Instapaper MCP Server

Instapaper MCP Server

A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Instapaper integration. This server allows Claude and other MCP clients to interact with your Instapaper account - reading, saving, organizing, and analyzing your articles.

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Features

🛠️ Tools (Actions)

Content Management:

• add_bookmark - Save articles with title, description, and folder
• add_private_bookmark - Save private content without URLs (emails, notes, generated content)
• delete_bookmark - Remove articles
• archive_bookmark - Move articles to archive
• unarchive_bookmark - Restore from archive
• star_bookmark - Mark as important
• unstar_bookmark - Remove star
• move_bookmark - Organize into folders
• update_read_progress - Track reading progress

Bulk Operations (Parallel Processing):

• move_bookmarks_bulk - Move multiple bookmarks to a folder at once
• star_bookmarks_bulk - Star multiple bookmarks in parallel
• unstar_bookmarks_bulk - Remove stars from multiple bookmarks
• archive_bookmarks_bulk - Archive multiple bookmarks at once
• unarchive_bookmarks_bulk - Restore multiple bookmarks from archive
• update_read_progress_bulk - Update reading progress for multiple articles

Folder Management:

• list_folders - View all folders
• create_folder - Create new folders
• delete_folder - Remove folders
• reorder_folders - Customize folder order

Highlights:

• add_highlight - Save important passages
• list_highlights - View highlights for an article
• delete_highlight - Remove highlights

Search & Discovery:

• list_bookmarks - List articles from folders with sync support
• search_bookmarks - Find articles by title, URL, or description

Content Access:

• get_article_content - Fetch full text of a single article
• get_articles_content_bulk - Fetch content from multiple articles at once for bulk analysis

📚 Resources (Data Claude Can Read)

• instapaper://bookmarks/unread - All unread articles
• instapaper://bookmarks/archive - Archived articles
• instapaper://bookmarks/starred - Starred articles
• instapaper://folders - List of folders
• instapaper://folder/{folder_id} - Articles in a specific folder
• instapaper://article/{bookmark_id} - Full text of an article

💡 Prompts (Reusable Workflows)

• weekly_reading_digest - Organized summary of unread articles
• recommend_next_read - AI-powered reading suggestions
• research_synthesis - Synthesize insights from articles on a topic
• organize_backlog - Suggest folder organization
• archive_candidates - Identify old articles to archive
• save_as_private_bookmark - Guidelines for saving private content and generated insights

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Node.js 18+ installed on your system
2. Instapaper account with API credentials

Step 1: Get Instapaper API Credentials

1. Go to https://www.instapaper.com/api
2. Fill out the API access request form
3. Wait for approval (usually takes a few days)
4. You'll receive a Consumer Key and Consumer Secret

Step 2: Clone and Install

# Clone or download this repository
cd instapaper-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Create your environment file
cp .env.example .env

Step 3: Configure Environment Variables

Edit .env and add your credentials:

INSTAPAPER_CONSUMER_KEY=your_consumer_key_here
INSTAPAPER_CONSUMER_SECRET=your_consumer_secret_here
INSTAPAPER_USERNAME=your_instapaper_email@example.com
INSTAPAPER_PASSWORD=your_instapaper_password

Step 4: Build the Server

npm run build

Usage with Claude Desktop

Configure Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instapaper": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/instapaper-mcp-server/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "INSTAPAPER_CONSUMER_KEY": "your_consumer_key",
        "INSTAPAPER_CONSUMER_SECRET": "your_consumer_secret",
        "INSTAPAPER_USERNAME": "your_email",
        "INSTAPAPER_PASSWORD": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace /absolute/path/to/instapaper-mcp-server with the actual full path.

Restart Claude Desktop

After updating the config, restart Claude Desktop completely (quit and reopen).

Example Usage

Once configured, you can interact with Instapaper through Claude. Here are real-world examples showing what happens when you make requests:

Example 1: Organize Recent Bookmarks by Topic

You ask Claude:

"Organize my recent bookmarks by topic"

Claude's workflow:

1. Fetches your unread bookmarks using list_bookmarks
2. Analyzes the titles and URLs to identify topics (e.g., "AI/ML", "Design", "Product Management")