
openlibrary_search_books — Full-text book search with field filters (title, author, subject, publisher, ISBN, language), sort options, pagination, and optional live readingopenlibrary_get_work — Fetch a work by Open Library Work ID (OL…W) — title, description, subjects, cover IDs, and author IDsopenlibrary_get_editions — List editions of a work — publishers, languages, formats, ISBNs, and print run detailsopenlibrary_get_edition — Resolve up to 50 editions in one call by ISBN-10, ISBN-13, OCLC, LCCN, or Open Library Edition ID (OL…M), reporting per-identifier missesopenlibrary_search_authors — Search authors by name — returns Author IDs, birth/death dates, top works, and subject associationsopenlibrary_get_author — Fetch author detail by Open Library Author ID (OL…A) — bio, dates, photo IDs, and linked identifiers from Wikidata, VIAF, ISNI, Goodreads, andopenlibrary_get_author_works — List works by an author — titles, cover IDs, and Work OLIDs for drilling into editions or detailsopenlibrary_get_subject — Browse works by subject tag — returns matching works with edition counts and cover IDs plus the total work countopenlibrary_search_inside — Full-text search inside the scanned text of Internet Archive books — returns matching items with snippetsopenlibrary_get_cover_url — Resolve a cover image URL for a book or author photo in S/M/L size — returns a direct HTTPS URL embeddable in markdownPrerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this serverInstallation — The Installation tool exposed by this serverYou will need 4 environment variables: MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE, MCP_LOG_LEVEL, MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH, MCP_PUBLIC_URL. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
This sits in the cloud and infrastructure group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Openlibrary's toolset — openlibrary_search_books, openlibrary_get_work, openlibrary_get_editions and 9 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by cyanheads; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
This entry was verified against Openlibrary's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| openlibrary_search_books | Full-text book search with field filters (title, author, subject, publisher, ISBN, language), sort options, pagination, and optional live reading availability |
| openlibrary_get_work | Fetch a work by Open Library Work ID (OL…W) — title, description, subjects, cover IDs, and author IDs |
| openlibrary_get_editions | List editions of a work — publishers, languages, formats, ISBNs, and print run details |
| openlibrary_get_edition | Resolve up to 50 editions in one call by ISBN-10, ISBN-13, OCLC, LCCN, or Open Library Edition ID (OL…M), reporting per-identifier misses |
| openlibrary_search_authors | Search authors by name — returns Author IDs, birth/death dates, top works, and subject associations |
| openlibrary_get_author | Fetch author detail by Open Library Author ID (OL…A) — bio, dates, photo IDs, and linked identifiers from Wikidata, VIAF, ISNI, Goodreads, and LibraryThing |
| openlibrary_get_author_works | List works by an author — titles, cover IDs, and Work OLIDs for drilling into editions or details |
| openlibrary_get_subject | Browse works by subject tag — returns matching works with edition counts and cover IDs plus the total work count |
| openlibrary_search_inside | Full-text search inside the scanned text of Internet Archive books — returns matching items with snippets |
| openlibrary_get_cover_url | Resolve a cover image URL for a book or author photo in S/M/L size — returns a direct HTTPS URL embeddable in markdown |
| Prerequisites | The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server. |
| Installation | The Installation tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"openlibrary-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "bunx",
"args": ["@cyanheads/openlibrary-mcp-server@latest"],
"env": {
"MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
"MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| MCP_LOG_LEVEL | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH | Filesystem location the server is allowed to use. | Optional |
| MCP_PUBLIC_URL | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Yes |
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