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Audiobookshelf

Connects AI assistants to a self-hosted Audiobookshelf library for searching, browsing, and read-only listening data.

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Install Audiobookshelf

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

No confirmed install command yet

We only publish a config when the install details come from the project itself — its README, its docs, or a verified owner. We haven’t found those for Audiobookshelf, and we’d rather show nothing than a guess you’d paste into your client.

Open setup steps on GitHub

Overview

Audiobookshelf MCP server connects an AI assistant to a self-hosted Audiobookshelf instance through its API. It exposes read-only tools for finding libraries, books, podcasts, series, authors, collections, listening progress, sessions, and statistics. Reach for it when you want conversational access to your personal Audiobookshelf catalog without granting write or playback-control permissions.

Use cases

  • Search an audiobook library by title, author, or narrator
  • Check which audiobooks are currently in progress
  • Review listening time and recent listening sessions
  • Browse series, authors, and collections
  • Inspect progress for a specific audiobook

Key features

  • Search libraries by title, author, or narrator
  • List libraries and paginated items
  • Retrieve audiobook and podcast details
  • Report progress, sessions, and listening statistics
  • Browse series, authors, and collections
  • Read-only API access

Tools12

What Audiobookshelf lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Self-reported~140 tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked 3d ago

Recent health check succeeded.

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars1Stargazers on the source repository.
Last commit4mo agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Tools exposed12Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

How Audiobookshelf works

What the Audiobookshelf MCP server does

The Audiobookshelf MCP server gives an MCP-compatible AI client read-only access to a self-hosted Audiobookshelf account. It is intended for asking questions about a personal audiobook and podcast collection, such as which libraries exist, what is currently in progress, or how much listening occurred on a given day.

The server connects to Audiobookshelf using the instance URL and an API token. It does not modify library data, manage users, start playback, or change playback state. The API token is supplied through an environment variable and is not logged or exposed by the server.

How it works

After the server is registered with an MCP client, the client can call tools that query the configured Audiobookshelf instance. Library tools support searching by title, author, or narrator and listing library items with pagination. Item tools return detailed metadata for an audiobook or podcast and identify items with listening progress.

Playback-related tools report information rather than controlling playback. They can return progress for a specific item, recent listening sessions, and total listening time with a daily breakdown. Browsing tools can list series, retrieve a series and its books, retrieve an author and associated books, and list collections within a library.

The default enabled toolsets are libraries, items, and playback. The browse toolset is optional and can be enabled through configuration.

Setup and configuration

Create an API token in Audiobookshelf under Settings, Users, and the selected user. Then install the Go binary with go install, or download the release binary for macOS, Linux, or Windows. Configure the MCP client to launch audiobookshelf-mcp with these required variables:

  • AUDIOBOOKSHELF_URL: the URL of the self-hosted Audiobookshelf server.
  • AUDIOBOOKSHELF_TOKEN: the Audiobookshelf API token.

AUDIOBOOKSHELF_TOOLSETS is optional. It accepts a comma-separated list of toolsets and defaults to libraries,items,playback; setting it to all enables every available toolset, including browsing.

Claude Desktop users can install a platform-specific .mcpb bundle. The README identifies manual configuration examples for Claude Code, Antigravity CLI (formerly Gemini CLI), and OpenCode; the bundle format is currently supported only by Claude Desktop.

Tools and capabilities

The Audiobookshelf MCP server exposes 12 tools:

  • List all Audiobookshelf libraries.
  • Search a library by title, author, or narrator.
  • List library items with pagination.
  • Retrieve detailed audiobook or podcast information.
  • Find items currently being listened to and their progress.
  • Retrieve total listening time and daily statistics.
  • List recent listening sessions.
  • Check progress for a specific media item.
  • List series and retrieve a series with its books.
  • Retrieve an author with associated books.
  • List collections in a library.

The first seven capabilities are available through the default libraries, items, and playback toolsets. Series, author, and collection browsing belongs to the opt-in browse toolset.

Limitations and notes

All tools are read-only. The Audiobookshelf MCP server cannot add or remove media, edit metadata, manage users, start or stop playback, or otherwise mutate the Audiobookshelf instance. A valid API token and reachable server URL are required. Clients that do not support the .mcpb bundle need the manually installed binary and standard MCP configuration.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

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Frequently Asked Questions about Audiobookshelf

Audiobookshelf is an MCP server that connects AI assistants to a self-hosted Audiobookshelf instance through an API token. Its main tools list libraries, search and inspect audiobooks or podcasts, browse series and authors, and report listening progress, sessions, and statistics. All exposed operations are read-only.

Install the Go binary with `go install` or download a release binary for your platform, then configure your MCP client to launch `audiobookshelf-mcp`. Set `AUDIOBOOKSHELF_URL` and `AUDIOBOOKSHELF_TOKEN` before connecting it to your Audiobookshelf instance.

It requires `AUDIOBOOKSHELF_URL` and `AUDIOBOOKSHELF_TOKEN`. The URL points to your self-hosted Audiobookshelf server, and the token comes from Settings → Users in Audiobookshelf. `AUDIOBOOKSHELF_TOOLSETS` is optional and controls which tool groups are enabled.

No, it does not control playback. Its playback-related tools only read media progress, listening sessions, total listening time, and daily listening statistics; all tools are read-only.

Yes, Claude Desktop can install a platform-specific `.mcpb` bundle.

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