Library of Alexandria for developers
The library's catalogue, its free shelf and its print editions, as one small set of read-only tools that any program, assistant or model can call. There is no key and nothing to sign up for. The tools never sign anyone in, take a payment or change anything; every title they return carries the address of its page on libraryofalexandria.com, where a person reads, listens, prints or starts.
Three doors lead to the same eight tools:
| Door | Address | For |
|---|
| MCP (Streamable HTTP) | https://mcp.libraryofalexandria.com/mcp | Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, Perplexity, Le Chat, LM Studio, Open WebUI, Cursor, VS Code, Goose and every other MCP client |
| REST + OpenAPI 3.1 | POST https://api.libraryofalexandria.com/v1/<tool> and GET .../v1/openapi.json | scripts, automation tools (n8n, Zapier, Make, Dify, Flowise), Open WebUI tool servers, Copilot Studio |
| Tool files for model makers | `GET .../v1/tools?format=openai | openai-chat |
The eight tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
search_books | find titles by words from a title, an author or a topic, in any language of the catalogue |
get_book | the facts of one title: author, original title, cover, print editions, its page in each language |
get_summary | the first key idea of the 15-minute summary of one title in full, and the headings of the others (part chooses one) |
get_sample | the free opening of one title, in pages of at most 400 words (page chooses one) |
list_free_shelf | the titles on the free shelf, by language and subject |
read_free_chapter | one chapter of a free-shelf title, in pages of at most 400 words |
get_print_options | the print editions of one title (standard and large print; paperback or hardcover) with the list price in US dollars |
get_publisher_info | who publishes the library, the languages, the terms and privacy pages |
A summary, a sample page or a free-shelf chapter that is not open yet (a title, a language, or all texts before they go online) answers plainly that it "opens here soon"; the tools then fill in without any change on your side. The text tools count the words they hand out for each client (72,000 a day and 48,000 an hour) and show what is left in budget.
Try it in a minute
curl -s https://api.libraryofalexandria.com/v1/search_books \
-H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":"moby dick","limit":3}'
The answer is {"ok": true, "data": {...}, "source": "Library of Alexandria, libraryofalexandria.com"}. A problem comes back as application/problem+json (RFC 9457) with a stable code; see openapi/loa-api.openapi.json.
What is in this folder
| Path | What |
|---|
openapi/loa-api.openapi.json | the OpenAPI 3.1 file (also served live at /v1/openapi.json) |
function-tools/*.json | the eight tools in the shapes of OpenAI (Responses and Chat Completions), Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama and MCP |
cli/loa.mjs | the command line loa (Node 18 or newer, no dependencies) |
sdk/typescript/loa.mjs, loa.d.ts | the JavaScript and TypeScript client (no dependencies; browsers, Node, Deno, Bun, Workers) |
sdk/python/loa_library.py | the Python client (standard library only) |
sdk/python/loa_tools.py | one plain Python function per tool, for Ollama and any framework that builds tool schemas from type hints |
mcp-bridge/loa-mcp.mjs | a stdio bridge for MCP clients that cannot reach a remote server |
quickstarts/ | how to connect LM Studio, Open WebUI, Ollama, Goose, Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, LangChain and the OpenAI Agents SDK |
AGENTS.md, SKILL.md | instructions for coding agents and for assistants that help a person with the library |
tests/ | the tests of this kit (node --test tests/*.test.mjs and python3 tests/test_python.py) |
The generated files (openapi/, function-tools/) are made from the service's own code; a test in the service fails when they are out of date.
Rules of the library, for everyone who quotes it
- Say what the answer says; use the
url of a title as given; never invent a price or an offer.
- The library is not the ancient library of Alexandria and not the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
- Payments and sign-up happen on libraryofalexandria.com only; a tool can hand over a link, never take a payment.
- Please keep to a few requests a second and send a
User-Agent that names your program.
Versions
The API version is a date, sent back in the LOA-Version header (2026-10-25). Changes are announced on the developer page.
Licence
MIT, see LICENSE. The library's tools return catalogue facts, short summaries and free parts as the service allows; the licence covers this code and these documents, not the books.
Registry entry
The description of the server for the official MCP Registry is in server.json.
