Verbatim MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Verbatim — a platform of specialized document collections that returns verbatim, cited answers. ACL Anthology is the default collection; pass collection_ids=[...] to scope to a different collection or query multiple.

Features

Search papers by keywords, authors, venues, and years
Ask research questions and get answers with verbatim citations
Get paper metadata and full content
Export citations in BibTeX format
Browse collections, authors, venues, and years
Collection-aware — all tools accept an optional collection_ids list (default ["anthology"])

Quick Start

Step 1: Get an API Key

Go to verbatim.krlabs.eu
Sign up / Log in
Navigate to API Keys
Create a new API key and copy it

Step 2: Set up the MCP server

Choose the setup that matches your environment:

Setup for Claude Code (CLI)

Option A: Using uvx (no install needed, requires uv)

claude mcp add verbatim --transport stdio \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- uvx verbatim-mcp

Option B: Using pip (works everywhere)

pip install verbatim-mcp

claude mcp add verbatim --transport stdio \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- verbatim-mcp

Option C: Config file

Add to ~/.claude.json or your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "verbatim-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Code or run /mcp to verify.

Setup for Claude Desktop App

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["verbatim-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see "verbatim" in the tools menu (hammer icon).

Setup for OpenAI Codex

Option A: Via CLI

codex mcp add verbatim \
  -e VERBATIM_API_KEY=vb_your_key_here \
  -- uvx verbatim-mcp

Option B: Via config file

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.verbatim]
command = "uvx"
args = ["verbatim-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.verbatim.env]
VERBATIM_API_KEY = "vb_your_key_here"

Then restart Codex or run /mcp to verify.

Setup for Cursor / VS Code with Continue

For Cursor or Continue.dev extension, add to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "verbatim": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["verbatim-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VERBATIM_API_KEY": "vb_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify It's Working

In Claude Code, run:

/mcp

You should see verbatim listed with its tools.

Try asking Claude:

"Use verbatim to search for papers about attention mechanisms"

Available Tools

Every collection-aware tool accepts an optional collection_ids: list[str] parameter (default ["anthology"]). verbatim_transform is collection-agnostic — you supply the context.

Tool	Description
`list_collections`	List collections available to your API key
`get_collection`	Get metadata for a single collection
`query_rag`	Ask a research question, get an answer with citations
`verbatim_transform`	Turn any question + context into a verbatim cited answer (no collection)
`search_papers`	Search papers by keywords and filters. Pass `include_chunks=true` to also get the matched chunks per paper (no LLM, no quota)
`get_paper`	Get metadata for a specific paper
`get_paper_content`	Get full text of a paper
`get_citation`	Get BibTeX citation
`list_authors`	Search authors by name
`list_venues`	Browse publication venues
`list_booktitles`	Browse proceedings/booktitles
`list_years`	List available publication years

Example Prompts

Once configured, try these with Claude:

"Search for papers about transformer efficiency from 2023"
"What does the research say about attention mechanisms?"
"Find papers by Ashish Vaswani"
"Get the BibTeX citation for that paper"
"List the top venues in the corpus"

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`VERBATIM_API_KEY`	Your API key (required)	-
`VERBATIM_API_URL`	API base URL	`https://verbatim.krlabs.eu`

Troubleshooting

"Failed to reconnect to verbatim"

If using uvx, make sure uv is installed: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Alternatively, use pip instead: pip install verbatim-mcp and replace uvx verbatim-mcp with just verbatim-mcp in your config

"VERBATIM_API_KEY environment variable is required"

Make sure you added the -e flag or env block with your API key

Server not showing in /mcp

Restart Claude Code: claude (exit and reopen)
Check config syntax: claude mcp list

"API error (401): Unauthorized"

Your API key is invalid or expired
Generate a new one at verbatim.krlabs.eu/api-keys

"API error (429): Rate limit"

You've exceeded your query limit
Check usage at verbatim.krlabs.eu/api-keys

Compatibility

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is supported by:

Claude Code (CLI) - ~/.claude.json
Claude Desktop App - claude_desktop_config.json
OpenAI Codex - ~/.codex/config.toml
Cursor - built-in MCP support
Continue.dev - VS Code/JetBrains extension

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

verbatim-mcp