At Mandala Tech, we have spent the last several years building software that powers one of Nepal’s most trusted and expansive literary platforms, BooksMandala.com. From custom inventory systems to personalized search and multilingual discovery, we have taken a deeply hands-on approach to solving problems in book commerce through technology.

Today we are taking a major step forward. We are making the Books Mandala API publicly available. This open API gives developers, hobbyists, students, and AI builders access to structured book metadata and real-time search functionality across our entire catalog.

If you are working on LLM tools, browser extensions, personal agents, or simply want to build a side project that integrates real-world book data, this API is for you.

Why We Built It

We began building the Books Mandala API as part of our work on Jubilee AI (A WIP), an internal initiative focused on making book discovery more intelligent, agentic, and conversational. Our first release in that direction was a real-time recommendation system, which is now live on Books Mandala.

As we developed semantic search and vector-based retrieval tools for our own use, we realized something important. Platforms like Books Mandala are invisible to LLMs. Rich as they may be in information, HTML websites are not natively designed for machine interpretation. That means when you ask a language model, “Where can I buy Sapiens in Nepal?” it cannot easily answer with a link, a price, or stock status.

The Books Mandala API solves this problem. It exposes our catalog to programmatic access in a clean, structured way. And we are releasing it publicly so anyone can build with it.

API Overview

The Books Mandala API is fast, lightweight, and open. No authentication tokens. No paywalls. It is designed for immediate use in any browser, script, extension, or agent.

• Base URL: https://openapi.mitnpl.com
• Documentation: https://openapi.mitnpl.com/docs

Core Endpoints

• GET /search returns matching books by title, author, or ISBN
• GET /books/{isbn} returns structured metadata for a specific book
• GET /books/url/{slug} fetches a book by its Books Mandala product URL slug
• GET /health shows system health and index status
• GET /rate-limit returns usage limits

All responses are in structured JSON, ready for use in GPT function calls, LangChain tools, browser extensions, agent-based search systems, or low-code platforms like Replit or Glide.

What You Can Build With It

We want the Books Mandala API to be useful even for first-time builders. Here are some projects you can build in a weekend or less:

Search Widget for Your Website

Use plain HTML and JavaScript to add a search bar to your blog, portfolio, or newsletter site. Let readers search the Books Mandala catalog in real time.

Discord or Telegram Bot

Build a bot that responds to /book followed by a title or keyword. Return the cover image, synopsis, availability, and buy link.

Browser Extension

Highlight a book title on any website and right-click to search it on Books Mandala. Show real-time stock and price inside a modal.

GPT Plugin or OpenAI Function Tool

Integrate the Books Mandala API as a function call inside GPT agents. Enable your AI to answer book queries like “Where can I buy The Book Thief in Nepal?” with verified, local answers.

Student Tools and Portfolios

Students can build reading list managers, book comparison dashboards, or classroom recommendation apps. The data is always live and accurate: no scraping, no outdated PDFs.

If you need inspiration, check out our post on the real-time recommendation engine, or read Books Mandala’s guide on how readers can use this feature.

Why It Matters

This API is not just a feature. It is a foundation. We believe platforms like Books Mandala should be accessible to the next generation of AI-powered interfaces. That means visibility in LLM outputs, plugin ecosystems, and multi-agent workflows.

It also means better access to authentic South Asian literature, Nepali authors, and regional publishing that often gets lost in large, algorithmic marketplaces like Amazon.

By making this API public, we are supporting developers who want to build smarter apps, schools that want better library systems, and creators who want to build bots, widgets, or tools that actually work in the Nepali context.

Start Building

The API is live, fast, and free to use.

Browse the documentation: https://openapi.mitnpl.com/docs

Explore our catalog: https://booksmandala.com

If you are building something cool with it, we are listening. We are here to help. And we would love to highlight your project next.

Let us know what you build by tagging @MandalaTech.io @BooksMandala or reaching out via email. We may just feature your project in our next release post or developer spotlight.

This is just the beginning.

Let’s build the future of book discovery together!