Scholar MCP

Go deeper.

Find the paper. Follow the evidence. Build the field.

Scholar MCP turns a research question into a connected body of evidence. It recovers papers from vague descriptions, reaches the work one hop beyond search, opens the primary text, maps the lineage, and carries the selected field into a library that grows with every session.

Natural-language discovery · Related-work discovery · Primary evidence · Field maps · Zotero · Obsidian · Notion connectors

Quick demo

One continuous agent flow: search_papers → build_paper_graph → paper_info + read_paper → paper_library → library connectors.

How it works

Agents call typed MCP tools over stdio or Streamable HTTP. Scholar returns concise text and structured data, while a persistent SQLite library drives FTS5 search, PDF attachments, JSONL snapshots, and Obsidian, Zotero, and Notion connectors.

Quick start

Claude Code:

claude mcp add scholar -- uvx scholar-mcp

Claude Desktop or any stdio MCP client:

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

The direct server exposes the compact core profile. Python 3.10+ and uv are required. Optional source keys unlock deeper coverage and higher throughput.

The repository also ships a research plugin with citation graphs, a local paper library, and the Deep Research skill:

# Codex
codex plugin marketplace add Liyux3/scholar-mcp
codex plugin add scholar-mcp@scholar-mcp

# Claude Code
claude plugin marketplace add Liyux3/scholar-mcp
claude plugin install scholar-mcp@scholar-mcp

The same plugin directory follows the Agent Plugins standard for Cursor, Pi, and compatible harnesses. OpenCode can launch uvx scholar-mcp as a local MCP; Pi can use pi-mcp-adapter.

Release artifacts also include the PyPI package, multi-architecture GHCR image, and macOS MCPB bundles. See the complete distribution matrix.

Tools

scholar://status reports source availability and the actual reranker used without occupying the tool surface. Tool responses retain concise YAML text and also expose structured MCP data.

The bundled Deep Research skill turns search, paper inspection, graph traversal, and selected library writes into a living field map.

Retrieval

Keyword APIs receive measured source-specific query budgets. Semantic endpoints keep the original question. Every source contributes independently to one canonical evidence pool.

Results are canonicalized across DOI, arXiv, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, PubMed, and OpenReview identities. Duplicate records contribute complementary metadata and independent source evidence instead of appearing several times.

DashScope qwen3-rerank is the primary reranker when configured; FlashRank is the local fallback. The normal response shows only source coverage, the actual reranker, and actionable degradation. debug=true adds per-source yield, latency, provenance, and internal ranking diagnostics.

Measured retrieval quality

Scholar leads the Exa research-paper baseline by 10 points at R@5 and 6 points at R@20 on matched LitSearch.

Scholar recovered nine R@5 hits that Exa missed; Exa recovered four that Scholar missed.

Citation graph and paper library

Rendered from a live local collection, the graph reveals foundations, bridges, and the papers that move a field forward. Stable identities and parallel citation traversal keep the map connected as it grows.

The paper library uses one persistent SQLite authority with WAL transactions and FTS5 search. Existing JSONL collections migrate automatically and remain available as compatibility snapshots. Stable identifiers, notes, tags, PDF paths, connector IDs, and sync revisions stay attached to the same canonical record.

Default data layout:

~/.scholar-mcp/
├── papers/    persistent PDFs
├── kb/
│   ├── library.sqlite3    authority + FTS5 + sync state
│   └── *.jsonl            compatibility snapshots
└── vault/                 Markdown projections and wikilinks

Library connectors

# No login: write directly into an Obsidian vault
scholar-mcp library export obsidian --collection rag --path /path/to/vault

# Dry-run by default; add --apply for external writes
scholar-mcp library sync zotero --collection rag
scholar-mcp library publish notion --collection rag