# Qaf developer docs > Search and read classical Islamic books from an AI app or your own code, with the Qaf MCP server and API. Qaf is a library of classical Arabic Islamic-heritage books: Qur’an exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence, theology, history, language and more. Passages are Arabic; search accepts Arabic or English queries. - **AI apps:** connect the MCP server at `https://api.qaf.ai/mcp`. Users sign in with their Qaf account; there is no API key. Tools: `search`, `fetch`, `lookup_catalog`, `get_quran_verses`. - **Code:** call the REST API at `https://api.qaf.ai/v1` with `Authorization: Bearer $QAF_API_KEY`. Keys start with `qaf_sk_` and are created in qaf.ai Settings › API keys. The OpenAPI document at `https://api.qaf.ai/v1/openapi.json` is the source of truth for fields and limits. - Resolve an author or book name to an ID with catalog lookup before filtering search by it. A genre describes a book, not a topic. - Cite each passage by its `url`, which opens the printed page. Show the book, author, volume and page. Never alter, complete or paraphrase Qur’an verses or hadiths. ## Docs - [Qaf developer docs](https://developers.qaf.ai/): Search and read classical Islamic books from an AI app or your own code, with the Qaf MCP server and the Qaf API. - [The Qaf library](https://developers.qaf.ai/library): Books, authors, passages, printed pages, IDs and genres in the Qaf library, as the MCP server and the API return them. ## MCP server - [MCP server](https://developers.qaf.ai/mcp): Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI apps to the Qaf library with the Qaf MCP server. Sign in with your Qaf account; no API key. - [Connect an AI app](https://developers.qaf.ai/mcp/connect): Add the Qaf MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code or another MCP app, then sign in with your Qaf account. - [Tools](https://developers.qaf.ai/mcp/tools): The four Qaf MCP tools, search, fetch, lookup_catalog and get_quran_verses, with every input, limit, default and output field. - [Sign-in and connected apps](https://developers.qaf.ai/mcp/authentication): How an AI app signs in to the Qaf MCP server with your Qaf account, how to disconnect it, and the OAuth details for client developers. ## API - [API overview](https://developers.qaf.ai/api): The Qaf API v1 at api.qaf.ai/v1. Endpoints, request and response format, authentication, the OpenAPI document, request IDs and the versioning policy. - [Quickstart](https://developers.qaf.ai/api/quickstart): Create a Qaf API key, store it, search the library and read the passages around a result, with cURL, TypeScript and Python examples. - [Authentication](https://developers.qaf.ai/api/authentication): Create, use, protect and revoke Qaf API keys. Keys belong to your Qaf account and are created in qaf.ai Settings › API keys. - [Errors](https://developers.qaf.ai/api/errors): The Qaf API's JSON error format, every status and code it returns, which errors to retry, and how request IDs help support find a request. - [Rate limits](https://developers.qaf.ai/api/rate-limits): The Qaf API allows 60 requests a minute and 1,000 searches a day per account. The rate-limit headers, the 429 response, and how to back off. - [Migrate from the partner API](https://developers.qaf.ai/api/migrate): Move from the deprecated partner search API at /public/v1/search to the Qaf API v1, with the request and response fields mapped one by one. ## Guides - [Search and read passages](https://developers.qaf.ai/guides/search): Write queries that find the right passages, filter by author, book, genre or death year, get more results, and read the text around a passage. - [Cite passages](https://developers.qaf.ai/guides/citations): Show where each passage comes from, with its book, author, printed page and link, and quote Qur’an verses and hadiths exactly as returned. ## Resources - [Docs for AI agents](https://developers.qaf.ai/agents): Read these docs as Markdown, through llms.txt, the OpenAPI document and the discovery files, from a coding agent or an AI assistant. ## Changelog - [Qaf API v1 and API keys](https://developers.qaf.ai/changelog/2026-11-14-api-v1): The Qaf API v1 at api.qaf.ai/v1, self-serve API keys in qaf.ai settings, rate limits, and new docs for the MCP server. ## Qaf API - [Qaf API](https://developers.qaf.ai/reference): Search and read classical Arabic Islamic-heritage books from your own code. The API serves the same library as the Qaf MCP server. ### Passages - [Search passages](https://developers.qaf.ai/reference/passages/search-passages): Searches the library with hybrid semantic and keyword retrieval, reranked for relevance. Returns passages with their book, author, printed pages and a link to… - [Read a passage](https://developers.qaf.ai/reference/passages/get-passage): Returns a passage by ID, with up to radius neighbouring passages on each side, in reading order. Neighbours carry their own IDs, so you can keep reading from… ### Catalog - [Look up an author or book](https://developers.qaf.ai/reference/catalog/lookup-catalog): Resolves an author or book name to the catalog IDs that search filters take. Returns up to five candidates with the author's death year (AH) and a match score. ### Qur’an - [Get Qur’an verses](https://developers.qaf.ai/reference/quran/get-quran-verses): Returns the Uthmani Arabic text of a verse, or of a range of up to 50 verses in one surah, with the surah name, juz and place of revelation. With locale en it… ## RSS Feeds - [Qaf developer docs — Changelog](https://developers.qaf.ai/changelog/rss.xml) ## Agent skills - [qaf-developer-docs](https://developers.qaf.ai/.well-known/agent-skills/qaf-developer-docs/SKILL.md): Read the Qaf developer docs instead of answering from memory. Search and read classical Islamic books from an AI app or your own code, with the Qaf MCP server and API. Use when a task involves Qaf developer docs: how it works, how to set it up or configure it, or its API. - [qaf-api-and-mcp-server](https://developers.qaf.ai/.well-known/agent-skills/qaf-api-and-mcp-server/SKILL.md): Search and read classical Islamic books with the Qaf MCP server and the Qaf API: Qur’an exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence, theology, history and Arabic language, in Arabic. Use when a task involves searching classical Islamic books, finding or citing a passage, a hadith or a Qur’an verse, connecting an AI app to Qaf, or calling api.qaf.ai from code. ## Agent resources - [llms-full.txt](https://developers.qaf.ai/llms-full.txt): The full Markdown of every page in one file. - [Page Markdown](https://developers.qaf.ai/index.md): Append `.md` to any page URL to fetch that page as raw Markdown. - [Agent skills](https://developers.qaf.ai/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json): Agent Skills discovery index of the skills this site publishes. - [API catalog](https://developers.qaf.ai/.well-known/api-catalog): RFC 9727 linkset of the APIs documented here. - [AI catalog](https://developers.qaf.ai/.well-known/ai-catalog.json): ARD manifest of the agent-facing resources on this site (MCP server, skills, APIs). - [agent-readability.json](https://developers.qaf.ai/agent-readability.json): Manifest of every agent-facing artifact on this site. - [Sitemap](https://developers.qaf.ai/sitemap.xml): Every indexable page URL with its last-modified date.