# io.github.cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server (remote · gutenberg.caseyjhand.com)

MCP server for Project Gutenberg — 75,000+ public-domain ebooks with full plain-text retrieval.

- Trust score: 69/100 (medium)
- Change this week: +5
- Registry status: active
- Liveness: live
- Owner verified: no
- Last scored: 2026-08-03

## Components

- remote · `gutenberg.caseyjhand.com`: 69/100 (this document), [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg)
- npm · `@cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server`: 35/100, [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server)

## Channel facts

- Endpoint: `https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp`
- Transports: `streamable-http`
- Auth: `none`
- Version: `0.1.6`

## Trust breakdown

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically against the live server, and we only credit what we can confirm. Scores are 0–100 per category. Scoring method: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring (what has changed: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring/changelog)

Scored 2026-08-03.

- **Endpoint Security**: 66/100
  - The endpoint's TLS certificate is valid, in date, and uses a strong key.
  - Authorisation not fully verified: no authorisation is required to call this server, and 4 tool(s) never declared a destructiveHint. The MCP spec treats an absent hint as destructive by default, so we cannot call this surface safe.
  - HTTPS is enforced; there's no plaintext access path.
  - The HSTS (Strict-Transport-Security) header is present.
  - DNSSEC is configured correctly; the domain's records validate against the full chain to the root.
- **Transport & Reachability**: 100/100
  - Verified streamable-http transport via a live MCP handshake.
- **Schema Quality & AI Usability**: 66/100
  - AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).
  - Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 1176 tokens (~294/item across 4 items; 4 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params.
  - Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples.
- **Stability & Change Management**: 27/100
  - Stability observed for 8 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.
- **Tool Coverage**: 100/100
  - 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).
  - 100% of tool parameters carry a description.
  - Structured output schemas are declared (100% of tools); any adoption earns full credit.
- **Capabilities**: 100/100
  - Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.

## Install

### Claude

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp
```

### Codex

```toml
[mcp_servers.cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server]
url = "https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
```

### opencode

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
```

### OpenClaw

```bash
openclaw mcp add cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server --url https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp --transport streamable-http
```

### Hermes

```yaml
mcp_servers:
  cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server:
    url: "https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
```

### Other

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

The mcpServers block is a cross-client convention. Remote transports vary, so check your client's docs.

## Changelog

Every change recorded for this component, newest first. Days that predate change tracking, or that we cannot explain, say so: "we were watching and nothing happened" and "we were not watching" are different claims.

### 2026-08-03 (score 69, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 23 to 27. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 7 days of observed history at the previous scan, 8 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-08-01 (score 68, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 17 to 20. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 5 days of observed history at the previous scan, 6 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-07-31 (score 67, +1)

- [functional] We updated how we score, so this day's move reflects our rubric, not a change to the server

### 2026-07-30 (score 66, +1)

- [functional] We updated how we score, so this day's move reflects our rubric, not a change to the server

### 2026-07-29 (score 65, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 7 to 10. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 2 days of observed history at the previous scan, 3 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-07-27 (score 64, +1)

- [functional] We updated how we score, so this day's move reflects our rubric, not a change to the server

### 2026-07-26 (score 63)

First indexed and scored.

## MCP tools (4)

### `gutenberg_search_books` (~424 tokens)

Search Gutenberg Books

Search the Project Gutenberg catalog of 78,000+ public-domain books. Matches title and author name with query words; filters by topic (subject or bookshelf keyword), language, author lifespan, or a specific list of Gutenberg IDs. Results are ordered by popularity (download count) by default. Returns book ID, title, authors, languages, subjects, and download count — use gutenberg_get_book for the full formats map before fetching text.

Input parameters:

- `author_year_end` (integer): Include only books with at least one author alive on or before this year. Example: author_year_start=1800 with author_year_end=1899 returns books with 19th-century authors.
- `author_year_start` (integer): Include only books with at least one author alive on or after this year (positive = CE, negative = BCE). Combine with author_year_end for a range.
- `ids` (array): Narrow results to specific Gutenberg ID numbers. Other filters still apply. Useful for batch pre-fetching known IDs; use gutenberg_get_book for single-ID lookups.
- `languages` (array): Filter to books in any of these two-character ISO 639-1 language codes. Example: ["en"] for English, ["fr", "de"] for French or German.
- `page` (integer): Page number for paginated results (1-indexed). Each page returns up to 32 books. Use totalCount to determine total pages.
- `query` (string): Words to match against book titles and author names (case-insensitive, space-separated). Example: "dickens expectations" matches Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
- `sort` (string): Result ordering. "popular" (default) sorts by download count descending. "ascending" and "descending" sort by Gutenberg ID number.
- `topic` (string): Case-insensitive phrase to match against subjects and bookshelves. Example: "detective" returns books on the "Detective and Mystery Stories" bookshelf. Separate from query — topic searches categoriza…

Output parameters:

- `books` (array): Matching books, ordered by the sort parameter.
- `hasMore` (boolean): True if there are additional pages of results.
- `page` (number): Current page number.
- `totalCount` (number): Total number of books matching the query across all pages.

### `gutenberg_get_book` (~155 tokens)

Get Gutenberg Book

Fetch complete metadata for a Project Gutenberg book by ID — title, authors (with birth/death years), translators, editors, subjects, bookshelves, languages, copyright status, and the full formats map with download URLs for each available format (plain text, HTML, EPUB, cover image, etc.). Use this before gutenberg_get_text to confirm a plain-text format is available and to get the direct download URL.

Input parameters:

- `id` (integer, required): Project Gutenberg book ID. Visible in Gutenberg URLs (e.g., gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342) and returned by gutenberg_search_books and gutenberg_browse_popular. Example: 1342 for Pride and Prejudice, 2600…

Output parameters:

- `authors` (array): Primary author(s).
- `bookshelves` (array): Project Gutenberg bookshelf categories (e.g., "Best Books Ever Listings", "Category: Classics of Literature").
- `copyright`: Copyright status: false = public domain in the USA, true = under copyright, null = unknown.
- `download_count` (number): Total downloads — popularity signal.
- `editors` (array): Editors, if any.
- `formats` (object): Map of MIME type to download URL. Key types: "text/plain; charset=utf-8" (preferred for gutenberg_get_text), "text/html", "application/epub+zip", "image/jpeg" (cover). Not every format is present for…
- `has_plain_text` (boolean): True if media_type is "Text" AND a UTF-8 text/plain format ("text/plain; charset=utf-8") is present in formats — prerequisite for gutenberg_get_text.
- `id` (number): Gutenberg ID.
- `languages` (array): Two-character language codes for this edition.
- `media_type` (string): "Text" for readable books, "Sound" for audio books. Only "Text" books have plain-text content available for gutenberg_get_text.
- `subjects` (array): Library of Congress subject headings.
- `summary`: Auto-generated summary of the work, when available. Absent on many older records.
- `title` (string): Book title.
- `translators` (array): Translators, if this is a translated work.

### `gutenberg_get_text` (~319 tokens)

Get Gutenberg Book Text

Retrieve the plain-text content of a Project Gutenberg book, stripped of the standard license header and footer so the response contains only the literary work. For long works — novels routinely run 500KB–2MB — use offset and limit to read in chunks rather than fetching the whole book at once. The response reports totalChars and remainingChars so the caller can page through without guessing. Prefers UTF-8 plain text; falls back to an HTML edition converted to text; refuses audio books (media_type "Sound") with a clear error.

Input parameters:

- `id` (integer, required): Project Gutenberg book ID. Use gutenberg_search_books or gutenberg_get_book to find IDs. Example: 1342 for Pride and Prejudice, 2600 for War and Peace, 84 for Frankenstein.
- `limit` (integer): Maximum number of characters to return in this chunk. Default 20,000 (~4–5 pages of prose). Increase toward 50,000 for large context windows. The actual returned length may be slightly less than limi…
- `offset` (integer): Character offset into the stripped literary text at which to start reading. 0 returns the beginning of the work. To read subsequent chunks, use offset = prior_offset + prior_length (the length field…

Output parameters:

- `hasMore` (boolean): True if there is more text after this chunk. When true, call again with offset = offset + length.
- `id` (number): Gutenberg book ID.
- `length` (number): Number of characters in this chunk.
- `offset` (number): Character offset where this chunk begins.
- `provenance` (string): One-line source note with Project Gutenberg ID, title, and license URL.
- `remainingChars` (number): Characters remaining after this chunk (totalChars - offset - length). 0 means this chunk includes the end of the book.
- `sourceFormat` (string): The format that was fetched. "text/html" indicates HTML-to-text conversion was applied because no plain-text format was available.
- `text` (string): The requested chunk of literary text, stripped of Gutenberg license boilerplate. Encoding: UTF-8. Line endings: normalized to LF.
- `title` (string): Book title, from the catalog record.
- `totalChars` (number): Total characters in the stripped literary text. Use with offset and length to determine progress and plan subsequent calls.

### `gutenberg_browse_popular` (~200 tokens)

Browse Popular Gutenberg Books

Browse the most-downloaded Project Gutenberg books, ordered by popularity. Returns up to 32 titles with their Gutenberg IDs, authors, languages, and download counts. Optionally filter by language or topic. Use this as a discovery entry point — "what are the most popular classics in French?" — or as a heartbeat check that the catalog is reachable.

Input parameters:

- `languages` (array): Restrict to books in these languages (two-character ISO 639-1 codes). Example: ["en"] for English only, ["de", "fr"] for German or French. Omit for all languages.
- `limit` (integer): Number of books to return (1–32). Default 20 gives a useful overview without overwhelming context.
- `topic` (string): Filter by a subject or bookshelf keyword (case-insensitive phrase match). Example: "science fiction", "adventure", "detective". Applies on top of the language filter.

Output parameters:

- `books` (array): Top books by download count, most popular first.
- `cap` (number): The limit that was applied.
- `shown` (number): Number of books returned in this response.
- `totalInCatalog` (number): Total books matching the filter in the full catalog (useful for context — "top 20 of 60,000").
- `truncated` (boolean): True when the catalog held more matches than were returned.
- `truncationCeiling` (number): Download count of the least-popular book shown — omitted books have at most this many downloads.

## Diagnostics

Captured diagnostic sections: TLS, DNSSEC, Authorisation, Transports. The full working is on the page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg#diagnostics

## Score history

- 2026-08-03: 69
- 2026-08-02: 68
- 2026-08-01: 68
- 2026-07-31: 67
- 2026-07-30: 66
- 2026-07-29: 65
- 2026-07-28: 64
- 2026-07-27: 64
- 2026-07-26: 63

## Links

- Remote endpoint: https://gutenberg.caseyjhand.com/mcp
- Repository: https://github.com/cyanheads/gutenberg-mcp-server
- Changelog RSS feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg/changelog.xml
- Changelog JSON feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg/changelog.json
- HTML version of this page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/cyanheads-gutenberg-mcp-server/gutenberg