Sefaria MCP Server

A modern MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for accessing the Jewish library via the Sefaria API.

What does this server do?

This server exposes the Sefaria Jewish library as a set of 14 MCP tools, allowing LLMs and other MCP clients to:

Primary Tools:

• get_text - Retrieve Jewish texts by reference (e.g., “Genesis 1:1”)
• text_search - Search across the entire Jewish library
• get_current_calendar - Get situational Jewish calendar information. Accepts diaspora (true for Diaspora, false for Israel) for weeks when Torah reading schedules diverge.

Core Tools:

• get_links_between_texts - Find cross-references and connections between texts
• search_in_book - Search within a specific book or text work
• search_in_dictionaries - Search Jewish reference dictionaries

Support Tools:

• get_english_translations - Retrieve all available English translations for a text
• get_topic_details - Retrieve detailed information about topics in Jewish thought
• clarify_name_argument - Autocomplete and validate text names, book titles, and topics
• clarify_search_path_filter - Convert book names to proper search filter paths

Structure Tools:

• get_text_or_category_shape - Explore the hierarchical structure of texts and categories
• get_text_catalogue_info - Get bibliographic and structural information (index) for a work

Manuscript Tools:

• get_available_manuscripts - Access historical manuscript metadata and image URLs
• get_manuscript_image - Download and process specific manuscript images

All endpoints are optimized for LLM consumption (compact, relevant, and structured responses).

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol for connecting Large Language Models (LLMs) to external tools, APIs, and knowledge sources. It enables LLMs to retrieve, reference, and interact with structured data and external services in a standardized way. Learn more in the MCP documentation.

How to Run

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Docker (optional, for containerized deployment)

Local Development

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install -e .
   

2. Run the server:

   python -m sefaria_mcp.main
   

   The server will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8088/mcp by default, with the legacy SSE endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:8088/sse. Set SEFARIA_MCP_PORT to override the HTTP port (e.g., SEFARIA_MCP_PORT=8089 python -m sefaria_mcp.main). Prometheus metrics bind separately on SEFARIA_MCP_METRICS_PORT (default 9090).

Configuration

Loopback hosts (127.0.0.1, localhost, ::1) are always accepted, so local development needs no extra configuration.

Docker

1. Build the image:

   docker build -t sefaria-mcp .
   

2. Run the container:

   docker run -d --name sefaria-mcp \
       -e SEFARIA_MCP_PORT=8089 \
       -e SEFARIA_MCP_METRICS_PORT=9090 \
       -p 8089:8089 \
       -p 9090:9090 \
       sefaria-mcp
   

   The server will be available at http://localhost:8089/mcp (and http://localhost:8089/sse), with metrics at http://localhost:9090/ (adjust the port mappings as needed).

Transports

The server speaks two MCP transports on the same port. Both expose the identical set of tools.

Point your MCP-compatible client at https://mcp.sefaria.org/mcp. Clients that only speak the older SSE transport can continue to use https://mcp.sefaria.org/sse, but new integrations should not depend on it.

/mcp runs in stateless mode: every request carries its own transport, so no session state is held between calls. It therefore accepts POST and DELETE only, and returns 405 for GET (there is no server-initiated notification stream to open). Requests to /mcp are checked against SEFARIA_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS and SEFARIA_MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS, as the Streamable HTTP spec requires for DNS-rebinding protection; a mismatched Host gets 421 and a mismatched Origin gets 403. The legacy /sse endpoint is not host-checked.

Monitoring

• Prometheus metrics are exposed via the standalone HTTP server started on SEFARIA_MCP_METRICS_PORT (defaults to 9090).
• Scrape http://localhost:9090/ (or your configured host/port). Metrics include:
  • mcp_tool_calls_total{tool_name,status} – call counts per tool and status.
  • mcp_tool_duration_seconds{tool_name} – histogram of per-call durations.
  • mcp_tool_payload_bytes{tool_name} – histogram of response payload sizes.
  • mcp_errors_total{tool_name,error_type} – per-tool error counts.
  • mcp_active_connections – current SSE connection gauge (legacy /sse transport only).
  • Standard FastAPI instrumentation (request rate, latency, status codes, in-progress requests, etc.) from prometheus_fastapi_instrumentator.

Commit Hygiene

This repo uses semantic commits with the fix, feat, and chore keywords.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to @Sivan22 for pioneering the first Sefaria MCP server (mcp-sefaria-server), which inspired this project and the broader effort to make Jewish texts accessible to LLMs and modern AI tools.

License

MIT