Scholar MCP Server

Scholar MCP is an MCP integration. FastMCP server for scholarly papers, patents, books and standards with docling PDF conversion.

Packages and local setup

The published pypi package is pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp, version 2.0.0. Its declared MCP transport is stdio.

The package declares SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL: Persistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. memory:// is in-process and lost on restart; file:///path persists on one server; redis://, dynamodb:// and mongodb:// each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to file:///data/state (the volume family Docker images mount), or to memory:// (with a warning) on a host where that directory is not usable.; SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW: Comma-separated explicit tool names this instance exposes; every other tool is hidden from listings and cannot be invoked. Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with tools_deny. Takes effect through apply_tool_visibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY: Comma-separated explicit tool names hidden from this instance (absent from listings, cannot be invoked). Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with tools_allow. Takes effect through apply_tool_visibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME: Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION: Concise routing context that distinguishes this deployment's material or responsibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA: Deployment-specific behavioral policy added to the generated MCP instructions.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS: Legacy: replaces all generated MCP instructions (deprecated; use _INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION for routing and _INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA for policy).; FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL: Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.; FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING: Set false for plain or structured JSON log output.; SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.; SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY: When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.; SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY: Semantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: unauthenticated requests are limited to ~1 req/s. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/apiapi-key-form.; SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL: Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL: OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY: API key for the VLM endpoint.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL: Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.; SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR: Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).; SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL: Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.; SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY: EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.; SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET: EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.; SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY: Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_S: Seconds a long-running tool call may run in the foreground before it is promoted to a background job and a job handle is returned instead.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_S: Seconds a background-job record (working or finished) is retained for polling before it expires from the store.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECT: Maximum live background jobs per calling subject; further promotions are rejected until older records expire..

The published oci package is ghcr.io/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp:v2.0.0. Its declared MCP transport is streamable-http.

The package declares SCHOLAR_MCP_BASE_URL: Public base URL of the deployed server, for example https://mcp.example.com. Required for OIDC. Also the fallback source of the MCP Apps domain when app_domain is unset.; SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN: Single shared bearer token; enables bearer auth unless bearer_tokens_file is set, which takes precedence.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL: OIDC discovery document URL, for example https://auth.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID: OIDC client identifier registered with the provider.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET: OIDC client secret registered with the provider.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE: Expected aud claim; tokens issued for another audience are rejected.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_REQUIRED_SCOPES: Scopes a caller must present, space- or comma-separated. Defaults to openid in oidc-proxy mode.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_ADVERTISED_SCOPES: Scopes advertised to MCP clients in protected-resource metadata, space- or comma-separated. Overrides the default openid offline_access; oidc_required_scopes is always added on top. Set this when the registered client is not permitted offline_access, or to have clients request extra claim scopes (such as groups) without also requiring them in every token.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY: Signing key for issued tokens; used in oidc-proxy mode only. When unset, the key is derived deterministically from oidc_client_secret, so tokens survive a restart. Rotating that secret then invalidates every issued token. Set this explicitly to decouple token validity from secret rotation. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32.; SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_VERIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN: Validate the access token instead of the id token.; SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL: Persistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. memory:// is in-process and lost on restart; file:///path persists on one server; redis://, dynamodb:// and mongodb:// each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to file:///data/state (the volume family Docker images mount), or to memory:// (with a warning) on a host where that directory is not usable.; SCHOLAR_MCP_APP_DOMAIN: MCP Apps iframe domain, used for CSP sandboxing. Overrides the host derived from base_url.; SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW: Comma-separated explicit tool names this instance exposes; every other tool is hidden from listings and cannot be invoked. Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with tools_deny. Takes effect through apply_tool_visibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY: Comma-separated explicit tool names hidden from this instance (absent from listings, cannot be invoked). Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with tools_allow. Takes effect through apply_tool_visibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_AUTH_MODE: Explicit auth-mode override, accepting remote or oidc-proxy (case- and whitespace-insensitive). When unset the mode is auto-detected from which auth variables are set; the override exists because having all four OIDC variables set is ambiguous between those two modes. Other values are ignored with a warning.; SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKENS_FILE: Path to a TOML file mapping bearer tokens to subjects; overrides the single-token bearer_token mode.; SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_DEFAULT_SUBJECT: Subject assigned to the single-token bearer mode; ignored when bearer_tokens_file is set, since mapped mode carries per-token subjects.; SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME: Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION: Concise routing context that distinguishes this deployment's material or responsibility.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA: Deployment-specific behavioral policy added to the generated MCP instructions.; SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS: Legacy: replaces all generated MCP instructions (deprecated; use _INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION for routing and _INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA for policy).; SCHOLAR_MCP_HTTP_PATH: Mount path for the MCP endpoint; the health routes derive their prefix from it.; SCHOLAR_MCP_HEALTH_DETAIL: How much the unauthenticated /health and /health/ready bodies say: status, standard (adds name, version and per-check verdicts), or full (adds redacted reasons; trusted networks only).; PUID: Run the server process as this UID; the container entrypoint reassigns ownership of writable paths to match.; PGID: Run the server process as this GID; pair with PUID to match the owner of a mounted volume.; FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL: Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.; FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING: Set false for plain or structured JSON log output.; SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.; SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY: When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.; SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY: Semantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: unauthenticated requests are limited to ~1 req/s. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/apiapi-key-form.; SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL: Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL: OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY: API key for the VLM endpoint.; SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL: Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.; SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR: Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).; SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL: Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.; SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY: EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.; SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET: EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.; SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY: Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_S: Seconds a long-running tool call may run in the foreground before it is promoted to a background job and a job handle is returned instead.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_S: Seconds a background-job record (working or finished) is retained for polling before it expires from the store.; SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECT: Maximum live background jobs per calling subject; further promotions are rejected until older records expire..

This package has launch arguments in its registry record. Use the maintainer’s configuration for those arguments rather than launching it with only the package name.

Before connecting

Check the maintainer’s instructions for account access, authentication and the supported client configuration. Once connected, inspect the tools your client receives and try a small task that matches the server’s stated purpose. The registry description does not include a verified, complete tool list.

Project and source

View the publisher’s registry entry · Project repository · Project website. This profile uses version 2.0.0 from the registry. Registration identifies the publisher namespace; it does not establish that this is a first-party integration for every service it connects.

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