Show HN: MCP server for searching and downloading documents from Anna's Archive

github.com

243 points by iosifache a day ago


I was looking around for an MCP server that could connect Anna's Archive to Claude Desktop, as I wanted to be able to search and download books directly through the interface.

I couldn't find any public implementations, so ended up building one myself.

What it does?

- It searches Anna's Archive by keywords. - It downloads books from search results. - It works directly in Claude Desktop through MCP.

Check out the repository's README for detailed installation and configuration instructions.

The code is fully open source and builds run on GitHub Actions for transparency.

I figured I'd share, since I couldn't be the only one wanting this functionality!

iosifache - a day ago

UPDATE:

Following a suggestion from @irskep, I've added CLI command support for the search and download features.

This raised a valid concern - while we're focused on building MCP servers, we shouldn't overlook whether users already have preferred (T/G)UIs available. When they don't exist, we should consider user experience and make our functionality accessible through multiple interfaces beyond just MCP.

https://github.com/iosifache/annas-mcp/releases/tag/v0.0.2

irskep - a day ago

What advantage do you get from this being an MCP server rather than simply a command line tool? Genuinely curious, as I'm trying to develop my mental model of when to use one or the other.

Lovely project!

snickerdoodle12 - 16 hours ago

Insane how HN cheers on piracy nowadays, all because it helps them train their LLMs

puppycodes - a day ago

love this. god bless anna's archive

toomuchtodo - a day ago

Edit: Would you accept a PR to override the search and download endpoint hostnames with env vars? For someone who has their own copy and ES index, it might be helpful to support overriding the public endpoint hostnames (/internal/anna/anna.go#L22-L23).

xmonkee - a day ago

I'm an LLM noob, but how feasible it is to make a research agent that can not only download articles, but read and reference them in it's process?

profsummergig - a day ago

My understanding of Anna's Archive is that one has to download large zip files (>10 Gb) containing thousands of books even if one wants only a single book.

Am I correct here?

Does this MCP server allow one to download just a single book?

I remember once using an IPFS based tool to download a single 200-year-old, out-of-copyright copy of "Last of the Mohicans" from Anna's Archive. It worked, but was very very complicated to figure out how to make it work.

ospider - 19 hours ago

Why do people keep building servers for such a silly protocol?

neilv - a day ago

> This software does not endorse unauthorized acquisition of copyrighted content and should be regarded solely as a utility. Users are urged to respect the intellectual property rights of authors and acknowledge the considerable effort invested in document creation.

How sincere is that statement?

johnjames87 - 20 hours ago

[flagged]

thorum - a day ago

Interesting project! I’m a little surprised that Claude is willing to call these functions. The demo screenshot is downloading a public domain work, I wonder if it would also happily go along with requests for Harry Potter or other copyrighted material?