81 chemistry tools — literature, calculations, retrosynthesis
81 chemistry tools — literature, calculations, retrosynthesis. That is what the labmate mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
labmate-mcp is an MCP server that connects Claude to scientific databases, computational chemistry tools, bench references, and writing utilities. One install covers the entire research workflow.
The server publishes 14 tools. What each one is for:
search_papers — Crossref + OpenAlex + S2get_paper_details — Crossref + OpenAlex + S2find_similar_papers — Semantic Scholarget_paper_citations — Semantic Scholarget_paper_references — Semantic Scholarget_author_profile — OpenAlex + S2analyze_research_topic — OpenAlexfind_open_access_pdf — Unpaywallsearch_chemrxiv — Crossref + OpenAlexget_chemrxiv_categories — —search_web_of_science — Web of Sciencegenerate_bibtex — CrossrefInstallation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at labmate-mcp on PyPI and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
Configuration is passed through the environment: RXN_API_KEY, ROWAN_API_KEY, UNPAYWALL_EMAIL, SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY, MATERIALS_PROJECT_API_KEY, WOS_API_KEY, COMPTOX_API_KEY, S2_API_KEY. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Labmate's toolset — search_papers, get_paper_details, find_similar_papers and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by JonasRackl; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| search_papers | Crossref + OpenAlex + S2 |
| get_paper_details | Crossref + OpenAlex + S2 |
| find_similar_papers | Semantic Scholar |
| get_paper_citations | Semantic Scholar |
| get_paper_references | Semantic Scholar |
| get_author_profile | OpenAlex + S2 |
| analyze_research_topic | OpenAlex |
| find_open_access_pdf | Unpaywall |
| search_chemrxiv | Crossref + OpenAlex |
| get_chemrxiv_categories | — |
| search_web_of_science | Web of Science |
| generate_bibtex | Crossref |
| get_journal_metrics | OpenAlex |
| search_protein_structures | RCSB PDB |
{
"mcpServers": {
"labmate": {
"command": "labmate-mcp",
"env": {
"RXN_API_KEY": "your-rxn-key",
"ROWAN_API_KEY": "your-rowan-key",
"UNPAYWALL_EMAIL": "you@university.edu"
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| RXN_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| ROWAN_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| UNPAYWALL_EMAIL | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| MATERIALS_PROJECT_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| WOS_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| COMPTOX_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| S2_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
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