MCP-DBLP

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/mcp_dblp/server.py:280-309 (handler)

  Handler logic for the 'search' MCP tool within the call_tool method. Validates input, calls dblp_client.search, formats results with optional BibTeX, and returns text content.
  case "search": if "query" not in arguments: return [ types.TextContent( type="text", text="Error: Missing required parameter 'query'" ) ] include_bibtex = arguments.get("include_bibtex", False) result = search( query=arguments.get("query"), max_results=arguments.get("max_results", 10), year_from=arguments.get("year_from"), year_to=arguments.get("year_to"), venue_filter=arguments.get("venue_filter"), include_bibtex=include_bibtex, ) if include_bibtex: return [ types.TextContent( type="text", text=f"Found {len(result)} publications matching your query:\n\n{format_results_with_bibtex(result)}", ) ] else: return [ types.TextContent( type="text", text=f"Found {len(result)} publications matching your query:\n\n{format_results(result)}", ) ]
• src/mcp_dblp/server.py:101-126 (schema)

  Schema definition for the 'search' tool, including detailed description and input schema, returned by list_tools().
  name="search", description=( "Search DBLP for publications using a boolean query string.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - query (string, required): A query string that may include boolean operators 'and' and 'or' (case-insensitive).\n" " For example, 'Swin and Transformer'. Parentheses are not supported.\n" " - max_results (number, optional): Maximum number of publications to return. Default is 10.\n" " - year_from (number, optional): Lower bound for publication year.\n" " - year_to (number, optional): Upper bound for publication year.\n" " - venue_filter (string, optional): Case-insensitive substring filter for publication venues (e.g., 'iclr').\n" " - include_bibtex (boolean, optional): Whether to include BibTeX entries in the results. Default is false.\n" "Returns a list of publication objects including title, authors, venue, year, type, doi, ee, and url." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "query": {"type": "string"}, "max_results": {"type": "number"}, "year_from": {"type": "number"}, "year_to": {"type": "number"}, "venue_filter": {"type": "string"}, "include_bibtex": {"type": "boolean"}, }, "required": ["query"], }, ),
• src/mcp_dblp/server.py:83-258 (registration)

  Registration of the 'search' tool via the list_tools() handler, which returns all available tools including 'search'.
  @server.list_tools() async def list_tools() -> list[types.Tool]: """List all available DBLP tools with detailed descriptions.""" return [ types.Tool( name="get_instructions", description=( "Get detailed DBLP usage instructions. Key points:\n" "- Batch searches in parallel (5-10 at a time) for efficiency\n" "- Add entries immediately after each search result (don't batch add_bibtex_entry calls)\n" "- Use author+year for best results: search('Vaswani 2017') not just title\n" "- Copy dblp_key EXACTLY from search results to add_bibtex_entry\n" "- Export once at the end with export_bibtex\n" "Call this tool for complete workflow details, search strategies, and examples." ), inputSchema={"type": "object", "properties": {}}, ), types.Tool( name="search", description=( "Search DBLP for publications using a boolean query string.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - query (string, required): A query string that may include boolean operators 'and' and 'or' (case-insensitive).\n" " For example, 'Swin and Transformer'. Parentheses are not supported.\n" " - max_results (number, optional): Maximum number of publications to return. Default is 10.\n" " - year_from (number, optional): Lower bound for publication year.\n" " - year_to (number, optional): Upper bound for publication year.\n" " - venue_filter (string, optional): Case-insensitive substring filter for publication venues (e.g., 'iclr').\n" " - include_bibtex (boolean, optional): Whether to include BibTeX entries in the results. Default is false.\n" "Returns a list of publication objects including title, authors, venue, year, type, doi, ee, and url." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "query": {"type": "string"}, "max_results": {"type": "number"}, "year_from": {"type": "number"}, "year_to": {"type": "number"}, "venue_filter": {"type": "string"}, "include_bibtex": {"type": "boolean"}, }, "required": ["query"], }, ), types.Tool( name="fuzzy_title_search", description=( "Search DBLP for publications with fuzzy title matching.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - title (string, required): Full or partial title of the publication (case-insensitive).\n" " - similarity_threshold (number, required): A float between 0 and 1 where 1.0 means an exact match.\n" " - max_results (number, optional): Maximum number of publications to return. Default is 10.\n" " - year_from (number, optional): Lower bound for publication year.\n" " - year_to (number, optional): Upper bound for publication year.\n" " - venue_filter (string, optional): Case-insensitive substring filter for publication venues.\n" " - include_bibtex (boolean, optional): Whether to include BibTeX entries in the results. Default is false.\n" "Returns a list of publication objects sorted by title similarity score." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "title": {"type": "string"}, "similarity_threshold": {"type": "number"}, "max_results": {"type": "number"}, "year_from": {"type": "number"}, "year_to": {"type": "number"}, "venue_filter": {"type": "string"}, "include_bibtex": {"type": "boolean"}, }, "required": ["title", "similarity_threshold"], }, ), types.Tool( name="get_author_publications", description=( "Retrieve publication details for a specific author with fuzzy matching.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - author_name (string, required): Full or partial author name (case-insensitive).\n" " - similarity_threshold (number, required): A float between 0 and 1 where 1.0 means an exact match.\n" " - max_results (number, optional): Maximum number of publications to return. Default is 20.\n" " - include_bibtex (boolean, optional): Whether to include BibTeX entries in the results. Default is false.\n" "Returns a dictionary with keys: name, publication_count, publications, and stats (which includes top venues, years, and types)." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "author_name": {"type": "string"}, "similarity_threshold": {"type": "number"}, "max_results": {"type": "number"}, "include_bibtex": {"type": "boolean"}, }, "required": ["author_name", "similarity_threshold"], }, ), types.Tool( name="get_venue_info", description=( "Retrieve information about a publication venue from DBLP.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - venue_name (string, required): Venue name or abbreviation (e.g., 'ICLR', 'NeurIPS', or full name).\n" "Returns a dictionary with fields:\n" " - venue: Full venue title\n" " - acronym: Venue acronym/abbreviation (if available)\n" " - type: Venue type (e.g., 'Conference or Workshop', 'Journal', 'Repository')\n" " - url: Canonical DBLP URL for the venue\n" "Note: Publisher, ISSN, and other metadata are not available through this endpoint." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": {"venue_name": {"type": "string"}}, "required": ["venue_name"], }, ), types.Tool( name="calculate_statistics", description=( "Calculate statistics from a list of publication results.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - results (array, required): An array of publication objects, each with at least 'title', 'authors', 'venue', and 'year'.\n" "Returns a dictionary with:\n" " - total_publications: Total count.\n" " - time_range: Dictionary with 'min' and 'max' publication years.\n" " - top_authors: List of tuples (author, count) sorted by count.\n" " - top_venues: List of tuples (venue, count) sorted by count (empty venue is treated as '(empty)')." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": {"results": {"type": "array"}}, "required": ["results"], }, ), types.Tool( name="add_bibtex_entry", description=( "Add a BibTeX entry to the collection for later export. Call this once for each paper you want to export.\n" "Arguments:\n" " - dblp_key (string, required): The DBLP key from search results (e.g., 'conf/nips/VaswaniSPUJGKP17').\n" " - citation_key (string, required): The citation key to use in the .bib file (e.g., 'Vaswani2017').\n" "Workflow:\n" " 1. Fetches BibTeX directly from DBLP using the provided key\n" " 2. Replaces the citation key with your custom key\n" " 3. Adds to collection (duplicate citation_key will be overwritten)\n" " 4. Returns count of entries currently in collection\n" "After adding all entries, call export_bibtex to save them to a .bib file." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "dblp_key": {"type": "string"}, "citation_key": {"type": "string"}, }, "required": ["dblp_key", "citation_key"], }, ), types.Tool( name="export_bibtex", description=( "Export all collected BibTeX entries to a .bib file. Call this after adding all entries with add_bibtex_entry.\n" "Workflow:\n" " 1. Saves all collected entries to a .bib file at the specified path\n" " 2. Clears the collection for next export\n" " 3. Returns the full path to the exported file\n" "Returns error if no entries have been added yet." ), inputSchema={ "type": "object", "properties": { "path": { "type": "string", "description": "Absolute path for the .bib file (e.g., '/path/to/refs.bib'). The .bib extension is added automatically if missing. Parent directories are created if needed.", }, }, "required": ["path"], }, ), ]
• src/mcp_dblp/dblp_client.py:105-176 (helper)

  Core helper function implementing the DBLP search logic: API calls, query parsing, filtering, and optional BibTeX fetching. Called by the MCP tool handler.
  def search( query: str, max_results: int = 10, year_from: int | None = None, year_to: int | None = None, venue_filter: str | None = None, include_bibtex: bool = False, ) -> list[dict[str, Any]]: """ Search DBLP using their public API. Parameters: query (str): The search query string. max_results (int, optional): Maximum number of results to return. Default is 10. year_from (int, optional): Lower bound for publication year. year_to (int, optional): Upper bound for publication year. venue_filter (str, optional): Case-insensitive substring filter for publication venues. include_bibtex (bool, optional): Whether to include BibTeX entries in the results. Default is False. Returns: List[Dict[str, Any]]: A list of publication dictionaries. """ query_lower = query.lower() if "(" in query or ")" in query: logger.warning( "Parentheses are not supported in boolean queries. " "They will be treated as literal characters." ) results = [] if " or " in query_lower: subqueries = [q.strip() for q in query_lower.split(" or ") if q.strip()] seen = set() for q in subqueries: for pub in _fetch_publications(q, max_results): identifier = (pub.get("title"), pub.get("year")) if identifier not in seen: results.append(pub) seen.add(identifier) else: results = _fetch_publications(query, max_results) filtered_results = [] for result in results: if year_from or year_to: year = result.get("year") if year: try: year = int(year) if (year_from and year < year_from) or (year_to and year > year_to): continue except (ValueError, TypeError): pass if venue_filter: venue = result.get("venue", "") if venue_filter.lower() not in venue.lower(): continue filtered_results.append(result) if not filtered_results: logger.info("No results found. Consider revising your query syntax.") filtered_results = filtered_results[:max_results] # Fetch BibTeX entries if requested if include_bibtex: for result in filtered_results: if "dblp_key" in result and result["dblp_key"]: result["bibtex"] = fetch_bibtex_entry(result["dblp_key"]) return filtered_results