# Scholar MCP
Local MCP server that searches Google Scholar. Scrapes results with `requests` + `BeautifulSoup` -- no API keys, no paid services.
## Tools
- **`search_papers_by_topic`** -- search by keywords, optional year range, paginated
- **`get_author_papers`** -- find papers by author name, paginated
## Install
Clone and install:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/ProPriyam/Scholar-MCP.git
cd Scholar-MCP
pip install -e .
```
Or run directly without cloning (needs [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)):
```bash
uvx --from git+https://github.com/ProPriyam/Scholar-MCP scholar-mcp
```
## Client setup
All configs use `python -m scholar_mcp.server` to start the server. This avoids PATH issues that `pip install` can cause on Windows.
### VS Code
Add to `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
"servers": {
"scholarMcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "scholar_mcp.server"],
"env": {
"PYTHONUNBUFFERED": "1"
}
}
}
}
```
### OpenCode
Add to `opencode.json` in your project root:
```json
{
"$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
"mcp": {
"scholar_mcp": {
"type": "local",
"command": ["python", "-m", "scholar_mcp.server"],
"enabled": true,
"environment": {
"PYTHONUNBUFFERED": "1"
}
}
}
}
```
### Claude Code
```bash
claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope project scholar-mcp -- python -m scholar_mcp.server
```
## Configuration
All optional. Set as environment variables.
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ----------------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| `SCHOLAR_USER_AGENT` | Chrome-like UA | User-Agent header for requests |
| `SCHOLAR_TIMEOUT` | `20` | HTTP timeout in seconds |
| `SCHOLAR_MIN_DELAY` | `1.2` | Minimum delay between requests (seconds) |
| `SCHOLAR_MAX_RETRIES` | `2` | Retry attempts on failure |
| `SCHOLAR_RETRY_BACKOFF` | `1.5` | Backoff multiplier between retries |
| `SCHOLAR_PROXY_URL` | none | HTTP/HTTPS proxy URL |
| `SCHOLAR_MAX_PAGE_SIZE` | `20` | Max results per request |
## Notes
- This scrapes Google Scholar HTML. It can break if Google changes their markup or blocks requests.
