Apple Books vs Audiobookshelf

In-depth architectural comparison of the Apple Books and Audiobookshelf MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

A

Choose Apple Books when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: list_all_collections, get_collection_books, describe_collection.

Explore Apple Books Details

Choose Audiobookshelf when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: list_libraries, get_library, get_library_stats.

Explore Audiobookshelf Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	A Apple Books Developer Tools	Audiobookshelf Developer Tools
Summary	Access your Apple Books library, annotations, reading progress, and highlights through Claude	Browse your Audiobookshelf libraries and keep listening progress, bookmarks and playlists in sync
Category & Scope	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Quality signal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "audiobookshelf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "audiobookshelf-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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