Plos vs Alexandria

In-depth architectural comparison of the Plos and Alexandria 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?

P

Choose Plos when:

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

Explore Plos Details

Choose Alexandria when:

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

Explore Alexandria Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	P Plos Developer Tools	Alexandria Developer Tools
Summary	PLOS journals — Solr-backed full-text search across all PLOS OA content	Search, read, and cite across 152 libraries: 11 tools, 3 prompts, and a full-text resource.
Category & Scope	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Quality signal

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": {
    "plos": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "plos"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alexandria": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@the-40-thieves/alexandria-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Related MCP Server Comparisons