research-mcp
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": true
} |
| logging | {} |
| prompts | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| resources | {
"subscribe": false,
"listChanged": false
} |
| extensions | {
"io.modelcontextprotocol/ui": {}
} |
| experimental | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| search_papersA | Search academic papers by keyword. Returns structured results: title, year, venue, authors, DOI, abstract, citation count, and an open-access PDF link when available. source:
Optionally filter by venue (e.g. "e-Energy"). Venue-scoped queries are routed through DBLP automatically, because OpenAlex has no usable venue filter. All results are cached on disk, so repeat searches are instant even if an API rate-limits. |
| paper_detailsA | Get full metadata for a paper. Pass a DOI (e.g. "10.1109/tpwrs.2018.2823641"), an arXiv ID (e.g. "2407.19074", "arXiv:2407.19074", or an arxiv.org/abs/... URL), or an OpenAlex ID (W...). Semantic Scholar first, OpenAlex/Crossref fallback: title, authors, venue, year, abstract, TLDR, citation count, DOI, and open-access PDF. |
| get_citation_graphA | Follow a paper's citation graph. paper_id is a DOI, an OpenAlex ID (W...), or a Semantic Scholar paper ID. direction: "citing" (papers that cite this paper, forward search) or "referenced" (papers this paper cites, backward search). Returns structured results plus the data source used. Results are cached. |
| venue_proceedingsA | List papers published in a venue's proceedings (via DBLP) — for surveying what a conference like ACM e-Energy actually accepts. Returns title, year, authors, DOI. venue: a venue name (e.g. "e-Energy") or a DBLP stream key (e.g. "conf/eenergy"). year: optional single year to filter proceedings (e.g. 2024). query: optional keyword to only return papers matching a topic (e.g. "carbon"). Results are cached, so re-surveys are instant. |
| get_bibtexA | Generate a BibTeX citation entry for a paper by DOI via Crossref (falls back to local generation from OpenAlex metadata). Result is cached. |
| read_paper_full_textA | Read the full text of a paper. Pass a DOI, an arXiv ID (e.g. "2407.19074"), or a direct PDF URL. Resolves the open-access PDF automatically, downloads it (cached locally under ~/.cache/research-mcp/pdf/ by default), extracts the text with PyMuPDF, and returns up to max_chars characters. Use paper_details or search_papers to find a paper's open_access_pdf first; pass that URL directly if DOI resolution finds no open-access copy. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 6 tools
Each tool targets a clearly distinct research workflow step: keyword search, metadata lookup by ID, citation graph traversal, venue-based survey, BibTeX generation, and full-text extraction. Even where search_papers supports a venue filter, venue_proceedings is clearly positioned as venue-first exploration, so an agent can reliably pick the right tool.
All names are readable and consistently snake_case, but they mix conventions: search_papers, get_citation_graph, get_bibtex, and read_paper_full_text are verb-led, while paper_details and venue_proceedings are bare noun phrases. This is a mixed pattern rather than a truly consistent verb_noun schema.
Six tools is well within the ideal range for a research assistant server. Each tool covers a distinct capability and none feels redundant or unnecessary for the stated domain of academic paper discovery and reading.
The tool surface covers the core academic research lifecycle: finding papers by keyword or venue, retrieving detailed metadata, exploring citations both forward and backward, reading full text, and generating BibTeX entries. There are no obvious dead ends or missing operations that would prevent an agent from completing a typical literature research workflow.