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Readwise Reader MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Readwise Reader API, built with TypeScript and the official Claude SDK.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "edricgsh-readwise-reader-mcp": {
      "url": "https://mcp.readwise.example/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "READWISE_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

You run a local MCP server that exposes Readwise Reader functionality to your client apps via a lightweight, configurable interface. This server handles authentication, document management, tagging, and rich content access, so you can save, search, filter, and retrieve documents with complete metadata and clean text suitable for language model processing.

How to use

Use an MCP client to connect to the Readwise Reader MCP Server. The server authenticates requests with a Readwise access token stored in the environment and exposes endpoints to save, list, update, and delete documents, as well as manage tags and perform topic searches. You will typically operate through an MCP client configuration that starts the local server process and passes your token securely.

How to install

Prerequisites: Node.js is installed on your system. You may also need npm to install dependencies and build the project.

Install dependencies and build the MCP server.

npm install
npm run build

Configuration and usage notes

Configure your local MCP client to start the Readwise Reader MCP Server and provide your Readwise access token via an environment variable.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "readwise-reader": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/reader_readwise_mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "READWISE_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}
```
Replace:
- `/path/to/your/reader_readwise_mcp` with the actual path to your project directory
- `your_readwise_access_token_here` with your actual Readwise access token
"},

Security and access controls

The server stores the Readwise token in the environment and uses it for all API requests. Keep this token secure and limit exposure in your environment. Do not commit tokens to source control.

Notes on usage and capabilities

The MCP server supports secure authentication, document management (save, list, update, delete), tag management, and rich filtering with pagination. It returns complete document information including content, metadata, and timestamps, with HTML content converted to clean text for easy handling by language models.

Available tools

readwise_save_document

Save a document (URL or HTML content) to Readwise Reader. Includes optional tags and location metadata.

readwise_list_documents

List documents with optional filters such as id, updatedAfter, location, category, and tag. Returns full document objects with metadata and content.

readwise_update_document

Update an existing document by id with optional fields such as title, author, summary, published_date, image_url, location, and category.

readwise_delete_document

Delete a document by id from Readwise Reader.

readwise_list_tags

List all tags currently in Readwise Reader.

readwise_topic_search

Search documents by topic using regex terms against title, summary, notes, and tags, returning matching documents.