Apple Books

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Apple Books.

- Pick up where you left off— Claude sees the chapter you're onandits text, plus recent highlights in the book.
- Expand on any highlight— get the surrounding paragraph explained in context, with the exact anchor you marked shown in«...».
- Revisit a book— pull your highlights, cluster them by theme, and quote you back to yourself.
- Reflect on your reading— patterns across books, recurring ideas in your highlights, what you're actually drawn to.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/77a5a29b-bfd7-4275-a4af-8d6c51a4527e

"args": ["apple-books-mcp@latest", "--enable-writes"]

Apple provides no automation API for collections, so these write directly to the library database — behind guard rails: every writerefuses while Books is open, takes an automatic WAL-safe backup first (~/.py_apple_books/backups/), validates the schema and aborts on drift, and only touches user-created collections (plus "Want to Read" membership). Deleting a collection never deletes the books in it.

⚠️ If iCloud sync for collections is enabled, direct edits may not propagate to other devices and can be reverted by a cloud re-sync.

Only works for non-DRM EPUBs (imported books, Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, etc.). Apple Books Store purchases are FairPlay-protected and return a clear error. iCloud-only books return a "not downloaded" hint.

Attachable data objects accessible from Claude Desktop's resource picker.

One-click workflows, accessible from Claude Desktop's prompt picker.

uvxcan be used to directly run apple-books-mcp (without installing it).

brew install uv # for macos uvx apple-books-mcp

docker run -v ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:/root/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:ro ghcr.io/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp:latest

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

{ "mcpServers": { "apple-books-mcp": { "command": "python", "args": ["-m", "apple_books_mcp"] } } }

{ "mcpServers": { "apple-books-mcp": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "-v", "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:/root/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents:ro", "ghcr.io/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp:latest" ] } } }

- PDF content access (currently EPUB-only)
- fuller annotation context via CFI → paragraph resolution

Thank you for considering contributing to this project!

If you cloned this repository, you can test it using Claude Desktop with below configuration:

Useuv venvto create a virtual environment and install the dependencies.

{ "mcpServers": { "apple-books-mcp": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--directory", "/path/to/apple-books-mcp/", "run", "apple_books_mcp", "-v" ] } } }

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx apple-books-mcp

If you encounter a bug, have a feature request, or want to discuss something related to the project, please open an issue on the GitHub repository. When opening an issue, please provide:

Bug Reports: Describe the issue in detail. Include steps to reproduce the bug if possible, along with any error messages or screenshots.

Feature Requests: Clearly explain the new feature you'd like to see added to the project. Provide context on why this feature would be beneficial.

General Discussions: Feel free to start discussions on broader topics related to the project.

1️⃣ Fork the GitHub repositoryhttps://github.com/vgnshiyer/apple-books-mcp
2️⃣ Create a new branch for your changes (git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature).
3️⃣ Make your changes and test them thoroughly.
4️⃣ Push your changes and open a Pull Request tomain.

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