OokCite MCP Server

Give any LLM the ability to validate DOIs, format citations, manage bibliography collections, and catch hallucinated references. Returns citation metadata only -- not PDFs or full-text articles. Works with any MCP client: Claude, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenCode, Qwen agents, and more.

Quick Start

One command to install and configure:

npx @turtletech/ookcite-mcp setup

This auto-detects your MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) and writes the config for you. Add an API key for higher rate limits and collection tools:

npx @turtletech/ookcite-mcp setup --key YOUR_API_KEY

No API key required for basic usage (10 lookups/day). Sign up for more.

After changing MCP config, restart the client or reload its MCP servers. Many clients do not hot-reload environment-variable changes for already-running stdio servers.

Install (Alternative Methods)

npm (recommended):

npm install -g @turtletech/ookcite-mcp

cargo-binstall (fastest, no Node.js):

cargo binstall ookcite-mcp

cargo install (from source):

cargo install ookcite-mcp

Pre-built binaries: Download from GitHub Releases for Linux (x86_64, aarch64), macOS (x86_64, aarch64), and Windows.

Configure

If you used setup, you're done. Otherwise, add to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ookcite": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@turtletech/ookcite-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

With an API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ookcite": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@turtletech/ookcite-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OOKCITE_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you installed globally (npm install -g or cargo install), you can use "command": "ookcite-mcp" directly instead of npx.

Common config file locations:

For Codex, the equivalent global registration also works from the CLI:

codex mcp add ookcite --env OOKCITE_API_KEY=your_key_here -- npx -y @turtletech/ookcite-mcp

Then restart Codex so the new stdio server starts with the updated environment.

Tools

Lookup & Validation

Formatting

Collections (requires sign-in)

Collections are a signed-in feature. Set OOKCITE_API_KEY to use these tools.

Typical workflow:

1. Keep references.bib or library.bib under version control in your project
2. Import that file into an OokCite collection with import_bibliography
3. Use search_collection, check_duplicates, and export_collection while revising
4. Treat the collection as an audit/export companion, not the only copy of your bibliography

Sharing & Bulk Operations (requires academic/business plan)

Plans & Pricing

Papers in your collections are free and unlimited to re-lookup. Only new lookups count against your daily quota. Papers stay free as long as they remain in a collection.

Batch operations require an academic or business plan. Academic pricing is for students, researchers, and educators at accredited institutions.

Anti-Hallucination

Add this to your system prompt:

Before citing any paper, use validate_doi to confirm the reference exists. If validation fails, do not include the citation.

For revision workflows, add:

Keep the project bibliography in a local .bib file under version control. Use OokCite collections for verification, deduplication, and export.

How It Works

The MCP server connects to the public OokCite API to look up and format citations. It's a thin MCP wrapper around the OokCite REST API with no local database, and no heavy dependencies.

Sign up for a free account (30 lookups/day), or upgrade to academic ($4/mo) or business ($12/mo) for batch operations and larger collections.

Documentation

• Full MCP setup guide
• OokCite app
• TurtleTech

License

MIT. see LICENSE.