Ebook-MCP provides a standardized Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for processing electronic books, focusing on EPUB and PDF formats. It enables natural language conversations with your digital library, integrates with AI-powered tools, and offers capabilities such as smart library management, interactive reading, active learning support, and content navigation. You can query your e-books, request summaries, extract key points from chapters, generate quizzes, and navigate to sections or topics using natural language prompts. This makes it easier to work with your books inside AI-enabled IDEs or conversational agents. The server is designed to bridge traditional e-books with AI assistants, so you can ask questions like “Show me chapters about prompt engineering” or “Summarize the key points from Chapter 5,” and receive guided, contextual responses.

The quick demo emphasizes a workflow with DeepSeek and examples that integrate with Claude/OpenAI through the mcp-client-example folder. Typical interactions include locating EPUB files, querying chapters, and generating learning tasks, all backed by the Ebook-MCP APIs.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js installed on your system (recommended latest LTS)
• Internet access to fetch the MCP package from npm/npx

Installation steps:

1. Ensure you have npm installed and accessible in your shell.
2. Install or run the MCP server via NPX (this example uses an npm package name assumed from the repository naming): npm install -g onebirdrocks-ebook-mcp # if you prefer a global install

   or rely on npx for a one-off run as shown in mcp_config

3. Run the MCP server (per the mcp_config, using npx): npx -y onebirdrocks-ebook-mcp
4. Verify the server starts and exposes its MCP API endpoints. If needed, configure environment variables for authentication, logging, or storage paths as described in the project documentation.
5. (Optional) Integrate with your preferred MCP client or AI assistant by pointing it at the running server’s MCP endpoints.

Tips and considerations:

• The server focuses on EPUB and PDF processing; ensure your library paths and file access permissions allow reading these formats.
• If you encounter permission or network issues when using NPX or npm install, check your npm config and try running with elevated privileges or a clean npm cache.
• Common environment variables to consider adding include:
  • VAR_API_KEY: for authentication with any integrated services
  • LOG_LEVEL: e.g., debug, info, warn, error
  • STORAGE_PATH: where to store processed or cached book data
• When troubleshooting, consult the mcp-client-example folder for example prompts and client usage patterns that show how to structure queries and interpret responses.
• If switching to a Docker or Python-based deployment later, be sure to adapt the mcp_config to the corresponding command and arguments.