Librarian MCP Server
Turn any ebook into clean, token-counted Markdown chapters - let Claude read your bookshelf over MCP and catch it misquoting your books. Deterministic RAG: no embeddings, no network, no API keys. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.
People who work with ebooks, epub and fb2 and want it reachable from Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in Python.
VERIFIED ACTIVE
LAST COMMIT 2026-09-01 · ★ 2 · #58 OF 106 MAINTAINED AI & ML · VERIFIED 2026-09-18
MIT · Python servers · how we verify → /methodology
01 · Install Librarian
before you install - you'll need
LIB_HOME is optional or environment-specific per the README.
Claude Code
claude mcp add terobyte-librarian-cli -- uvx librarian-cli Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config
{
"mcpServers": {
"terobyte-librarian-cli": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"librarian-cli"
]
}
}
} Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.
Using another client? Same JSON, different key
Claude Desktop · mcpServers
Cursor · mcpServers
VS Code · servers
Windsurf · mcpServers
Zed · context_servers
Cline · mcpServers
Roo Code · mcpServers
Continue · mcpServers
LibreChat · mcpServers
Gemini CLI · mcpServers
Codex CLI · mcp_servers
Full setup guides: every client.
02 · Evidence
Security posture
What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.
runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions
license MIT - declared in the repository
pypi package librarian-cli - check the name against the project README before installing (PyPI has no namespace ownership)
registry namespace io.github.Terobyte is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner
03 · What Librarian can do
Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.
Limitations (from the README)
- PDF: works well on typographically normal books; complex layouts may land in review. - DRM is not circumvented; source legality is the user's responsibility. - Networked filesystems (NFS/SMB) are not supported (the advisory lock isn't reliable there). - MOBI/DJVU and text-less scans are not supported (v3 candidates: OCR, calibre). - CLI messages are currently in Russian; English output is planned. - lib verify: quo
Latest releases
v0.2.0 · 2026-09-01
lib verify "quote" [--book ID] [--json] [--limit N]: catches misquoted book text, · deterministically, no LLM. Book mode (--book) does a full scan of one book; shelf mode · (no --book) attributes the quote across the…
v0.1.0 · 2026-07-08
Deterministic pipeline turning FB2, EPUB, DOCX, HTML, TXT/MD, and text-layer PDF into · clean, token-counted Markdown chapters - byte-identical output for identical input. · Quality gate: five metrics (coverage…
04 · Who maintains Librarian
Librarian is maintained by terobyte. It's the only MCP server we track from this author; the repo dates to Jul 2026.
05 · Facts
- repository
- github.com/terobyte/librarian-cli
- category
- AI & ML - ranked #58 of 106 actively-maintained AI & ML servers as of 2026-09-18.
- release cadence
- 2 releases in the last 90 days (latest 2026-09-01)
- registry
- io.github.Terobyte/librarian (active, first published 2026-07-08)
- packages
- pypi:librarian-cli
06 · Librarian FAQ
What is Librarian?
Turn any ebook into clean, token-counted Markdown chapters - let Claude read your bookshelf over MCP and catch it misquoting your books. Deterministic RAG: no embeddings, no network, no API keys. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.
Is Librarian still maintained?
Yes - as of 2026-09-18, its last commit was 2026-09-01 and it shipped 2 releases in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.
How do I install Librarian?
Run `uvx librarian-cli`. The README documents one environment variable (LIB_HOME) to set first. LIB_HOME is optional or environment-specific per the README. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.
Does Librarian run locally?
Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via uvx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.
07 · Alternatives to Librarian
Alternatives to Librarian
Maintained AI & ML servers if Librarian isn't the fit.
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- Haiku RAG Local-first agentic RAG with citations - hybrid search, reranking, multimodal document retrieval ★ 609 · 2026-09-17
- Plan Exe MCP server for generating rough-draft project plans from natural-language prompts. ★ 401 · 2026-09-13
- Local RAG (shinpr) Easy-to-setup local RAG server with minimal configuration ★ 398 · 2026-09-18
- PageIndex MCP Reasoning-based RAG system for chatting with long PDFs. Supports local and online files. ★ 388 · 2026-07-25
Pairs well with
Servers that cover what Librarian doesn't - only shown when the pairing reason fits the companion.
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