Pageindex MCP vs Paper Distill MCP

In-depth architectural comparison of the Pageindex MCP and Paper Distill MCP MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Pageindex MCP when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore Pageindex MCP Details

Choose Paper Distill MCP when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore Paper Distill MCP Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Pageindex MCP Knowledge & Memory	Paper Distill MCP Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Reasoning-based RAG system for chatting with long PDFs. Supports local and online files.	Academic paper search across 11 sources with AI curation, ranked push, Zotero and Obsidian support.
Category & Scope	Knowledge & Memory	Knowledge & Memory

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper-distill-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paper-distill-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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