Lune Research vs Papers
A side-by-side look at the Lune Research and Papers MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Lune Research for research work as a local process; choose Papers 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 Lune Research when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Research domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You have the keys it needs:
LUNE_API_KEY. - You want tools like
search_papers, search_papers_many, search_related_papers.
Choose Papers 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 | 53/100 · Good | 40/100 · 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 | LUNE_API_KEY | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing |
Tools & capabilities
Lune Research tools 12
search_papersHybrid vector + BM25 search over the corpussearch_papers_manyMany query variants in one call, merged by reciprocal rank fusionsearch_related_papersThe nearest neighbors of a paper you already havelist_conferencesIndexed venues, optionally filtered by categoryget_conference_papersOne venue's papers, paginatedget_paper_fulltextParsed full text, as markdown or JSONget_paper_citationsThe citation graph, in either directionextract_from_papersPull the same structured fields out of a set of papersverify_claimsCheck each claim against the corpus, with a verbatim quote when one existsgather_evidenceJudge whether the evidence is sufficient yet, and name what is missingsearch_research_guidanceThe curated methodology and reproducibility corpusget_research_guidance_docThe full text of one guidance document
Papers 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.
Lune Research
{
"mcpServers": {
"lune-research-2": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@retrograde-labs/lune-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"LUNE_API_KEY": "YOUR_LUNE_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Papers
{
"mcpServers": {
"papers": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"agentpub"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Lune Research is categorized under Research and uses a local stdio subprocess. Papers belongs to Research and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Lune Research for research work and Papers 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.
Lune Research has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Papers 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 lune-research-2 and papers as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Lune Research has a quality signal of 53/100 (Good) with 0 views, 0 installs and 4 GitHub stars. Papers has 40/100 (Fair) with 1 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars.