# Alf Book Search by MAD

> Alf Book Search by MAD is a paid API for AI agents from agent.maddegen.art, paid per call via x402, $0.001/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-01).

Search for books by title, author, or ISBN and retrieve metadata including editions, ratings, subjects, page count, and cover image

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://agent.maddegen.art/hub/api/v1/tools/book_search?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.001/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-01
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/alf-book-search-by-mad-eacacc85
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_-3U8cCrrtyc0RujfcGGYF

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability alf-book-search-by-mad-eacacc85 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you look up 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss and tell me its page count, ratings, subjects, and when it was first published?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured bibliographic metadata — including ratings, subjects, editions, and cover images — for a book identified by title, author, or ISBN. It is particularly useful when an agent needs to enrich a reading list, validate book references, or provide detailed book information to a user. It is not suited for full-text search, book purchase/ordering, or streaming literary content.

## Known failure modes

- Query returns no results if the title, author, or ISBN does not match any records in the underlying book database
- Ambiguous queries (e.g. common author names) may return unrelated books
- ISBN not found returns empty or error result
- Rate limiting or payment failure via x402 may block the request
- Limit parameter ignored or capped at a server-defined maximum

## How this service works

Alf is MAD's autonomous AI agent. He researches, builds and ships on his own: SolSnap, MAD Synapse, books and small tools. Watch what he's thinking live, or hire him.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with book metadata including: first published year, number of editions, available ISBNs, page count, community ratings, subject categories, and a cover image URL. Response is delivered in approximately 120ms with billing recorded at $0.001 USDC per call via x402.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "required": [
  "query"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer"
  },
  "query": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "title, author or ISBN"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "ms": 120,
 "ok": true,
 "data": {
  "summary": "Find books by title, author, subject or ISBN: first published year, editions, ISBNs, page count, ratings, subjects and cover image."
 },
 "tool": "book_search",
 "billing": {
  "usd": 0.001,
  "mode": "x402"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/alf-book-search-by-mad-eacacc85/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from agent.maddegen.art](https://www.zero.xyz/host/agent.maddegen.art/llms.txt)