Paper Search MCP Server

Paper Search MCP MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple sources. The project follows a free-first strategy: prioritize open and public data sources, support optional API keys when they improve.

What you get

paper-search-mcp is a Python-based tool for searching and downloading academic papers from various platforms. It provides tools for searching papers, downloading PDFs, and extracting text, making it ideal for researchers and AI-driven workflows. It can be used as an MCP server (for Claude Desktop and other MCP clients) or as a Claude Code skill with a CLI interface.

• Two-Layer Architecture —
• Layer 1 (Unified Tooling) — High-level search_papers for multi-source concurrent search & deduplication, and download_with_fallback relying on publisher open access links with sequential fallbacks
• Layer 2 (Platform Connectors) — Modular connectors for specific academic platforms (arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, Semantic Scholar, etc.) equipped with intelligent DOI extraction via regex text analysis or API fields
• Standardized Output — Papers are returned in a consistent dictionary format via the Paper class
• Free-First Design — Open and public sources are prioritized before any optional commercial or restricted integrations
• Optional API-Key Enhancement — Sources like Semantic Scholar can work better with a user-provided API key, but are not intended to force paid usage

What the assistant can call

Once Paper Search MCP is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL — Unpaywall
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY — CORE
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY — Semantic Scholar
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL — Google Scholar
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_DOAJ_API_KEY — DOAJ
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN — Zenodo
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY — IEEE Xplore
• PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ACM_API_KEY — ACM DL

Setting it up

@smithery/cli on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.

Configuration and credentials

You will need 8 environment variables: PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ZENODO_ACCESS_TOKEN, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_GOOGLE_SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_IEEE_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ACM_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_ENV_FILE. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

Choosing this one

Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Paper Search MCP's toolset — PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_UNPAYWALL_EMAIL, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_CORE_API_KEY, PAPER_SEARCH_MCP_SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY and 5 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by openags; 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.

Before you rely on it

• It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the paper search mcp mcp server does with a few real requests.