paper-search

Paper Search

Search, download, and read academic papers via the paper-search CLI.

CLI Usage

All commands run via:

paper-search <command> [args]

If paper-search is not available, install it with uv tool install paper-search-mcp. Optional API keys can be configured in ~/.config/paper-search-mcp/.env.

Search

paper-search search "<query>" -n <max_per_source> -s <sources> -y <year>

• -n: results per source (default: 5)
• -s: comma-separated sources, "fast", "fastest", or "all" (default: all)
• --exhaustive: compatibility no-op (broad search is already the default); explicit -s always takes precedence
• -y: year filter for Semantic Scholar (e.g. "2020", "2018-2022")

For speed, use -s fast (OpenAlex, Crossref, arXiv, PubMed, Europe PMC; also Semantic Scholar when its API key is nonblank) or -s fastest (OpenAlex and Crossref). Explicit source choices are never expanded, even for DOI queries. Use -s unpaywall for DOI lookup; "all" already includes it. These presets do not enable optional paid sources.

Download PDF

paper-search download <source> <paper_id> [-o ./downloads]

Read (extract text)

paper-search read <source> <paper_id> [-o ./downloads]

List sources

paper-search sources

MCP tools from the CLI

paper-search tool calls the same registered tools as the MCP server, including source-specific options and DOI lookup. Required arguments are positional; optional arguments use kebab-case flags. Boolean flags use --flag and --no-flag; omitted options retain their MCP defaults.

paper-search tool --help
paper-search tool --list  # JSON tool list, schemas, and annotations
paper-search tool search_crossref --help
paper-search tool search_crossref "transformer attention" --filter from-pub-date:2024-01-01 --sort published --order desc --max-results 2
paper-search tool get_crossref_paper_by_doi 10.1038/nature12373
paper-search tool search_iacr "cryptography" --no-fetch-details

Objects and lists return JSON; text and download paths return plain text. An exception returns a JSON error with exit code 1; invalid CLI syntax exits with code 2. A normal MCP result retains its original meaning, including error or partial-result fields returned by the tool itself. --list shows only tools enabled by the current configuration, so IEEE tools still require their API key. The existing search, download, read, and sources commands are unchanged. Tool calls keep the MCP tools' source selection and timeout behavior; Sci-Hub fallback remains opt-in through --use-scihub.

Output

search and download return JSON. read returns plain text. Config warnings go to stderr and can be ignored.

Sources

arxiv, pubmed, biorxiv, medrxiv, google_scholar, iacr, semantic, crossref, openalex, pmc, core, europepmc, dblp, openaire, citeseerx, doaj, base, zenodo, hal, ssrn, openreview, unpaywall, acm

Optional (env vars): ieee (IEEE_API_KEY). ACM search is keyless and uses Crossref metadata; publisher PDF access may require the OA fallback.

Web of Science (wos) and Scopus (scopus) require their runtime API keys and explicit source selection; they are never added to all, fast, or fastest. Use --wos-db or the --scopus-view, --scopus-sort, --scopus-field, and --scopus-date options on ordinary search, or inspect their corresponding tool help. read scopus <id> returns structured abstract metadata; --full-text explicitly attempts identity-verified article text and returns a nonzero exit when full text remains unavailable. An abstract-only result is not full text.

The tool command also exposes get_citing_papers, get_referenced_papers, get_search_cache_status, and clear_search_cache. Relationship lookups accept DOIs/OpenAlex IDs, with bounded one-hop retrieval. Caching is off by default; enabling it persists queries and public results, and requires an explicit operator choice. Clearing the search cache does not remove downloaded PDFs.

Workflow

1. Search with targeted sources to find papers
2. Present results as a table: title, authors, year, source, DOI/URL
3. If the user wants full text, use read <source> <paper_id>
4. If the user wants the PDF, use download <source> <paper_id> and report the saved path