About Papers MCP
Papers MCP is an MCP server published by wbopan in the Documentation category: 🔬 MCP Server for searching 200M+ academic papers - search, cite, read PDFs with Claude.
The repository has 3 stars and 0 forks, with the last commit 7 months ago. Six months or more without a commit doesn't mean the server is broken, but check the open issues before depending on it in production.
Install
git clone https://github.com/wbopan/papers-mcpThis server has no ConduID identity, so agent calls to it are not receipted. Pin the version you install and review the source before granting it credentials.
Ask AI
Ask AI about Papers MCP
Powered by Claude · Grounded in docs
Security checks
- ✓README presentThe repository ships documentation.
5 checks have not been run yet.
README
Papers MCP
An MCP server for searching, extracting, and exploring academic papers with citation-aware ranking.
- Search arXiv with Lucene query syntax
- Extract paper content as clean Markdown with math, figures, and tables
- Citation-ranked search with venue, year filters, and pagination
- Citation graph traversal and related paper discovery
Installation
Claude Code
claude mcp add papers-mcp -- npx papers-mcp
Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf
Add to your MCP client config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"papers-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "papers-mcp"]
}
}
}
Config file locations:
- Claude Desktop:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Cursor:
~/.cursor/mcp.json - Windsurf:
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
Tools
resolve-arxiv-id
Search arXiv by title, author, or Lucene query to resolve paper IDs.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
query |
string | Yes | Paper title, author name, or arXiv search query |
Supports arXiv Lucene-style field prefixes: ti:, au:, abs:, cat:, all:.
extract-paper
Extract paper content as clean Markdown with math notation preserved.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
arxivId |
string | Yes | arXiv ID (e.g., 1706.03762) |
level |
enum | No | abstract, body (default), appendix, or all |
search-papers
Search papers with citation-ranked results, including citation counts, venue, year, and arXiv IDs when available. Requires BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
query |
string | Yes | Search query |
yearLow |
number | No | Earliest publication year |
yearHigh |
number | No | Latest publication year |
sortByDate |
boolean | No | Sort by date instead of relevance |
start |
number | No | Pagination offset (0, 10, 20, …) |
find-citing-papers
Find papers that cite a given paper by cluster ID (from search-papers results). Requires BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
clusterId |
string | Yes | Cluster ID from search-papers results |
start |
number | No | Pagination offset (0, 10, 20, …) |
find-related-papers
Find topically related papers by paper ID (from search-papers results). Requires BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
paperId |
string | Yes | Paper ID from search-papers results |
start |
number | No | Pagination offset (0, 10, 20, …) |
Environment Variables
| Variable | Required | Used by |
|---|---|---|
BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN |
For citation search tools | search-papers, find-citing-papers, find-related-papers |
To set it in your MCP config, add an env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"papers-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "papers-mcp"],
"env": {
"BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN": "your-token"
}
}
}
}
License
MIT
README copy captured when this server was indexed; it may lag the repository. The original is authoritative.