Paper Search MCP

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• paper_search_mcp/server.py:1225-1234 (handler)

  The entry-point MCP tool `download_hal` which delegates to the `HALSearcher` instance.

  async def download_hal(paper_id: str, save_path: str = "./downloads") -> str:
      """Download PDF for a paper from HAL.
  
      Args:
          paper_id: HAL paper identifier.
          save_path: Directory to save the PDF (default: './downloads').
      Returns:
          str: Path to downloaded PDF.
      """
      return hal_searcher.download_pdf(paper_id, save_path)

• paper_search_mcp/academic_platforms/hal.py:120-153 (handler)

  The actual `download_pdf` method within `HALSearcher` that performs the file download logic for HAL papers.

  def download_pdf(self, paper_id: str, save_path: str = "./downloads") -> str:
      """Download an open-access PDF from HAL.
  
      Args:
          paper_id: HAL identifier (e.g. ``hal-01234567``) or the value
              returned in ``paper.paper_id`` (``hal:<id>``).
          save_path: Directory to save the downloaded PDF.
  
      Returns:
          Absolute path to saved PDF or an error message string.
      """
      import os
  
      hal_id = self._normalise_id(paper_id)
      pdf_url = self._resolve_pdf_url(hal_id)
      if not pdf_url:
          return (
              f"No open-access PDF found on HAL for {hal_id}. "
              "The document may be metadata-only or under embargo."
          )
  
      os.makedirs(save_path, exist_ok=True)
      safe_name = re.sub(r"[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]+", "_", hal_id) or hal_id
      output_path = os.path.join(save_path, f"hal_{safe_name}.pdf")
  
      try:
          dl_response = self.session.get(pdf_url, stream=True, timeout=60)
          dl_response.raise_for_status()
          with open(output_path, "wb") as fh:
              for chunk in dl_response.iter_content(chunk_size=8192):
                  fh.write(chunk)
          return output_path
      except Exception as exc:
          return f"Failed to download HAL PDF from {pdf_url}: {exc}"

• paper_search_mcp/server.py:792-792 (registration)

  Registration of the `download_pdf` method in the tool mapping.

  "hal": hal_searcher.download_pdf,