Shakespeare's Monologues — MCP server

A small, read-only Model Context Protocol server that lets MCP-capable AI clients search and fetch Shakespeare monologue metadata from shakespeare-monologues.org.

It's a thin, stateless wrapper over the site's public JSON index (/api/monologues.json) — no database, no secrets. Every result carries the monologue's permalink url (where the full text, scene context, and modern-English paraphrase live) and an attribution note.

Tools

Tool	What it does
`search_monologues`	Free-text search (character / play / first line) + filters: `gender`, `play`, `style`, `act`, `limit`.
`get_monologue`	One monologue's index entry by numeric `id`.
`random_monologue`	A random monologue, optional `gender` / `play` filters.
`list_plays`	Every play with its classification and monologue count.
`list_all_monologues_for_a_character`	Every monologue spoken by a named character.
`get_monologue_of_the_day`	The current Monologue of the Day (latest social post).
`get_paraphrased_monologue`	A monologue's full text + its modern-English paraphrase (AI-generated; may be null if not yet generated).
`get_scene_summary`	AI-generated summary of the scene a monologue is in (by monologue id).
`get_play_summary`	AI-generated summary of a play (by title).

The paraphrase and summaries are AI-generated (Claude) and only partially cached so far, so those tools return null where content hasn't been generated yet.

Run locally

Two transports, same tools. server.ts builds the tool surface and knows nothing about how it's reached; index.ts serves it over HTTP and stdio.ts over stdio.

Over stdio, the way an MCP client spawns a local server:

Terminal

npx shakespeare-monologues-mcp

Over HTTP, which is how the hosted instance runs:

Terminal

npm install

npm run build

npm start          # listens on :3000, POST /mcp   (set PORT to change)

Health check: GET /health → {"ok":true}.

Neither mode needs credentials — the server reads the site's public JSON index. Set MONOLOGUES_API_URL to point it elsewhere, and POSTHOG_PROJECT_API_KEY="" to disable analytics.

Connecting a client

Remote MCP means users add a URL, no install. In a client that supports remote / custom MCP servers (Claude Desktop connectors, etc.), add:

Code

https://mcp.shakespeare-monologues.org/mcp

Or run it yourself over stdio, with no hosted dependency:

config.json

{

  "mcpServers": {

    "shakespeare-monologues": {

      "command": "npx",

      "args": ["-y", "shakespeare-monologues-mcp"]

    }

  }

}

For clients configured with a JSON config file, use the streamable-HTTP transport:

config.json

{

  "mcpServers": {

    "shakespeare-monologues": {

      "type": "streamable-http",

      "url": "https://mcp.shakespeare-monologues.org/mcp"

    }

  }

}

For a client that only speaks stdio, bridge to the remote server with mcp-remote:

config.json

{

  "mcpServers": {

    "shakespeare-monologues": {

      "command": "npx",

      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.shakespeare-monologues.org/mcp"]

    }

  }

}

Note on "autonomous" use: there's no mechanism today for an arbitrary agent to discover and use this with zero user action — a client/platform still has to connect it. For truly zero-setup access, agents can hit the plain JSON API (/api/monologues.json) and /llms.txt directly.

License

Code: MIT.
Data served through it: © shakespeare-monologues.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — please keep the attribution that each tool response includes.