Apple Books Mcp

Apple Books MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Apple Books.

[](https://vgnshiyer.me/AppleBooksMcp)

[](https://pypi.org/project/apple-books-mcp/) [](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0) [](https://www.linkedin.com/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all?usecase=PEOPLE_FOLLOWS&followMember=vgnshiyer) [](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vgnshiyer)

At a glance

• Pick up where you left off — Claude sees the chapter you're on and its text, plus recent highlights in the book.
• Expand on any highlight — get the surrounding paragraph explained in context, with the exact anchor you marked shown in «...».
• Revisit a book — pull your highlights, cluster them by theme, and quote you back to yourself.
• Reflect on your reading — patterns across books, recurring ideas in your highlights, what you're actually drawn to.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/77a5a29b-bfd7-4275-a4af-8d6c51a4527e

And much more!

Available Tools

Collections

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | listallcollections | List all collections | limit?: int | | getcollectionbooks | Get all books in a collection | collectionid: str | | describecollection | Get details of a collection | collectionid: str | | searchcollectionsbytitle | Search for collections by title | title: str |

Books

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | listallbooks | List all books | limit?: int | | describebook | Get details of a particular book (metadata, progress, annotation count, description) | bookid: str | | listannotations | Get all annotations for a book (id + text + chapter per row, chapter-ordered) | bookid: int, limit?: int | | searchbooksbytitle | Search for books by title | title: str | | getbooksbygenre | Get books by genre (substring match) | genre: str, limit?: int |

Reading Status

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | getbooksinprogress | Get books currently being read | limit?: int | | getfinishedbooks | Get books that have been finished | limit?: int | | getunstartedbooks | Get books not yet started | limit?: int | | getrecentlyreadbooks | Get most recently opened books | limit?: int (default: 10) |

Annotations

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | listallannotations | Browse every annotation grouped by book, newest first | limit?: int | | recentannotations | Get most recent annotations (flat, with date + book per row) | limit?: int (default: 10) | | describeannotation | Get full details of a single annotation | annotationid: str | | getannotationcontext | Text window around a highlight (the paragraph it's in), with the highlight marked «...» | annotationid: int, charsbefore?: int (default: 500), charsafter?: int (default: 500) | | gethighlightsbycolor | Highlights of a particular color, grouped by book | color: str, limit?: int | | searchnotes | Search user notes (shows highlight + note inline) | note: str, limit?: int | | searchannotations | Search across highlights + notes + surrounding text | text: str, limit?: int | | getannotationsbydate_range | Annotations within a date range (flat, with date + book per row) | after?: YYYY-MM-DD, before?: YYYY-MM-DD, limit?: int |

Library Stats

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | getlibrarystats | Get library summary with reading stats | None |

Book Content

Only works for non-DRM EPUBs (imported books, Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, etc.). Apple Books Store purchases are FairPlay-protected and return a clear error. iCloud-only books return a "not downloaded" hint.

| Tool | Description | Parameters | |------|-------------|------------| | listbookchapters | Table of contents for a book (chapter titles, order, nesting) | bookid: int | | getchaptercontent | Plain-text content of a chapter, with optional offset + max_chars slicing | bookid: int, chapterid: str, offset?: int, maxchars?: int | | getcurrentreadingposition | The chapter the user last left off reading (via Apple Books' auto-bookmark CFI) | bookid: int |

Available Resources

Attachable data objects accessible from Claude Desktop's resource picker.

| Resource | URI | Description | |----------|-----|-------------| | Currently Reading | apple-books://currently-reading | The book you're reading right now — most recently opened in-progress book, with metadata, the chapter you left off on plus a preview of its text (for non-DRM EPUBs), and recent annotations. Attach to any conversation to focus Claude on your current read. |

Available Prompts

One-click workflows, accessible from Claude Desktop's prompt picker.

| Prompt | Description | Arguments | |--------|-------------|-----------| | weeklydigest | Summarize what I've read and highlighted in the past week | days?: int (default: 7) | | librarysnapshot | A reflection on my whole reading life | None | | revisitbook | Revisit your notes and highlights from a specific book | booktitle: str |

Installation

Using uv (recommended)

uvx can be used to directly run apple-books-mcp (without installing it).

brew install uv  # for macos
uvx apple-books-mcp

Using pip

pip install apple-books-mcp

After installing, you can run the server using:

python -m apple_books_mcp

Using Docker

docker run -v ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:/root/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:ro ghcr.io/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp:latest

First-run permission prompt (macOS)

On first use, macOS will ask whether uvx (or python / docker, depending on how you launched) may "access data from other apps." Click Allow — the MCP reads Apple Books' private container at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/, which macOS treats as another app's sandboxed data. Access is read-only and scoped to that container; the server starts successfully either way, but without permission every tool comes back empty.

Configuration

Claude Desktop Setup

Using uvx (recommended)

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apple-books-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [ "apple-books-mcp@latest" ]
        }
    }
}

Using python

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apple-books-mcp": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": ["-m", "apple_books_mcp"]
        }
    }
}

Using Docker

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apple-books-mcp": {
            "command": "docker",
            "args": [
                "run", "-i", "--rm",
                "-v", "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:/root/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:ro",
                "ghcr.io/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp:latest"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Upcoming Features

• [ ] PDF content access (currently EPUB-only)
• [ ] fuller annotation context via CFI → paragraph resolution

Contribution

Thank you for considering contributing to this project!

Development

If you cloned this repository, you can test it using Claude Desktop with below configuration:

Use uv venv to create a virtual environment and install the dependencies.

uv venv
uv sync

Debugging

With Claude Desktop

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apple-books-mcp": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/path/to/apple-books-mcp/",
                "run",
                "apple_books_mcp",
                "-v"
            ]
        }
    }
}

With inspector

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx apple-books-mcp

Opening Issues

If you encounter a bug, have a feature request, or want to discuss something related to the project, please open an issue on the GitHub repository. When opening an issue, please provide:

Bug Reports: Describe the issue in detail. Include steps to reproduce the bug if possible, along with any error messages or screenshots.

Feature Requests: Clearly explain the new feature you'd like to see added to the project. Provide context on why this feature would be beneficial.

General Discussions: Feel free to start discussions on broader topics related to the project.

Contributing

1️⃣ Fork the GitHub repository https://github.com/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp \ 2️⃣ Create a new branch for your changes (git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature). \ 3️⃣ Make your changes and test them thoroughly. \ 4️⃣ Push your changes and open a Pull Request to main.

Please provide a clear title and description of your changes.

License

Apple Books MCP is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: vgnshiyer
• Source: vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://vgnshiyer.me/AppleBooksMcp

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.