# library.forgemesh.io Moby-Dick Passage Retrieval

> library.forgemesh.io Moby-Dick Passage Retrieval is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Retrieves the most relevant verbatim passages from Moby-Dick in response to a natural-language question, with chapter and location citations.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/ask-moby-dick
- Price: $0.01/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-moby-dick-passage-retrieval-172851b1
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_491wzk78e58aym4ZyG7RR

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-moby-dick-passage-retrieval-172851b1 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Moby-Dick for passages where Ahab talks about his obsession with the white whale — give me the top 5 most relevant excerpts with their chapter citations.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need verbatim, citable passages from Moby-Dick specifically — not a summary or AI-generated answer. Ideal when grounding a response in the actual source text matters (academic citation, quote verification, literary analysis). Prefer over a general LLM answer when you need exact chapter-and-location provenance from the original Melville text.

## Known failure modes

- Question too vague to retrieve meaningful passages — returns low-relevance results
- limit parameter exceeds 15 — likely capped or returns error
- Empty or missing question field — likely returns validation error
- Very short or ambiguous queries may surface loosely related passages
- Payment failure (x402) — call rejected before processing

## How this service works

Ask a question about Moby-Dick and get back the most relevant passages from the book itself, with chapter and location citations. Retrieval only — full-text search, not a generated summary or answer. No license, no API key required.

## Output

Returns a ranked list of verbatim text passages from Moby-Dick that best match the question, each accompanied by chapter name or number and location within the book. No AI-generated summaries or paraphrases — raw source text only.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max passages (default 5, max 15)"
  },
  "question": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Your question about the book, e.g. \"what does Ahab say about the whale?\""
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 3,
  "title": "Moby Dick; or, the Whale",
  "author": "Melville, Herman, 1819-1891",
  "method": "full-text retrieval — returns the most relevant passages from the book for your question; no summarization or generation",
  "book_id": 2701,
  "passages": [
   {
    "text": "…that inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the [white] [whale] agent, or be the [white] [whale] principal, I will wreak that hate upon him…",
    "chapter": 36,
    "location": "chapter 36, passage #612"
   }
  ],
  "question": "what does Ahab say about the white whale"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-moby-dick-passage-retrieval-172851b1/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)