Readwise Reader MCP server

The Reader MCP Server enables MCP-compatible clients like Claude and VS Code to interact with your Readwise Reader library. It acts as a bridge between these clients and your personal knowledge repository, allowing for document listing, retrieval, and updates.

Installation

To use the Reader MCP Server, you'll need to set up the server with your Readwise Reader API credentials.

Prerequisites

• A Readwise Reader account
• Your Readwise Reader API access token
• A compatible MCP client (Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.)
• Python and uv installed on your system

Setup

1. Clone or download the Reader MCP Server repository
2. Configure your environment with your Readwise Reader API access token using one of these methods:
   • Set it as an environment variable
   • Include it in your MCP client configuration
   • Create an .env file in the project directory

Configuration

Client Configuration

To use this server with Claude Desktop, VS Code, or any MCP-compatible client, add the following configuration to your client settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reader": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/absolute/path/to/your/reader/server",
        "run",
        "main.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Make sure to:

• Replace /absolute/path/to/your/reader/server with the actual path to the project directory
• Replace your_readwise_access_token with your actual Readwise Reader API access token

Using the MCP Server

Once configured, the Reader MCP Server provides the following functionality:

Listing Documents

The server provides a list_documents tool that allows you to retrieve documents from your Readwise Reader library.

Parameters:

• location (optional): Filter by folder. Options include:
  • new
  • later
  • shortlist
  • archive
  • feed
• updatedAfter (optional): Only return documents updated after this ISO8601 timestamp
• withContent (optional): If true, include HTML content in results (default: false)
• pageCursor (optional): Pagination cursor for fetching the next page

Example Usage:

When used with an MCP client, you can request documents like this:

List my recent articles from Readwise Reader

Or with more specific parameters:

Show me documents from my shortlist folder in Readwise Reader

The server will return a JSON object containing a list of documents with their metadata and optionally their content, along with pagination information.

Additional Resources

For more information, visit the Readwise Reader API documentation and MCP documentation.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "reader" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","/absolute/path/to/your/reader/server","run","main.py"],"env":{"ACCESS_TOKEN":"your_readwise_access_token"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "reader": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/absolute/path/to/your/reader/server",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "reader": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/absolute/path/to/your/reader/server",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_readwise_access_token"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect