Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| prompts | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| resources | {
"subscribe": false,
"listChanged": false
} |
| experimental | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| index_status | Check the health of the paper index. Returns a summary of how many papers are indexed, how many have errors, and how many are unindexed. Use this to diagnose why paper_qa queries might be failing or timing out. |
| paper_qa | Search and synthesize across all papers in the library. Use this for questions that require deep reading and synthesis across multiple scientific papers — e.g. "What methods have been used to recycle lithium from spent batteries?" or "Compare the thermal stability of PEEK vs PTFE in the literature." Returns a detailed answer with inline citations. Each citation includes a file path containing an 8-character Zotero storage key (e.g. ABC123DE from storage/ABC123DE/paper.pdf). You can use these keys with zotero-mcp tools to look up the full bibliographic record, read annotations, or find related items. Not for quick metadata lookups or library browsing — use Zotero tools for that. If this tool returns "Index incomplete", the paper index has not been fully built yet. Tell the user to run the index build command from the terminal (see the paperqa-mcp-server README, step 6). Do not retry the query — it will give the same result until the index is built. This tool can take 30–90 seconds to respond when working normally. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |