Figshare vs Plos
A side-by-side look at the Figshare and Plos MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Figshare for research work as a local process; choose Plos for research as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Figshare when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Research domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
articles, article, article_files.
Choose Plos when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Research domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Research | Research |
| Quality signal | 59/100 · Good | 39/100 · Fair |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 7 | Not listed |
| Full listing | View Figshare | View Plos |
Tools & capabilities
Figshare tools 7
articlesAUTHORITATIVE search across figshare — the open-research repository hosting 7M+ papers, datasets, posters, code, theses, and supplementary materials from universities and labs worldwide. PREFER OVER WEB SEARCH for academic supplementary materials, dataset hunting, or research outputs that aren't in PubMed/arXiv (which skew biomed + physics). Returns article metadata + DOI, authors, license, download URL. Use for "find datasets about X", "supplementary materials for paper Y", "open-access PDFs of Z research".articleFetch full metadata for a single Figshare article by numeric id, optionally at a specific version. Returns title, authors, description, DOI, license, categories, and file list.article_filesList downloadable files attached to a Figshare article by numeric id (optionally a specific version). Returns file names, sizes, MIME types, and direct download URLs.collectionsSearch Figshare collections (curated groups of articles) by keyword query; supports pagination via page/page_size. Returns collection id, title, description, and article count.collectionFetch full metadata for a single Figshare collection by numeric id, including title, description, authors, DOI, and list of contained article ids.categoriesList Figshare categories (parent → leaves).licensesList Figshare license options (id, name, url).
Plos tools
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Figshare
{
"mcpServers": {
"figshare": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-figshare"
]
}
}
}
Plos
{
"mcpServers": {
"plos": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-plos"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Figshare is categorized under Research and uses a local stdio subprocess. Plos belongs to Research and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Figshare for research work and Plos for research.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Figshare has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Plos has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add figshare and plos as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Figshare has a quality signal of 59/100 (Good) with 1 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. Plos has 39/100 (Fair) with 0 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars.