local-only server

The server can only run on the client’s local machine because it depends on local resources.

Integrations

Enables searching and accessing research papers from arXiv's database to aid in literature reviews and academic research
Provides access to research papers hosted on Hugging Face, allowing users to discover and discuss AI/ML research
Mentioned as a planned integration for future development, likely to support academic writing workflows

paperpal

MCP Extension to aid you in searching and writing literature reviews

Check out this conversation with Claude to see what it can do

How it works

paperpal gives your LLMs access to arxiv and Hugging Face papers. You can then have a natural conversation with your favourite LLMs (e.g. Claude) and have it guide you.

You can:

Discuss papers
Look for new papers
Organize ideas for liteature reviews
etc.

Of course, this tool is as good as the sum of its parts. LLMs can still hallucinate, and semantic search is never perfect.

Quickstart

There are many different ways with which you can interact with an MCP server.

Claude Desktop App

If this is your first time using an MCP server for Claude Desktop App, see https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user

First, clone this repository locally:

git clone https://github.com/jerpint/paperpal

Next, add the extension to your app. Open your configuration file (on macOS this should be ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) and and add the following to the extension:

For example on MacOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperpal": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/<username>/paperpal",
        "run",
        "paperpal.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart your Claude Desktop App and you should see it appear.

Cursor

If this is your first time using an MCP server for Cursor, see https://docs.cursor.com/context/model-context-protocol#remote-development

First, clone this repository locally:

git clone https://github.com/jerpint/paperpal

Add this to the root of the project in a .cursor/mcp.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperpal": {
      "command": "/Users/jeremypinto/.cargo/bin/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/jeremypinto/paperpal",
        "run",
        "paperpal.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

This server cannot be installed

-

security - not tested

A

license - permissive license

-

quality - not tested

MCP Extension that gives LLMs access to arXiv and Hugging Face papers, enabling users to discuss papers, search for new research, and organize literature reviews through natural conversation.