mcp-aladin-books

This MCP server exposes Aladdin book search capabilities through the MCP protocol. It supports searching for books by title, author, publisher, or keyword, retrieving detailed information by ISBN, and listing current bestsellers, new releases, editor picks, blogger favorites, and categories. You can also fetch and format results into a table for display in your client. The server requires an Aladdin API key to access the underlying API.

To use, configure your MCP client to call the available tools (search_books, get_book_detail, get_bestsellers, get_new_books, get_special_new_books, get_editor_choice, get_blogger_best, search_categories, get_popular_categories, format_books_table). Each tool accepts parameters as documented in the server README. For example, you can search by a query and specify the searchType, or fetch a list of bestsellers with optional category restrictions. The format_books_table tool helps you render consistent table views for different data types (bestsellers, new_books, etc.).

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm installed on your system
• Access to the Aladdin API key (ALADIN_TTB_KEY)

Install and build the server:

# 1) Clone the repository (or download the package)
# git clone <repository-url>
# cd mcp-aladin-books-server

# 2) Install dependencies
npm install

# 3) Build the TypeScript sources (if applicable)
npm run build

Run the server (local development):

# Ensure ALADIN_TTB_KEY is provided in the environment or in a .env file
export ALADIN_TTB_KEY=your_aladin_ttb_key

# Start the server (typical command, adjust path as needed)
node dist/index.js

If you publish to a container or cloud environment, prepare the appropriate startup command and make sure the ALADIN_TTB_KEY environment variable is set in that environment.

Environment variables:

• ALADIN_TTB_KEY: Your Aladdin TTB API key. Required for API access.

Tips:

• Ensure your build outputs to dist/ as referenced in the configuration.
• The MCP client should point to the dist/index.js path (or your compiled entry).
• If you run behind a proxy or in a restricted network, ensure outbound requests to Aladdin API endpoints are allowed.

Common issues:

• Missing ALADIN_TTB_KEY will cause API requests to fail. Double-check the key and its permissions.
• Path mismatches for the built index.js can lead to module not found errors; verify the dist/index.js location after build.
• If you update the API integration, remember to rebuild before running in production.