# Plos [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🔬 Research  
**Repository:** https://github.com/pipeworx-io/mcp-plos  
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**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/plos

## Description
PLOS journals — Solr-backed full-text search across all PLOS OA content

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **search** — Solr-powered full-text search across all PLOS open-access journals; supports field-qualified queries (e.g. abstract:CRISPR AND title:gene), pagination, sorting, and custom field selection. Returns title, authors, journal, date, and abstract by default.
- **article** — Fetch a single PLOS article record by DOI (e.g. 10.1371/journal.pone.0153207), returning title, authors, publication date, journal, and abstract.
- **search_authored_by** — Articles by author name.
- **recent** — Most recent publications across PLOS.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "plos": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","@pipeworx/mcp-plos"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What Plos MCP server does

Plos MCP server connects AI agents to the PLOS Search API at `https://api.plos.org/search`. The API provides full-text search across PLOS open-access journal content and accepts Solr query syntax. The package exposes four domain-specific tools:

- `search(query, rows?, start?, sort?, fl?)` for Solr-style searches with pagination, sorting, and field selection.
- `article(doi)` for retrieving an article by DOI.
- `search_authored_by(name, rows?)` for finding articles associated with an author name.
- `recent(rows?)` for listing the most recent PLOS publications.

This makes the Plos MCP server relevant for literature discovery, article retrieval, and research workflows focused on PLOS content.

## How it works

The hosted MCP endpoint is `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/plos/mcp`. An MCP client can connect to that URL and call the PLOS tools through the Pipeworx gateway. The pack endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools, including `ask_pipeworx`, `discover_tools`, `search_within`, and `remember`/`recall`. The exact tool scope is returned by the connection's `initialize` response and may change over time.

The gateway can also be used through HTTP without an MCP client. For example, `POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/plos_search` accepts a JSON request containing a search query. Tool details can be inspected with the corresponding `GET /v1/tools/plos_search` endpoint.

For a pack-only connection, the package runs locally as a stdio MCP server. In that mode, it handles MCP initialization, tool listing, and tool calls for the PLOS tools without the gateway's shared meta-tools or cross-catalog routing.

## Setup and configuration

Add the hosted endpoint to an MCP client using its URL configuration. The README specifically gives configurations for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf. No API key or environment variable is documented for the PLOS data source, and the gateway can be used without an account for initial calls.

To run locally, configure the client to execute `npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-plos`. The same command can be run directly to verify that the process starts. Local execution avoids a gateway round trip and does not require a Pipeworx account.

Alternatively, connect to `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp` for the full Pipeworx gateway. The full endpoint lists tools from all available packs directly, while `ask_pipeworx` can route questions across the catalog from either gateway URL.

## Tools and capabilities

The primary search interface accepts a `query` and optional `rows`, `start`, `sort`, and `fl` values. Queries can use PLOS's Solr syntax, such as field-qualified expressions. DOI lookup, author-name search, and recent-publication retrieval provide narrower alternatives when a general full-text query is not appropriate.

The Plos MCP server is keyless at the PLOS API layer. It does not document a separate credential, account setup, or local configuration file. Its data scope is PLOS open-access journal content rather than a general scholarly index.

## Limitations and notes

The hosted pack endpoint includes shared gateway tools in addition to the PLOS-specific tools, so its total tool count is larger than the four tools listed here. The standalone package exposes only the pack's own tools.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/plos/readme_