For AI assistants

Browse our shelves from your AI assistant

MyBookBandits runs a public Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Connect Claude or any other MCP client and it can search our catalogue, read about a book, check its price and stock, and look along the same shelves you see on the site. It's free, needs no account, and can only read.

Server address

One URL, over Streamable HTTP. There's no OAuth to set up.

https://mybookbandits.com/mcp/books

Connect it

Claude (web, desktop and mobile)

Open Settings → Connectors and choose Add custom connector.
Name it MyBookBandits, paste the server address above, and leave the advanced OAuth fields empty.
In a chat, turn the connector on from the tools menu and ask away.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http mybookbandits https://mybookbandits.com/mcp/books

Other MCP clients

Most clients that support remote servers take a config like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mybookbandits": {
      "url": "https://mybookbandits.com/mcp/books"
    }
  }
}

What it can do

Catalogue statscatalogue_stats: Headline numbers for the catalogue: how many books exist, how many pass each visibility check, how many reach the shop shelves and home strips, description rewrite progress, and category and curated list counts. Refreshed every 30 minutes.
List shelveslist_shelves: List the shelves get_shelf accepts: the home page strips, the recently added feed, and every published curated list.
Get shelfget_shelf: The books on one shelf, in the order the shop shows them. Accepts a home strip (bestsellers, top_rated, new_releases, classics), recently_added, "category:<slug>" or "list:<slug>". Call list_shelves or list_categories for the keys.
List categorieslist_categories: Categories (genres) with how many browsable books each has, fullest first. Categories below the indexing threshold are hidden from the site navigation; pass include_hidden to see them too.
Search bookssearch_books: Search the catalogue by title, author or ISBN, using the same search engine as the shop. Returns compact summaries (price, rating, cover, whether the book is on the shop shelves). Use get_book for descriptions and full details.
Get bookget_book: Full public details for one book by ISBN-13: the description shoppers read, the scraped source description it was written from, any pending Claude rewrite, prices, stock, ratings, categories, and visibility checks that explain whether and why the book is on the shop shelves.
Sample bookssample_books: A random sample of books with their shop descriptions, for spot-checking the selection and the writing. Pools: on_shelves (browsable books, the default), home (books eligible for the home strips), not_on_shelves (books with a GBP price that the shop still hides, e.g. no description or cover). Each call draws a new sample.

Try asking

“What's on the bestsellers shelf right now, and is anything missing that a London bookshop would stock?”
“Find me literary fiction under £12 with great reviews.”
“Sample ten books and tell me how their descriptions read.”
“Find a gift for a friend who loved "Normal People", and check it's in stock.”

The small print

Read-only. Nothing connected here can place an order, change a basket or edit the catalogue.
Only public catalogue data: titles, authors, descriptions, covers, prices in pounds sterling, stock and ratings. No customer accounts, orders or personal details.
Up to 60 requests a minute per client. That's plenty for a conversation.
Prefer reading pages? Every book has a Markdown version too. See llms.txt.