# library.forgemesh.io Book Metadata Lookup

> library.forgemesh.io Book Metadata Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns full metadata for a single indexed public-domain book by its Gutenberg book ID, including title, author, year, subjects, bookshelves, download rank, chunk count, and chapter range.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/book-metadata
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-book-metadata-lookup-309bac70
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_-nTDgPVOIu59GkwRArdRZ

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 library-forgemesh-io-book-metadata-lookup-309bac70 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up the full metadata for Gutenberg book 1342 — I want to see the title, author, year, subjects, download rank, and how many chapters it has?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you have a specific Gutenberg book_id (from /book-search or a category shelf) and need full bibliographic metadata before reading or citing the book. Prefer this over a general web search when you need structured fields like chunk count, bookshelves, and download rank that are specific to this indexed corpus.

## Known failure modes

- book_id not found in indexed corpus — returns error or empty result
- book_id is not an integer — schema validation failure
- book exists on Gutenberg but has not been indexed by this service — no result returned
- payment not processed (x402) — request blocked before reaching lookup logic

## How this service works

Look up full metadata for one indexed book by book_id: title, author, year, subjects, bookshelves, download rank, chunk count, and detected chapter range. Use book_id from /book-search or a category shelf. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A structured object containing the book's title, author name, publication year, list of subjects, list of bookshelves, historical download rank, total chunk count (for text retrieval planning), and the detected chapter range (start and end chapter numbers).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "book_id": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Gutenberg book id, e.g. 1342 for Pride and Prejudice"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "year": "1998",
  "title": "Pride and Prejudice",
  "author": "Austen, Jane, 1775-1817",
  "book_id": 1342,
  "subjects": [
   "Courtship -- Fiction",
   "England -- Fiction"
  ],
  "bookshelves": [
   "Category: Novels",
   "Best Books Ever Listings"
  ],
  "chunk_count": 973,
  "chapter_range": [
   0,
   61
  ],
  "download_count": 59636,
  "chapter_detection": "heading",
  "chapters_available": 62
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-book-metadata-lookup-309bac70/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)