# ForgeMesh Library — Project Gutenberg Curated Shelf

> ForgeMesh Library — Project Gutenberg Curated Shelf is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.003/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-16).

Returns a ranked list of up to 50 public-domain books from the Project Gutenberg collection (278 titles including major Russian and European classics) with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/pg
- Price: $0.003/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-16
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-library-project-gutenberg-curated-shelf-808d3b1c
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_ag5Oyq_KJ2v0d8Rd7k96v

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 forgemesh-library-project-gutenberg-curated-shelf-808d3b1c -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up the curated Project Gutenberg shelf and show me the top 30 classic public-domain books — I'm looking for something like Crime and Punishment or War and Peace to read next.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a curated, ranked browsable list of classic public-domain literature from Project Gutenberg — particularly 19th century Russian and European novels — and you want drill-down routes to access full text. Prefer this over a full-text search endpoint when you want to discover or browse titles rather than search within them, or when building a reading list, syllabus, or literature agent that needs a catalog of available texts.

## Known failure modes

- Requesting a limit above 50 may result in an error or the max 50 being returned
- Payment of 0.003 USDC via x402 is required per call; missing or invalid payment results in a 402 response
- If the service is unavailable, a 5xx error is returned with no book data
- Malformed request body may return a 400 validation error

## How this service works

Curated shelf: PG — 278 public-domain books including Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace. Returns a ranked list with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A ranked list of up to 50 public-domain books from the 278-title Project Gutenberg collection, each entry including the book title, author, and a drill-down route that can be used to retrieve the full text of that specific book. No API key or license is required to access the results.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max books to return (default 20, max 50)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "books": [
   {
    "year": null,
    "title": "Crime and Punishment",
    "author": "Dostoyevsky, Fyodor",
    "book_id": 2554,
    "subjects": [],
    "download_count": 93752
   }
  ],
  "count": 5,
  "shelf": "PG",
  "coverage": {
   "target": 61015,
   "indexed": 61015
  },
  "drill_down": [
   "/book-metadata",
   "/book-chapter",
   "/book-quotes",
   "/literature-search"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-library-project-gutenberg-curated-shelf-808d3b1c/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from library.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/library.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)