LitSynth MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for intelligent academic paper discovery and semantic search using ArXiv. This server provides tools for searching academic papers and performing semantic similarity analysis using state-of-the-art sentence transformers.

Features

ArXiv Search: Query ArXiv database with automatic URL encoding for complex search terms
Semantic Search: Find papers most relevant to your research using AI-powered semantic similarity
Robust Error Handling: Graceful handling of network issues and malformed data
Flexible Input: Support for various query formats including spaces and special characters

Tools Available

1. `greet(name: str)`

Simple greeting function for testing server connectivity.

Parameters:

name: String - Name to greet

Returns: Greeting message

2. `search_query_arxiv(query: str, max_results: int = 5)`

Search ArXiv database for academic papers matching your query.

Parameters:

query: String - Search terms (automatically URL encoded)
max_results: Integer - Maximum number of results to return (default: 5)

Returns: Structured response with papers including:

Title
Authors
Summary/Abstract
ArXiv link
Status message

Example:

search_query_arxiv("multimodal agents", 3)

3. `search_semantic_arxiv(query: str, papers: list, top_k: int = 5)`

Perform semantic search on a list of papers to find the most relevant ones.

Parameters:

query: String - Research query for semantic matching
papers: List - Papers to search through (from search_query_arxiv or manual list)
top_k: Integer - Number of most relevant papers to return (default: 5)

Returns: Ranked papers with similarity scores including:

Title
Summary
Authors
ArXiv link
Similarity score (0-1)

Example:

papers = search_query_arxiv("machine learning")
relevant = search_semantic_arxiv("deep reinforcement learning", papers, 3)

Installation

Prerequisites

Python 3.8+
pip

Setup

Clone or download the project files
Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the MCP server:

python my_server.py

Dependencies

The project requires the following packages (see requirements.txt):

fastmcp>=0.1.0 - MCP framework
feedparser>=6.0.10 - RSS/Atom feed parsing for ArXiv API
requests>=2.31.0 - HTTP requests
sentence-transformers>=2.2.2 - Semantic search and embeddings
torch>=2.0.0 - PyTorch for neural networks
transformers>=4.21.0 - Hugging Face transformers
numpy>=1.21.0 - Numerical computing

Project Structure

ai-research-assistant/
├── my_server.py           # Main MCP server implementation
├── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies
└── README.md             # This file

Usage Examples

Basic ArXiv Search

Search for papers on a specific topic:

# Search for papers about transformers
results = search_query_arxiv("attention mechanisms transformers", 5)

Semantic Paper Discovery

Find the most relevant papers from a search result:

# First, get papers on a broad topic
papers = search_query_arxiv("artificial intelligence", 20)

# Then find the most relevant ones for your specific research
relevant_papers = search_semantic_arxiv("graph neural networks", papers, 5)

Handling Complex Queries

The server automatically handles special characters and spaces:

# These work automatically without manual encoding
search_query_arxiv("machine learning & deep learning: survey")
search_query_arxiv("reinforcement learning (RL) applications")

Technical Details

Semantic Search Model

The server uses the sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 model for semantic embeddings. This model:

Provides 384-dimensional sentence embeddings
Balances speed and accuracy
Works well for academic text similarity

Error Handling

The server includes comprehensive error handling:

URL Encoding: Automatic handling of spaces and special characters
Network Errors: Graceful degradation when ArXiv is unavailable
Data Validation: Safe handling of missing or malformed paper data
Empty Results: Informative messages when no papers are found

Response Format

All functions return structured responses:

{
  "message": "Status or info message",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Paper Title",
      "author": ["Author 1", "Author 2"],
      "summary": "Abstract text...",
      "link": "https://arxiv.org/abs/...",
      "similarity_score": 0.85  // Only in semantic search
    }
  ]
}

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"URL can't contain control characters" error:

This is fixed in the current version with automatic URL encoding
Make sure you're using the latest version of the server

"No papers found" result:

Check your query spelling
Try broader search terms
Verify ArXiv service availability

Slow semantic search:

First run downloads the transformer model (~90MB)
Subsequent runs are much faster
Consider reducing top_k for faster results

Memory issues:

The sentence transformer model requires ~500MB RAM
Reduce batch sizes if experiencing memory problems

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests to improve the AI Research Assistant.

License

This project is open source. Please check individual dependency licenses for commercial use.

Acknowledgments

ArXiv for providing free access to academic papers
Sentence Transformers for semantic search capabilities
FastMCP for the MCP server framework

LitSynth MCP Server