full_text_searchLABSCO SUMMARY
One tool, but a query language behind it.
The value is in what the single call accepts: field scoping and boolean operators turn a vague lookup into a precise one, and the highlighted excerpt means the model sees why a result matched rather than just that it did. The one thing to do before you start is fetch the index — the server has nothing to search without it.
What it is
A search server over a downloadable index of Jewish texts, built on the Tantivy search engine. It exposes one tool with a real query language, so a question can be scoped to text, reference or topic rather than thrown at the whole corpus.
What you get
- full_text_search runs a query across the library and ranks results by relevance
- Field-scoped search — text:term, reference:term, topics:term — so "love your neighbour" in the text and mitzvot in the topics can be one query
- Boolean AND and OR, required and excluded terms with + and -, quoted phrase search, and ? and * wildcards
- Each result carries its reference, its topics, a highlighted excerpt showing the match, and a relevance score
Requirements
Python 3.10 or higher and the jewish_library package, run as uv --directory <YOUR_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY> run jewish_library. The search index is not bundled — download and extract it from the link in the README before first run. Set PYTHONIOENCODING to utf-8 in the server's environment.
Setup effort
Build from source — git clone https://github.com/sivan22/mcp-otzaria-server.git
USE CASES
01
Finding a passage you can only half quote
Phrase search with wildcards handles the words you are unsure about.
02
Restricting a search to a source
reference: scopes the query to a particular work rather than the whole library.
03
Researching a topic across sources
topics: combined with boolean operators narrows a broad subject to the relevant texts.
1 tool
Listed in project docs. Your client may show a different list.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
1 tool named in the project's documentation.
Requires
- Python >= 3.10
- uv on PATH (the client configs launch the server with uv)
Where it runs
Both documented clients run the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
You clone this one yourself.
Server setup
TERMINAL
git clone https://github.com/sivan22/mcp-otzaria-server.git
cd mcp-otzaria-serverDownload the search index (index.zip) from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lpbBCPimwcNfC0VZOlQueA4SHNGIp5_t/view and extract it so the index folder sits at the root of the clone (mcp-otzaria-server/index)
TERMINAL
pip install .MCP Clients
Claude Desktop, Cline
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"jewish_library": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"<YOUR_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY>",
"run",
"jewish_library"
],
"env": {
"PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"
}
}
}
}<YOUR_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY> is the absolute path to your mcp-otzaria-server clone.
