ScholarMCP

ScholarMCP is an MCP server for literature research workflows in coding agents. Official documentation: https://scholar-mcp.lstudlo.com/

Early Development Notice

This project is still in early development, and rough edges or bugs may occur. If you run into a problem, please open an issue and include:

1. the agent used

2. screenshots, if applicable

3. steps to reproduce the issue

ScholarMCP gives your agent tools to:

• search papers across multiple sources

• ingest and parse full-text PDFs

• extract structured paper details

• suggest citations and build references

• validate manuscript citations

ScholarMCP is for...

Use this if you want Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP-compatible coding agent to run research tasks directly from chat.

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

• Node.js >=20

• npm (for install/publish)

• pnpm (for contributors working from source)

2. Install as an npm package (recommended)

npm install -g scholar-mcp

One-off run without global install:

npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Install from GitHub Packages (scoped mirror package):

npm install -g @lstudlo/scholar-mcp --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com

3. Run

Stdio mode:

scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

HTTP mode:

scholar-mcp --transport=http

Health check (HTTP mode):

curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/health

4. Run from source (contributors)

pnpm install
pnpm dev:stdio

Related MCP server: scholar-toolkit-mcp

Use with Coding Agents

ScholarMCP works best over stdio for local coding agents. The docs site has full step-by-step guides for Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and OpenCode. Anthropic officially documents claude mcp add ... -- <command>, and OpenAI officially documents codex mcp add ...; the short forms below keep those CLI flows as the primary setup path.

Shared environment values used below:

SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio
SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350
RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true
RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true

Claude Code

Add with the Claude CLI:

claude mcp add -s user \
  --transport stdio \
  -e SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio \
  -e SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350 \
  -e RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true \
  -e RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true \
  scholar_mcp -- npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Verify:

claude mcp get scholar_mcp

Manual fallback:

• add scholar_mcp under mcpServers in ~/.claude.json

• use project-local .mcp.json if you want the config scoped to the repo

• keep the -- separator in the CLI form; Claude needs it to stop parsing flags

OpenAI Codex

Add with the Codex CLI:

codex mcp add scholar_mcp \
  --env SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio \
  --env SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350 \
  --env RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true \
  --env RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true \
  -- npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Verify:

codex mcp list
codex mcp get scholar_mcp --json

Manual fallback:

• add the server to ~/.codex/config.toml under [mcp_servers.scholar_mcp]

• Codex CLI and the Codex app share that MCP config model

OpenCode

Add with the OpenCode CLI:

opencode mcp add

Recommended interactive values:

• name: scholar_mcp

• type: local

• command: npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

• enabled: true

• env: use the four shared variables above

Verify:

opencode mcp list

Manual fallback:

• add the server to ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json

• use "type": "local" and a command array like ["npx", "-y", "scholar-mcp", "--transport=stdio"]

Run from source

If you are developing ScholarMCP locally, use this launcher instead of npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio:

pnpm --filter scholar-mcp dev:stdio

Use the same environment values shown above in whichever client you register.

Generic MCP clients

• stdio command:

  • scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

  • Or: npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

• HTTP endpoint:

  1. Start server with SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=http scholar-mcp

  2. Connect client to http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp

  3. Optional auth: set SCHOLAR_MCP_API_KEY and send bearer auth header from your client

MCP Tools

Example Agent Prompts

• "Find 10 recent papers on retrieval-augmented generation and summarize methods and datasets."

• "Ingest full text for DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-55563-6, then extract claims and limitations."

• "Given this draft section, suggest citations in IEEE style and generate BibTeX."

• "Validate my manuscript citations against this reference list and show missing citations."

Configuration

Most users only need these:

• SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT: stdio | http | both (default: stdio)

• SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS: request pacing to reduce rate-limit risk (default: 250)

• RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS: allow remote PDF downloads for ingestion (default: true)

• RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS: allow local PDF ingestion (default: true)

• SCHOLAR_MCP_API_KEY: optional bearer token for HTTP mode

• RESEARCH_GROBID_URL: optional GROBID endpoint

The CLI loads .env from the current working directory automatically at startup.

Advanced options exist in src/config.ts for timeouts, retries, HTTP session capacity/TTL, provider tuning, and cache behavior.

Troubleshooting

• Invalid environment variable format in claude mcp add:

  • Add -- before the MCP server name (see Claude setup command above).

• Unable to resolve a downloadable PDF URL from input on DOI ingestion:

  • The DOI and landing page may not expose an accessible PDF URL.

  • Retry with pdf_url (direct PDF) or local_pdf_path.

• Too many Scholar failures or throttling:

  • Increase SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS (for example 500 to 1000).

Usage Notes

Google Scholar may throttle automated traffic. Use conservative request pacing, respect provider terms, and avoid abusive query patterns.

Publishing

Releases publish to two registries:

• npm: scholar-mcp via .github/workflows/publish.yml

• GitHub Packages: @lstudlo/scholar-mcp via .github/workflows/publish-github-packages.yml

Release with a minimal command set:

1. Validate release readiness: pnpm release:check

2. Cut and publish a release: pnpm release (patch), pnpm release minor, or pnpm release major

3. Start from a clean git working tree (no unstaged/staged/untracked files).

4. The release command runs checks, bumps packages/scholar-mcp/package.json, creates a release commit/tag, pushes branch/tag, then creates a GitHub Release.

5. GitHub Actions publishes to npm and GitHub Packages from that release tag.