ForgeMesh Library MCP

What ForgeMesh Library MCP does

ForgeMesh Library MCP gives MCP-compatible agents access to a public-domain literature corpus. Its retrieval tools can locate passages across the corpus, find books by title or author, inspect metadata, retrieve chapter text, and return notable quotations. The service also includes curated subject shelves and a date-seeded book recommendation.

The ask_book tool provides a focused question-and-answer route for a hand-curated set of flagship works, including Moby-Dick, The Republic, Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and other major titles. It returns cited passages from the selected book. For books outside that set, agents can combine corpus search with metadata, chapter, or quote retrieval.

How it works

The MCP package communicates with the hosted Library service. Tool calls use retrieval over an indexed collection of real book text; responses are not generated summaries. Payment is handled through x402: when a request receives an HTTP 402 challenge, the server signs a USDC authorization and retries the request. Settlement information may appear in the response under _payment.

Payments use USDC on Base mainnet. No account, subscription, or separate API key is needed. The corpus includes material drawn in part from Project Gutenberg, but the service is not affiliated with or endorsed by Project Gutenberg. Its catalog is growing, so agents should query the live index rather than rely on a fixed book count.

Setup and configuration

Run the package with Node.js 20 or newer and a dedicated, low-balance Base wallet funded with USDC. A typical MCP configuration starts the package through npx and passes WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY in the server environment:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "library": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@forgemeshlabs/library-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Use a wallet dedicated to these payments rather than a primary wallet. The signer is restricted to the Library payee, Base mainnet, USDC, and the service's payment limits. X402_MAX_PRICE_USD and X402_SESSION_BUDGET_USD can reduce the per-call and session ceilings, but cannot raise them. The package supports Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and MCP clients that can launch a standard stdio server.

Tools and capabilities

• search_literature searches the full corpus for passages from any indexed book.
• search_books finds books using title or author substrings.
• get_book_metadata returns title, author, year, subjects, shelves, and chapter range for a book ID.
• get_chapter retrieves the complete text of a selected chapter.
• get_quotes returns notable passages, with optional thematic filtering.
• ask_book answers questions about supported flagship books using cited passages.
• browse_shelf lists books from curated categories and subject shelves, including more than 100 auto-generated shelves.
• book_of_the_day selects a deterministic daily book based on the date.

The live service also publishes agent-readable llms.txt, OpenAPI, and x402 discovery documents. These expose the direct HTTP surface, route schemas, shelf catalog, and payment metadata for applications that do not use MCP.

Limitations and notes

Tool calls are paid, and the service's displayed prices can change because the actual charge comes from the x402 challenge at request time. Requests time out after 60 seconds, are limited to 2 MB, and do not follow redirects. The server will not sign payments outside its approved payee, network, asset, or configured limits.

ask_book is limited to its hand-curated flagship titles. Other books require a search-based workflow. The corpus is public-domain material, and the service provides retrieval rather than LLM-generated interpretation or summarization. The full shelf catalog can be browsed without a paid tool call at the published Library endpoints.