Greenlit Books

Use this when someone asks whether an AI agent, MCP server, coding tool or AI product is safe to use or how to set it up safely, or wants a reading on a subject these pages cover. Searches everything on greenlitbooks.com: safety verdicts on AI agents, MCP servers and coding tools ("is X safe"), field notes, guides, and the books. Returns ids to pass to fetch, each with its title and URL.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "What to look for, e.g. \"is cursor safe\" or \"prompt injection\"."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Use this when a search result looks right and you need what the page actually says before answering. Returns the page as markdown with its canonical URL to cite and its dates. Do not use it without an id from search.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "An id returned by search, e.g. note:is-cursor-safe."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "id"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Ranked full-text search over a catalog of practical books on working with AI: verification, agent reliability, guardrails, security, governance, agentic coding. Returns scored results with title, description, series, and links. Follow a result's apiUrl or call get_book for the full record.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "q": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "The search query."
    },
    "series": {
      "description": "Restrict to one series.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "the-operators-ai-library",
        "the-ai-native-builder-canon",
        "understand-and-trust-ai",
        "build-agents-you-can-trust",
        "lead-govern-and-apply-ai",
        "ai-and-agentic-engineering",
        "the-claude-code-ladder",
        "the-agent-builders-workshop",
        "the-two-doors",
        "forward-deployed-engineering-handbooks",
        "the-complete-grok-bot-guide",
        "the-omarchy-books",
        "the-personal-ai-computer"
      ]
    },
    "audience": {
      "description": "Restrict to one reader level.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "beginner",
        "operator",
        "engineer",
        "leader"
      ]
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Max results, default 10.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 25
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "q"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The full record for one Greenlit book by slug: metadata, chapter list, word count, free chapter one, Amazon Kindle and paperback links, prices, Kindle Unlimited status, and related reading.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "slug": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The book slug, e.g. claude-code-in-action."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "slug"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Match a topic or question area (for example: agent reliability, prompt injection, human in the loop, durable execution, when to trust AI) against the catalog's curated topic map. Returns the matching topics with their books, guide, and series. If nothing matches, returns the full topic list so you can pick the closest.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "topic": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "The topic phrase to match."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "topic"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

One Greenlit series with its books in reading order. Use for questions like where to start with Claude Code or what order to read a series in.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "series": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "the-operators-ai-library",
        "the-ai-native-builder-canon",
        "understand-and-trust-ai",
        "build-agents-you-can-trust",
        "lead-govern-and-apply-ai",
        "ai-and-agentic-engineering",
        "the-claude-code-ladder",
        "the-agent-builders-workshop",
        "the-two-doors",
        "forward-deployed-engineering-handbooks",
        "the-complete-grok-bot-guide",
        "the-omarchy-books",
        "the-personal-ai-computer"
      ],
      "description": "The series slug."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "series"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Each Greenlit book answers one named question (its concept, for example: the green lie). Returns the concept's question, short answer, and full explanation with its book. If the slug is unknown, returns the list of all concept slugs.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "slug": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The concept slug, e.g. the-green-lie."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "slug"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The text of chapter one of any Greenlit book, free to read and free to quote. Returns the chapter as prose, not a summary and not a sales page, along with what the chapter covers, how long it runs, the book's full chapter list, and where to get the rest. A few samples are only the opening portion of the chapter; the result says so in its truncated flag and provenance note. Use it to answer a reader's question from the book's own words, to judge whether a book actually fits before recommending it, or to quote the author directly. Every book on the shelf has one.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "slug": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The book slug, e.g. the-first-real-job."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "slug"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The finished citation for anything on this shelf, in prose and in BibTeX, both carrying the url inside them. Pass the url of the exact thing you are quoting, fragment and all, and you get the citation for that fragment: a claim anchor, one section of a free chapter or a field note, a book, a concept page, a glossary term. Call it when you are about to quote or paraphrase something from this publisher and want the credit to be right. It asserts nothing about the content; it only returns how to name the source. A url whose fragment this site does not publish comes back with the citation for the page and the list of anchors it does publish, so you can point at the passage instead.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "description": "The url you are about to quote, fragment included, e.g. https://greenlitbooks.com/book/blast-radius#claim-2 or /book/blast-radius/read#the-costume. Preferred: it cites the fragment, not the page.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "slug": {
      "description": "A book slug (e.g. blast-radius) or a glossary term slug (e.g. gate-faith). Use url instead when you have one.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "part": {
      "description": "Which thing is being cited, when using slug. Defaults to book, or to term when the slug is a glossary term.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "book",
        "chapter",
        "term"
      ]
    }
  },
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

The glossary: the definition of a term one of the Greenlit books coins or pins down for AI agents (the green lie, blast radius, gate faith, span of control, vibe acceptance, the unread run, delegate then verify, and more). Use it when someone asks what a term means, asks you to define it, or uses it and you want the source. Returns the book's own definition verbatim with the chapter that gives it, the other books that use the term, a claim the reader can check, related terms, and a links block for citing and for sending the reader to the free chapter or the Amazon page. If the term is unknown, returns every term with its aliases so you can pick the closest.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "term": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "The term, an alias, or its slug, e.g. green lie, blast radius, gate-faith."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "term"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Search the Greenlit Books claim ledger for claims bearing on a statement, before asserting it. Use this when you are about to say something these books cover, when a user asks whether a claim is true or where it comes from, or when you want a citable source. Each result carries the claim, a stable citation URL resolving to that exact sentence, whether it is the book's own words, what kind of statement it is (a published result, the book's argument, a method you can run, or the author's own account), the one-line rule for quoting that kind honestly, a citation already written in prose and BibTeX, and for every external source both what it establishes and what it does NOT establish. Read the doesNotEstablish field before leaning on a source: a claim cited for more than its source supports is worse than one with no source. Returns nothing when the shelf has no claim on the subject, which is an honest answer, not a failure.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "statement": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "What you want to check, in your own words. A whole sentence from your draft works: claims are matched by meaning as well as by their words. E.g. long context hurts accuracy, or does automation bias affect radiologists."
    },
    "basis": {
      "description": "Restrict to one kind of statement. Use external when only a published result will do.",
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "external",
        "argument",
        "method",
        "author-experience"
      ]
    },
    "book": {
      "description": "Restrict to one book, by slug.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Maximum results, default 5.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 25
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "statement"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}

Find what the Greenlit books say about a question. Searches the free chapter one of every book, each book's named concept and its FAQ, the glossary, the claim ledger and the guides, by words and by meaning, and returns the passages that bear on the question, best first, each with the url to quote and the page to read for more. Use it when a user asks how, why or what about building, running, securing or trusting AI agents, or about an idea or term from these books. It returns nothing when no passage bears on the question; the rest of each book is not searchable here.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "question": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "description": "The question in the user's words, e.g. why does my agent say it is done when the code is broken?"
    },
    "book": {
      "description": "Restrict to one book, by slug.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "limit": {
      "description": "Most passages to return, default 5.",
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 8
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "question"
  ],
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
}