OpenAlex MCP Server

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/tools/getEntity.ts:3-16 (handler)

  The main handler function for the 'get_entity' tool. It extracts parameters from args, constructs query params, calls makeOpenAlexRequest to fetch the entity data from OpenAlex API, and returns the JSON stringified response as text content.

  export async function getEntity(args: any) {
      const { entity_type, openalex_id, select, mailto } = args;
      const params: Record<string, any> = {};
      if (select)
          params.select = select;
      if (mailto)
          params.mailto = mailto;
      return {
          content: [{
                  type: "text",
                  text: JSON.stringify(await makeOpenAlexRequest(`/${entity_type}/${openalex_id}`, params), null, 2)
              }]
      };
  }

• src/index.ts:204-222 (schema)

  The input schema definition for the 'get_entity' tool provided in the ListTools response, specifying required and optional parameters with types and descriptions.

  {
      name: "get_entity",
      description: "Get a single entity by its OpenAlex ID",
      inputSchema: {
          type: "object",
          properties: {
              entity_type: {
                  type: "string",
                  enum: ["works", "authors", "sources", "institutions", "topics", "publishers", "funders"],
                  description: "Type of entity to retrieve"
              },
              openalex_id: { type: "string", description: "OpenAlex ID (e.g., W2741809807, A1969205038)" },
              select: { type: "string", description: "Comma-separated list of fields to return" },
              mailto: { type: "string", description: "Email for rate limits" },
              api_key: { type: "string", description: "Premium API key" }
          },
          required: ["entity_type", "openalex_id"]
      }
  },

• src/index.ts:295-296 (registration)

  The switch case in the CallToolRequest handler that registers and dispatches calls to the 'get_entity' tool by invoking the getEntity function.

  case "get_entity":
      return await getEntity(args);

• src/index.ts:29-29 (registration)

  Import statement that brings the getEntity handler into the main index file for use in tool dispatching.

  import { getEntity } from "./tools/getEntity.js";