Lens Org

What Lens Org does

Lens Org brings The Lens patent and scholarly search APIs into MCP clients. Its four domain tools cover two search workflows and two record-retrieval workflows:

• patents_search(query, size?, from?) searches the Lens patent index with a Lucene-style query.
• scholarly_search(query, size?, from?) searches scholarly works.
• patent(lens_id) retrieves one patent record.
• scholarly(lens_id) retrieves one scholarly work.

The underlying data source is https://api.lens.org/. This makes the server suitable for research tasks that require finding relevant documents first and then examining a specific Lens record.

How it works

The hosted MCP endpoint is https://gateway.pipeworx.io/lens-org/mcp. It exposes the Lens Org tools through Pipeworx and also includes shared gateway tools such as ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, and remember/recall. The exact tool scope is returned during MCP initialization, so the visible tool set can be larger than the four Lens-specific tools.

ask_pipeworx can accept a plain-English question and route it to an appropriate tool, including tools outside the Lens Org pack. A full Pipeworx gateway endpoint is also available when an agent needs every pack listed directly.

For local use, the @pipeworx/mcp-lens-org npm package acts as a stdio bridge. It forwards calls to the same hosted endpoint, so it requires network access and does not provide offline operation.

Setup and configuration

Add the hosted URL to an MCP client such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lens-org": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/lens-org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The local alternative starts the package with npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lens-org": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-lens-org"]
    }
  }
}

Authenticated Lens access uses a Bearer token from the Lens subscriptions page, configured as PLATFORM_LENS_KEY, or a token passed as _apiKey on the gateway URL. The local bridge can use PIPEWORX_API_KEY for a Pipeworx account. Without that key, local calls are anonymous and limited to 50 per day; a free Pipeworx account raises the limit to 200 per day. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to include gateway-wide meta-tools in the local tool listing.

Limitations and notes

The integration is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by The Lens. Local operation still depends on the hosted Pipeworx gateway and network access. When running behind an HTTPS proxy, newer Node.js releases can use the proxy environment setting when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is enabled. The project is released under the MIT license.