inspirehep_search_by_author

Search for high-energy physics literature on INSPIRE-HEP using author names. Filter results by year, collaboration size, and sort by citations or recency to find relevant papers.

Instructions

Search INSPIRE-HEP literature by author.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`params`	Yes

Implementation Reference

src/inspirehep_mcp/server.py:121-139 (handler)

Main async handler for inspirehep_search_by_author tool. Decorated with @mcp.tool, it takes AuthorSearchInput parameters, builds an author query using build_author_query, and executes the search via run_search.

@mcp.tool(
    name="inspirehep_search_by_author",
    annotations={
        "title": "Search INSPIRE-HEP papers by author",
        "readOnlyHint": True,
        "destructiveHint": False,
        "idempotentHint": True,
        "openWorldHint": True,
    },
)
async def inspirehep_search_by_author(params: AuthorSearchInput) -> dict[str, Any]:
    """Search INSPIRE-HEP literature by author."""

    query = build_author_query(params.author, params.large_collaboration, params.year)
    return await run_search(
        query=query,
        limit=params.limit,
        sort_by_citation=params.sort_by_citation,
    )

src/inspirehep_mcp/server.py:62-76 (schema)

Pydantic schema for AuthorSearchInput. Defines the author field as a list of strings with validation, extends BaseSearchInput for common parameters like limit, year, large_collaboration, and sort_by_citation.

class AuthorSearchInput(BaseSearchInput):
    author: list[str] = Field(
        ...,
        min_length=1,
        max_length=10,
        description="Author names to search (e.g. ['Witten, Edward', 'Maldacena, Juan']).",
    )

    @field_validator("author")
    @classmethod
    def validate_author_list(cls, value: list[str]) -> list[str]:
        cleaned = [item.strip() for item in value]
        if any(not item for item in cleaned):
            raise ValueError("author entries must be non-empty strings.")
        return cleaned

src/inspirehep_mcp/server.py:121-129 (registration)

Tool registration decorator that registers inspirehep_search_by_author with MCP. Sets tool name, title description, and hints (readOnly, idempotent, etc.).

@mcp.tool(
    name="inspirehep_search_by_author",
    annotations={
        "title": "Search INSPIRE-HEP papers by author",
        "readOnlyHint": True,
        "destructiveHint": False,
        "idempotentHint": True,
        "openWorldHint": True,
    },

src/inspirehep_mcp/client.py:47-52 (helper)

Helper function that builds the INSPIRE-HEP query string from a list of author names. Escapes quotes and joins author clauses with 'and', then applies year and collaboration filters.

def build_author_query(
    authors: list[str], large_collaboration: bool, year: int | None = None
) -> str:
    clauses = [f'author "{_escape_quotes(author)}"' for author in authors]
    base_query = " and ".join(clauses)
    return _apply_filters(base_query, large_collaboration, year)

src/inspirehep_mcp/server.py:142-172 (helper)

Helper function that executes the search query using InspireHEPClient. Handles HTTP errors, converts sort preference, and returns formatted results with record count and list.

async def run_search(
    *,
    query: str,
    limit: int,
    sort_by_citation: bool,
    client: InspireHEPClient | None = None,
) -> dict[str, Any]:
    sort = _to_inspire_sort(sort_by_citation)
    try:
        if client is not None:
            search_result = await client.search_literature(query=query, limit=limit, sort=sort)
        else:
            async with InspireHEPClient() as default_client:
                search_result = await default_client.search_literature(
                    query=query,
                    limit=limit,
                    sort=sort,
                )
    except httpx.HTTPStatusError as exc:
        status = exc.response.status_code
        message = exc.response.text or "No response body."
        raise RuntimeError(
            f"INSPIRE API error ({status}): {message[:300]}"
        ) from exc
    except httpx.HTTPError as exc:
        raise RuntimeError(f"INSPIRE API request failed: {exc}") from exc

    return {
        "count": len(search_result.records),
        "records": search_result.records,
    }

inspirehep-mcp