Scholar Feed MCP Server

600,000+ CS/AI/ML papers in your AI assistant: search, novelty scores, citations, daily watches.

Local serverstdio

What is the Scholar Feed MCP server?

Scholar Feed MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. 600,000+ CS/AI/ML papers in your AI assistant: search, novelty scores, citations, daily watches.

What you get

Scholar Feed is a research-discovery engine for computer science and AI/ML papers, founded in 2025. It indexes 600,000+ papers from arXiv — ranked by novelty, citation velocity, and relevance — with LLM-generated summaries, a citation graph, author profiles, and full-text extraction. It is available as a website, a public REST API, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that AI agents can call directly. This package (scholar-feed-mcp) is the open-source MCP server.

What the assistant can call

Once Scholar Feed is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

  • name — scholar-feed
  • scholar-feed — mcp@latest
  • Client — Config file
  • Cursor — .cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global)
  • Windsurf — ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
  • save_paper — Bookmark a paper to your library (idempotent; feeds personalization)
  • unsave_paper — Remove a paper from your library (idempotent)
  • like_paper — "More like this" calibration signal for the For You feed (insert-only)
  • list_library — List your saved papers, newest first
  • list_collections — List collections with paper counts
  • create_collection — Create a named collection (get-or-create; no error on duplicate)
  • add_to_collection — Add a paper to a collection by name or id (also auto-saves)

Setting it up

scholar-feed-mcp 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 2 environment variables: SF_API_KEY, SF_API_BASE_URL. 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. Scholar Feed's toolset — name, scholar-feed, Client and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by YGao2005; 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.
  • With 14 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Scholar Feed.
  • 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 scholar feed mcp server does with a few real requests.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
namescholar-feed
scholar-feedmcp@latest
ClientConfig file
Cursor.cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global)
Windsurf~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
save_paperBookmark a paper to your library (idempotent; feeds personalization).
unsave_paperRemove a paper from your library (idempotent).
like_paper"More like this" calibration signal for the For You feed (insert-only).
list_libraryList your saved papers, newest first.
list_collectionsList collections with paper counts.
create_collectionCreate a named collection (get-or-create; no error on duplicate).
add_to_collectionAdd a paper to a collection by name or id (also auto-saves).
remove_from_collectionRemove a paper from a collection (stays saved).
create_watchStanding daily-evaluated saved search; get-or-create by name. Define it with a structured criteria filter (recommended) or a single seed selector.

How to install the Scholar Feed MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-feed": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scholar-feed-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SF_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "SF_API_BASE_URL": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

VariableDescriptionRequired
SF_API_KEYCredential the server authenticates with.Yes
SF_API_BASE_URLEndpoint or connection string the server talks to.Yes

Example prompts to try

  • Use Scholar Feed to name.
  • Use Scholar Feed to scholar-feed.
  • Use Scholar Feed to Client.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Scholar Feed to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 14 tools (name, scholar-feed, Client, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Scholar Feed directly.