# ERIC MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for searching [ERIC](https://eric.ed.gov/) (Education Resources Information Center) — the world's largest education research database with 2M+ records dating back to 1966.

Built with [FastMCP](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk). No API key required — ERIC is free and open.

## Tools

| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `eric_search` | Search by keyword, title, author, subject descriptor, or source with filtering |
| `eric_get_record` | Retrieve full metadata for a specific ERIC record by ID |
| `eric_thesaurus_search` | Discover ERIC descriptors (controlled vocabulary) for a topic |
| `eric_author_search` | Search for works by a specific author |
| `eric_export_ris` | Export results as RIS (for Zotero, EndNote, etc.) |
| `eric_export_bibtex` | Export results as BibTeX |

## Why ERIC?

Approximately 40% of ERIC's collection is grey literature (reports, white papers, policy studies) not found in other databases. Many items include free full-text PDFs directly from ERIC.

## Setup

### 1. Install

```bash
cd eric-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

### 2. Add to Claude Desktop

Add this to your `claude_desktop_config.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eric": {
      "command": "/path/to/eric-mcp-server/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/path/to/eric-mcp-server/server.py"]
    }
  }
}
```

Or if using Claude Code CLI:

```bash
claude mcp add eric \
  /path/to/eric-mcp-server/venv/bin/python \
  /path/to/eric-mcp-server/server.py
```

## Usage examples

- "Search ERIC for recent peer-reviewed research on flipped classrooms in higher education"
- "What ERIC descriptors are used for research on student curiosity?"
- "Find grey literature reports on K-12 STEM education from 2020-2024"
- "Get the full record for ED612345 and export it as RIS for Zotero"

## License

MIT