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mcp-scholarly

MCP.Pizza Chef: adityak74

Two searches sit behind this. One covers arXiv, the free archive where physics, maths and computer science research is posted; the other covers Google Scholar across every field. Each returns up to ten results with titles, summaries, authors and links you can open. There is nothing to sign up for and no key of any kind. Two things worth knowing: arXiv results come back newest first rather than most relevant, and the Google Scholar side goes through free public proxies, so it fails outright some of the time.

Web/Research
Writing

Use This MCP server To

Find recent papers on a topic I am researching Get real citations instead of invented ones Check whether anyone has already published my idea Skim ten summaries before deciding what to read Pull a paper's link so I can download it

README

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mcp-scholarly MCP server

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A MCP server to search for accurate academic articles. More scholarly vendors will be added soon.

demo1.jpeg

image

Scholarly Server MCP server

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Components

Tools

The server implements one tool:

  • search-arxiv: Search arxiv for articles related to the given keyword.
    • Takes "keyword" as required string arguments

Quickstart

Install

Claude Desktop

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration ``` "mcpServers": { "mcp-scholarly": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--directory", "/Users/adityakarnam/PycharmProjects/mcp-scholarly/mcp-scholarly", "run", "mcp-scholarly" ] } } ```
Published Servers Configuration ``` "mcpServers": { "mcp-scholarly": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "mcp-scholarly" ] } } ```

or if you are using Docker

Published Docker Servers Configuration ``` "mcpServers": { "mcp-scholarly": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "--rm", "-i", "mcp/scholarly" ] } } ```

Installing via Smithery

To install mcp-scholarly for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install mcp-scholarly --client claude

Development

Building and Publishing

To prepare the package for distribution:

  1. Sync dependencies and update lockfile:
uv sync
  1. Build package distributions:
uv build

This will create source and wheel distributions in the dist/ directory.

  1. Publish to PyPI:
uv publish

Note: You'll need to set PyPI credentials via environment variables or command flags:

  • Token: --token or UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN
  • Or username/password: --username/UV_PUBLISH_USERNAME and --password/UV_PUBLISH_PASSWORD

Debugging

Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.

You can launch the MCP Inspector via npm with this command:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /Users/adityakarnam/PycharmProjects/mcp-scholarly/mcp-scholarly run mcp-scholarly

Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.

mcp-scholarly FAQ

Do I need an API key?
No. Neither search needs an account, a key or a payment method. arXiv is a free public archive, and the Google Scholar side routes through free proxies rather than a paid service.
How many tools does it actually have?
Two, one for arXiv and one for Google Scholar. The readme still says one, because it was written before the Google Scholar search was added.
Does the Google Scholar search work reliably?
Not always. Google blocks automated searching from data centres, so the code hops through free rotating proxies. Expect it to be slow when it works and to fail some of the time.
Are the arXiv results the most relevant ones?
No. They come back newest first, ten at a time, rather than ranked by relevance or by how often they are cited. Word your search tightly to compensate.
Can I use this to build a reading list?
Yes. Ask for papers on your topic and you get titles, summaries and links you can save, open or hand back for a plain-language explanation.
Can I filter by year or by author?
Not directly. The only thing you pass is a keyword. There is no date range, no author filter and no way to ask for more than ten results.
Which apps does it work in?
Claude Desktop is documented, with a one-command install available, and any other app that can launch a local command will work.
Is it still maintained?
Yes. It had code changes within the past week, so it is being actively worked on.