mcp-simple-arxiv

An MCP server that provides access to arXiv papers through their API.

Features

This server allows LLM clients (like Claude Desktop) to:

Search for scientific papers on arXiv by title and abstract content
Get paper metadata and abstracts
Access links to available paper formats (PDF/HTML)

The server implements proper rate limiting according to arXiv's API guidelines (max 1 request every 3 seconds).

Installation

pip install mcp-simple-arxiv

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add this configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:

(Mac OS)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "simple-arxiv": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_simple_arxiv"]
      }
  }
}

(Windows version):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "simple-arxiv": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\YOUR_USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python311\\python.exe",
      "args": [
        "-m",
        "mcp_simple_arxiv"
      ]
    }
  }
}

After restarting Claude Desktop, the following capabilities will be available:

Searching Papers

You can ask Claude to search for papers using queries like:

Can you search arXiv for recent papers about large language models?

The search will return basic information about matching papers including:

Paper title
Authors
arXiv ID
Publication date

Getting Paper Details

Once you have a paper ID, you can ask for more details:

Can you show me the details for paper 2103.08220?

This will return:

Full paper title
Authors
Publication and update dates
Journal reference (if available)
Paper abstract
Links to available formats (PDF/HTML)

Development

To install for development:

git clone https://github.com/andybrandt/mcp-simple-arxiv
cd mcp-simple-arxiv
pip install -e .

arXiv API Guidelines

This server follows arXiv API usage guidelines:

Rate limiting to max 1 request per 3 seconds
Single connection at a time
Proper error handling and retry logic

License

MIT