MCP

Dalibre serves the open library to AI agents on your computer over the Model Context Protocol. Your agent can search your books, read their details and files, edit metadata, add books and formats, and get books from Get books’ sources, while Dalibre is open.

MCP is in Dalibre 0.2.0 and later.

What agents can do	Tools
Search and read the library	search_books, get_book, list_facets
Change the library	update_books, set_cover, add_books, remove_books, add_format, remove_format
Use Get books’ sources and the metadata plugins	find_books, download_book, find_metadata
Write plugins and try them	list_plugins, create_plugin, add_plugin, reload_plugins, test_plugin, enable_plugin, remove_plugin
Run plugins’ actions	list_actions, run_action

Turn it on

Click the MCP button in the toolbar and turn on its switch, or open Settings › MCP. The server listens on http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp; the port is in Settings › MCP.

Only programs on this computer can connect, and only with the server’s token. New token in Settings › MCP makes a new one at once; agents set up with the old one need the new setup.

Connect an agent

Settings › MCP › Connect an agent has the setup for each agent with your token in it. Copy copies it.

Claude Code

Run it in a terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http dalibre http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop only starts servers that talk over stdin and stdout, so it runs Dalibre’s own bridge, Dalibre mcp, which needs no token. Add it to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dalibre": {
      "command": "/Applications/Dalibre.app/Contents/MacOS/Dalibre",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

That is the path on macOS; the snippet in Settings › MCP has the path on your computer. When Dalibre isn’t running, the bridge still answers the search and read tools from your last library.

Cursor

Add it to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dalibre": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <token>" }
    }
  }
}

Other agents

Any MCP client that speaks Streamable HTTP can connect to http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp with the header Authorization: Bearer <token>. One that only starts stdio servers can run Dalibre mcp, as Claude Desktop does.

Examples

Ask in your own words; the agent picks the tools. Under each request is what it calls.

Find and read

What do I have by Ursula K. Le Guin that I haven’t rated?

search_books {"author": "Ursula K. Le Guin"}, then the books with no rating.

Which series am I missing books from?

list_facets {"kind": "series"}, then search_books {"series": "…", "sort": "series"} for each, comparing series_index.

Summarize the description of The Left Hand of Darkness.

search_books {"query": "left hand darkness"}, then get_book {"id": 12}, whose comments is the description as plain text.

Tidy up metadata

Tag every Liu Cixin book “Chinese SF” and “Hard SF”.

search_books {"author": "Liu Cixin"}, then one call for all of them:

update_books {"ids": [3, 4, 9], "patch": {"add_tags": ["Chinese SF", "Hard SF"]}}

The tags “sci-fi”, “SciFi” and “Science Fiction” are the same; keep “Science Fiction”.

list_facets {"kind": "tags"}, search_books {"tag": "sci-fi"} and search_books {"tag": "SciFi"}, then update_books with "add_tags": ["Science Fiction"], "remove_tags": ["sci-fi", "SciFi"].

Fill in the missing ISBNs and publishers of my recently added books.

search_books {"recent": true}, find_metadata {"id": 21} for each, then update_books with the values it trusts: {"publisher": "Tor Books", "identifiers": {"isbn": "9780765382030"}}.

Use ~/Downloads/piranesi.jpg as the cover of Piranesi.

set_cover {"id": 7, "path": "/Users/me/Downloads/piranesi.jpg"}, or "url" for an image on the web.

Convert formats

Dalibre doesn’t convert yet; your agent can, with the tools it has, and add the result to the book.

Make an AZW3 of Dune for my Kindle with ebook-convert.

1. get_book {"id": 5} gives the EPUB’s path in files.
2. The agent runs ebook-convert "<the EPUB's path>" /tmp/Dune.azw3.
3. add_format {"id": 5, "path": "/tmp/Dune.azw3"}

Dalibre copies the file into the book’s folder, names it as calibre does, and the book shows AZW3 at once. The converted file has to be outside the library folder.

Replace the PDF of Thinking, Fast and Slow with an EPUB made by pandoc, and remove the PDF.

get_book, the conversion, add_format with the .epub, then remove_format {"id": 14, "format": "PDF"}.

Add books

Add every e-book in ~/Downloads/books.

add_books {"paths": ["/Users/me/Downloads/books"]}. Books already in the library are reported, not added again.

Find Pride and Prejudice on Project Gutenberg and add the EPUB.

find_books {"query": "Pride and Prejudice"}, then download_book {"source": "dalibre.gutenberg", "id": "1342", "format": "EPUB"}.

Remove

Remove the duplicates of Dune, keeping the one with the most formats.

search_books {"query": "dune"}, get_book for each, then remove_books {"ids": [31]}. Removed books go to the Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows), so you can get them back.

Write a plugin

Write a Dalibre plugin that gets books from Standard Ebooks, and try it.

The agent reads the plugin docs, then create_plugin {"path": "/Users/me/standard-ebooks", "id": "io.github.me.standardebooks"}, writes plugin.json and main.js there, and add_plugin {"path": "/Users/me/standard-ebooks"}. Dalibre asks you to allow the hosts the plugin reaches; the agent can’t allow them for you. Then it tries it, test_plugin {"id": "io.github.me.standardebooks", "call": "search", "text": "dune"}, reads the results, the script’s logs and errors, fixes the code and calls reload_plugins. The plugin loads from its folder, so it is in Get books as soon as it works.

Tools

Tool	What it does	Read only
search_books	Searches and filters the books by words, author, series, tag, publisher, language, format or recently added; sorted; 50 at a time.	✓
get_book	A book’s metadata, description, identifiers, and the paths of its files and cover.	✓
list_facets	Authors, series, tags, publishers, languages or formats, with how many books have each.	✓
update_books	Changes the fields given of one or more books; add_tags and remove_tags tag many at once.
set_cover	Replaces a book’s cover with an image file or URL.
add_books	Adds e-book files, or every e-book in folders.
remove_books	Moves books to the Trash.
add_format	Adds a file to a book as a format, or replaces the one it has.
remove_format	Deletes one format of a book.
find_books	Searches Get books’ sources.
download_book	Adds a find_books result to the library.
find_metadata	Looks a book up with the metadata plugins.
list_plugins	The plugins: loaded, off, waiting for you to allow them, or failed and why.
create_plugin	Starts a plugin in an empty folder from the template.
add_plugin	Adds a plugin from its folder; you are asked to allow what it reaches.
reload_plugins	Loads the plugins again after an edit.
test_plugin	Calls a plugin’s search, collections, list, get, resolve, identify or process and returns the result, logs and error.
enable_plugin	Turns a plugin on or off.
remove_plugin	Removes a plugin added from a folder; the folder stays.
list_actions	Lists what the plugins can do with books and the library: their actions.
run_action	Runs an action and returns what it found and wants changed. Forms are answered with answers; nothing is written without apply.

Settings › MCP lists them too.

Read only

Agents get every tool by default. Turn off Let agents edit, add and remove books in Settings › MCP and they get only the search and read tools; the MCP popover then says “Running · read only”.

See what agents did

While an agent works, the MCP button shows it, with its icon or initials and its name. Its popover lists the agents and their latest calls in words, such as “Searched “Dune” · 1 book”; click a call to see its arguments. Dalibre keeps the last 500 calls while it runs.

Edits an agent makes show in the window at once, as your own do.