corpora-py

📚 Turn any book into a queryable text graph — then let an AI read it with you.

---

Install

pip install corpora-py          # or: uv add corpora-py

AUTH_REQUIRED=false corpora-api    # http://127.0.0.1:8000 — leave it running

The examples below run in a second shell and pipe through jq (brew install jq).

Auth is on by default and fails closed (401 without a Supabase JWT). AUTH_REQUIRED=false is for local use — see Settings.

---

What you get

flowchart LR
    S["📄 EPUB · PDF · HTML<br/>XML · TEI · text"] -->|POST /convert| C["⚙️ conversion job"]
    C --> A["📦 .corpus archive<br/>every word a graph node"]
    A --> M["🤖 /mcp<br/>AI reads and searches it"]
    A --> R["🔗 /refs<br/>citable passages"]
    A --> H["☁️ /storage<br/>publish to the Hub"]

Loading

---

Use it

1. Convert a document

curl -sF file=@book.epub -F source_format=epub -F name='My Book' \
  localhost:8000/convert | tee job.json
# → {"job_id": "1ec2121b-…", "status_url": "/convert/1ec2121b-…", "ws_url": "…/ws"}

JOB=$(jq -r .job_id job.json)      # every command below uses it

source_format: epub · pdf · html · xml · tei · tei_zip · plain · tf_zip

2. Watch it, then take the archive

curl -s localhost:8000/convert/$JOB          # {"status": "succeeded", …}
curl -sOJ localhost:8000/convert/$JOB/download

Long jobs push the same status over a WebSocket: ws://…/convert/$JOB/ws.

3. Read it back before publishing

curl -s localhost:8000/convert/$JOB/sections            # the table of contents
curl -s "localhost:8000/convert/$JOB/content?limit=1"   # passages + tokens
curl -s localhost:8000/convert/$JOB/manifest            # title, authors, version

4. Let Claude read it

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "corpora": {
      "command": "cf-mcp",
      "args": ["--corpus", "/Users/you/.exegia/datasets/BHSA", "--name", "BHSA"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask it things. A good tool order for an agent:

describe_corpus() → list_features() → search(…, "count") → search(…, "results") → get_passages(…)

5. Cite a passage

curl "localhost:8000/refs/resolve?ref=bhsa@2021/Deut:4:2!clause1"

One grammar for every corpus — corpus@version/Section:Section!typeN:

Reference	Means
bhsa@2021/Deut:4:2	Deuteronomy 4:2
bhsa/Deut:4:2!clause1	its 1st clause
mobydick@1.0/Moby-Dick:3!word12	12th word of chapter 3

POST /refs turns a node into one. Full grammar: skills/tf-reference-id.

6. Publish and browse a library

curl -sX POST localhost:8000/storage \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d "{\"job_id\": \"$JOB\"}"   # publish
curl -s localhost:8000/storage                          # what's published
curl -s localhost:8000/storage/my-book.corpus/content   # read it

Needs HF_STORAGE_REPO + HF_TOKEN.

---

Endpoints

Path	What it does
/mcp	MCP server — 30 tools (26 read-only, 15 in a standalone cf-mcp)
/convert	Upload → job → .corpus; read, annotate and version the result
/storage	Publish, list, read and edit archives on the Hub
/refs	Reference ⇄ node, plus labels, pills and share URLs
/validate	Confirm a dataset round-trips .tf → .cfm → mmap
/ingest	Docling → Context Fabric v1 graph.json (extra: corpora-py[docling])
/ai	⏳ stub — every route answers 501 (#214)
/health · /capabilities	Liveness, and what this deployment permits

Interactive docs while the server runs: http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs

All 30 MCP tools

Group	Tools	In cf-mcp
Discovery	list_corpora describe_corpus list_features describe_feature get_text_formats	✅
Search	search search_continue search_csv search_syntax_guide	✅
Read	get_passages get_node_features	✅
Validate	validate_corpus	✅
References	reference_create reference_resolve reference_shortcode	✅
Hub storage	storage_list_corpora storage_corpus_info storage_download_corpus storage_upload_corpus* storage_delete_corpus*	—
Corpus detail	corpus_sections corpus_index corpus_content corpus_node_get corpus_manifest_get corpus_manifest_update* corpus_node_annotate*	—
Corpus refs	corpus_reference_create corpus_reference_resolve corpus_reference_shortcode	—

* Write tools — not registered at all when HF_READ_ONLY=true.

---

Settings

Variable	Default	Purpose
AUTH_REQUIRED	true	Require a Supabase JWT everywhere but /health, /capabilities, /, docs
PROJECT_REF	—	Supabase project whose JWKS verifies those tokens
HF_STORAGE_REPO · HF_TOKEN	—	The Hub repo behind /storage
HF_READ_ONLY	false	Refuse every Hub write — 403 on REST, write tools unregistered
JOB_STORE	memory	supabase shares job state across instances

Public demo = AUTH_REQUIRED=false and HF_READ_ONLY=true. Set both, or anonymous visitors can write to your Hub.

---

Python instead of HTTP

from admin.converters import CONVERTERS, convert_to_corpus
from admin.parsers import SourceFormat

tf_dir = CONVERTERS[SourceFormat.EPUB]("book.epub", "out/book.tf")
convert_to_corpus(tf_dir, "book.corpus", name="My Book", language_code="en")

from corpora_mcp.corpus import corpus_manager

name = corpus_manager.load("~/.exegia/datasets/BHSA", name="BHSA")
api = corpus_manager.get_api(name)          # Text-Fabric api: api.F, api.T, api.S

pip install corpora-py ships all of it — corpora_mcp, admin and common are bundled in that one wheel; there is no separate corpora-mcp on PyPI.

---

Docker

make docker-build-corpora        # or: docker build -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile -t corpora-py .
docker run -p 8000:8000 -v ~/.exegia/datasets:/data/datasets:ro corpora-py

Images are also published to ghcr.io/exegia/corpora-py (login required). MCP-only image: dockerfiles/Dockerfile.client · Compose: docker compose -f dockerfiles/docker-compose.yml up corpora

---

More

🖥️ Desktop / web app	example/ — live demo
⌨️ Terminal CLI	exegia/corpora-cli — brew tap exegia/corpora-cli https://github.com/exegia/corpora-cli && brew install corpora
🔧 Conversion internals	packages/admin/README.md
📐 Data model spec	Context Fabric v1
🛠️ Contributing / dev setup	CLAUDE.md · make help · .github/WORKFLOW.md

License

MIT