Gutendex MCP for AI. Find specific book details and metadata instantly.
Works with every AI agent you already use
…and any MCP-compatible client








Connect to your AI in seconds.
Gutendex connects your AI agent to 70,000+ public domain ebooks from Project Gutenberg. You search and discover classic literature and research material—all free of charge and without needing an API key.
What your AI can do
Get book
Retrieves detailed information about a single book using its Gutenberg ID or known title.
Get books by url
Pulls complete book details directly from any provided Gutenberg web address.
List books
Searches and lists books using powerful filters like author, topic, language, and download format.
Find specific books using filters like author name, subject matter, language, or copyright status.
Retrieve complete information about a single book, including all subjects and available formats.
Pull detailed metadata for any Gutenberg book you provide the full web address for.
Limit your search results to specific file types, like PDF or plain text.
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Gutendex: Book Metadata Search (3 Tools)
Use these three tools to search, filter, and retrieve complete metadata on classic public domain ebooks using titles, URLs, or subjects.
Make your AI actually useful.
Add this MCP to Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf and your AI stops guessing. It gets real tools to look things up, take action, and handle the stuff you keep doing by hand.
Start using Gutendex on VinkiusGet Book
Retrieves detailed information about a single book using its Gutenberg ID or known title.
Get Books By Url
Pulls complete book details directly from any provided Gutenberg web address.
List Books
Searches and lists books using powerful filters like author, topic, language, and...
Security and governance baked right in.
Pick your AI client below to get set up. Just create a Vinkius account, subscribe, and you're instantly up and running. We handle the entire backend infrastructure, delivering out-of-the-box support for HTTPS Streamable, SSE, and OAuth2—zero messy routing required.
Choose How to Get Started
Build a custom MCP for your own tools, or connect a ready-made integration from our catalog.
Build Your Own
Turn any API into an MCP. Import a spec, define Agent Skills, or deploy with MCPFusion.
- Import from OpenAPI, Swagger, or YAML specs
- Create Agent Skills with progressive disclosure
- Deploy to edge with MCPFusion framework
- Built in DLP, auth, and compliance on every call
- Real time usage dashboard and cost metering
- Publish to catalog or keep private
Make Your AI Do More
Start with Gutendex, then connect any of our 5,100+ other servers whenever your AI needs more. One click, no limits.
- Use this MCP plus 5,100+ others, all in one place
- Add new capabilities to your AI anytime you want
- Every connection is secured and compliant automatically
- Track usage and costs across all your servers
- Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
- New servers added to the catalog every week
Independent Platform Disclaimer: Vinkius is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, verified by, or otherwise authorized by Gutendex. All third-party trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners. Their use on this website is strictly for informational purposes to identify service compatibility and interoperability.
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Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
The Model Context Protocol standardizes how applications expose capabilities to LLMs. Instead of operating in isolation, your AI gains direct access to external platforms, live data, and real-world actions through secure, standardized connections.
This connection provides 3 powerful capabilities that interface natively with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other compatible AI platforms. No middleware. No custom integration required.
Finding source material means bouncing between five different websites.
Today, finding a reliable list of classic texts is painful. You open Google Books, check the Gutenberg site for IDs, then maybe another archive to see if it has PDF versions. Every time you cross-reference sources, you risk getting outdated metadata or missing critical filter options like genre combination.
With this MCP, that process disappears. Your agent handles all the source checking and data aggregation. You simply ask your client to find 'science fiction books written in French,' and it pulls the necessary titles, download counts, and formats back instantly.
The Gutendex MCP gives you structured book data from any link.
You eliminate the need to cross-reference URLs. Instead of copying a long web address into an unfamiliar tool, you pass it directly to the agent. The `get_books_by_url` function cleans up the messy data and gives you clean titles, authors, and subjects in one go.
This means your workflow stops being about copy-pasting links and starts being about asking specific questions that get direct, structured answers.
What your AI can actually do with this
This MCP gives you direct access to the world's largest catalog of free, public domain books. Instead of sifting through multiple library sites or worrying about paid subscriptions, your AI client handles everything. You just ask for what you need—a classic novel by author name, a subject like 'social classes,' or even filtering down results to only EPUB files from the 19th century.
It's all in one place, managed through Vinkius. When you connect this MCP, your agent can pull detailed book metadata, including download counts and every format available, letting you get research material ready for use immediately.
019d8444-f46d-7217-84b8-62934372545f Here's how it actually works
The bottom line is you get precise book metadata without having to manage any API keys or complex setup.
Subscribe to this MCP in Vinkius. You won't need an API key; it's ready right away.
Tell your AI client what you are looking for—a title, author range, or specific subject (e.g., '19th-century French poetry').
The MCP sends the query to Gutendex and returns structured data with titles, authors, subjects, and download links.
Who is this actually for?
Anyone working with historical data, academia, or large-scale content curation. If your job involves finding source material from before the modern copyright era, this is for you.
Needs to find multiple primary sources across different languages and check their public domain status quickly.
Requires a massive list of classic texts, sorted by language or available format (like audiobook).
Needs source material for research background—say, finding all works on 'social classes' before 1850.
What Changes When You Connect
Finding sources is fast. Instead of manually checking dozens of sites for public domain content, you use the list_books tool to filter by everything—language, subject, author years—in one query.
Never worry about file format again. The get_book function gives you every available download option (PDF, EPUB, Kindle, etc.) right out of the box.
It saves time on metadata extraction. If you have a link to an old book, don't copy and paste it into ten different tools; just use get_books_by_url and get all the data instantly.
Research deepens with precise filtering. You can narrow your search using list_books, limiting results by author birth/death year range to focus on specific eras.
It’s free, no sign-ups required. This MCP uses public domain resources, meaning you get access without any billing concerns or API key setup.
See it in action
Building a literature syllabus for students
A professor needs to build a reading list spanning multiple countries and time periods. They use list_books to filter by language (Portuguese, German) and subject ('Romanticism'), getting titles sorted by popularity so they know what's most available.
Verifying source material for an article
A journalist needs a definitive count of all public domain texts related to 'social class.' They use list_books and then run get_book on the top result to pull the exact download statistics.
Migrating an archive from old links
A librarian has a list of old, messy Gutenberg URLs. Instead of opening each one manually, they feed the batch into get_books_by_url to pull all necessary metadata for bulk processing.
Checking historical context on a novel
A student is writing about 'Moby Dick.' They use list_books first, then run get_book with the ID to confirm its original publication year and subjects for their bibliography.
The honest tradeoffs
Searching by keyword only
A user asks the agent, 'Show me books about love.' This returns thousands of results with no way to narrow down the time period or language.
Instead, use list_books and specify filters. For example, filter by subject ('Love stories') AND language ('English') AND author year range (1800-1900).
Manually checking formats
A user finds a book online but has to guess if they can get it as an EPUB or PDF, wasting time downloading the wrong file.
Run get_book on the title. The response will list every single available format (HTML, EPUB, Kindle, PDF) in one place.
Using a paid book API
The user connects a proprietary service that requires a subscription just to look up titles.
Use this MCP. It accesses the public domain Gutenberg archive and needs zero setup or payment.
When It Fits, When It Doesn't
Use this if your goal is retrieving metadata for classic, out-of-copyright literature. This MCP handles everything from basic title searches to complex filtering by subject, language (using ISO codes), or specific date ranges. Don't use it if you need contemporary news articles, modern copyrighted novels, or real-time scientific data; for those, use a general search API. If you only have a URL and no context, stick with get_books_by_url. If you know the title but nothing else, start with list_books to gather initial options.
Questions you might have
Do I need an API key? +
No! Gutendex is completely free and requires no authentication. Just subscribe and start searching. There's no sign-up or registration needed.
What books are available? +
Gutendex indexes 70,000+ ebooks from Project Gutenberg, the world's oldest digital library. This includes classics like Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, Moby Dick, Romeo and Juliet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and thousands of other public domain works in many languages.
Can I filter by language? +
Yes! Use the languages parameter with ISO 2-letter codes: "en" for English, "pt" for Portuguese, "fr" for French, "es" for Spanish, "de" for German, etc. You can also combine multiple languages: "en,fr" for English and French books.
Can I download the books? +
Yes! Each book includes download URLs in multiple formats: HTML, EPUB, Kindle (MOBI), plain text, PDF and sometimes audio. The download links go directly to Project Gutenberg's servers. All books are in the public domain in the United States.
What specific book metadata does `get_book` provide for a title? +
It returns comprehensive data including subjects, download counts, and all available formats like HTML, EPUB, Kindle, and PDF. You get full context for research or cataloging purposes.
Can I use `list_books` to find books based on their copyright status or author years? +
Yes, you can filter by specific criteria like public domain versus in-copyright status. You can also narrow results using the author's birth and death year range.
If I have a Gutenberg URL, how do I get book details using `get_books_by_url`? +
Just pass the full Gutenberg URL to get_books_by_url. The MCP handles the parsing and returns all associated metadata automatically.
Does `list_books` automatically sort results when I search for a topic or subject? +
By default, the books found using list_books are sorted by popularity. This means you see the most downloaded and widely read titles first.
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