Getting started

Three steps: get a key, point your client at the server, ask a question.

1. Create an API key

Sign in at accounts.qurangallery.com, go to Developers, and create a key with a descriptive name.

The full key is shown once, on creation. Copy it then — only the first few characters are visible afterwards. Keys look like this:

qg_sk_ghjKm4x…

sk stands for secret key. Treat it exactly like a password: it authenticates as you, it belongs in a password manager or a secret store, and it must never be committed to git or pasted into a public issue.

Full details on creating, rotating and revoking keys are in API keys.

2. Connect your client

The server speaks MCP over streamable HTTP at:

https://qurangallery.com/mcp/shamela

Send your key as a bearer token on every request. Most clients accept a config file in this shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quran-gallery": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://qurangallery.com/mcp/shamela",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer qg_sk_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code can add it from the command line instead:

claude mcp add --transport http quran-gallery 
  https://qurangallery.com/mcp/shamela 
  --header "Authorization: Bearer qg_sk_your_key_here"

Other clients keep this config in different places, and some add remote servers through a settings screen rather than a file. Check your client’s own MCP documentation for where its config lives.

Your client must be able to send a custom header. The key travels in Authorization: Bearer … and there is no other way to pass it — no query parameter, no OAuth flow, no anonymous mode. If a client only accepts a bare URL, it cannot authenticate against this server yet.

Use the full path, /mcp/shamela. The bare /mcp is the documentation site you are reading now, not the endpoint, and pointing a client at it will not work.

3. Ask something

Restart your client so it picks up the new server, then ask a question that needs a text:

Find the hadith “إنما الأعمال بالنيات” in the primary collections and tell me exactly which printed page it’s on.

Your assistant should call search_library, and the answer should name a book, a printing, and a page — for that hadith, صحيح البخاري, ط السلطانية, page 1/6.

If it answers from memory instead of calling the tool, say so directly: “Use the Quran Gallery library tool and quote the printed page it returns.”

Checking the connection

Your client should list one tool, search_library. If it lists none, the server could not be reached or your key was rejected — see Limits and errors.

You can also check by hand:

curl -X POST https://qurangallery.com/mcp/shamela 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer qg_sk_your_key_here" 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" 
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

A working key returns a JSON object describing search_library. A bad or missing key returns 401.