BibTeX MCP Server
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY | No | Optional API key for Semantic Scholar to increase rate limits. |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": true
} |
| prompts | {
"listChanged": false
} |
| resources | {
"subscribe": false,
"listChanged": false
} |
| experimental | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| search_referenceA | Search academic literature databases (DBLP, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, OpenAlex) to find research papers and return properly formatted BibTeX citations. Use this tool when the user needs:
The tool automatically searches all major academic databases, deduplicates results, and ranks by relevance. Each result includes complete bibliographic metadata and a ready-to-use BibTeX citation. Args: query: Academic search terms (paper titles, author names, years or any combination of them yields the best results). max_results: Number of results to return (1-100, default 20). Use lower values (5-10) for focused searches. year: Optional year filter. If provided, returns papers published in this year. author: Optional author name filter. If provided, returns papers by authors matching this name. Returns: Dictionary with query, total_results count, and array of references containing: - Complete bibliographic data (title, authors, year, venue, DOI, etc.) - Abstract text when available - Formatted BibTeX citation ready for use - Citation count - Source databases that found this reference |
| searchA | Search academic literature and return lightweight results for browsing. This is the recall step - returns compact metadata to help decide which documents to fetch. Natural language queries work best for semantic search across academic databases. Args: query: Search terms (paper titles, author names, keywords) Returns: Dictionary with 'results' key containing list of search results. Each result includes: id, title, and snippet (text preview). |
| fetch_multipleA | Fetch full documents for previously searched references. This is the precision step - returns complete BibTeX records and abstracts for documents identified by the search tool. Args: ids: List of document IDs from previous search results Returns: Dictionary mapping IDs to full document text (BibTeX + abstract) |
| fetchA | Fetch a single document by ID. This is designed for ChatGPT compatibility which expects a single ID parameter. Args: id: Document ID from previous search results Returns: Dictionary containing the full document with id, title, text (BibTeX + abstract) |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 4 tools
The search and search_reference tools both perform literature searches but with different output granularity. While search_reference returns full BibTeX and search returns lightweight snippets, the boundary is fuzzy and an agent might misselect them. fetch and fetch_multiple are clearly distinct in cardinality.
Tool names follow mixed patterns: search_reference uses verb_noun, while fetch, search, and fetch_multiple are bare verbs or verb_adjective. There is no consistent convention, and the verbs 'search' and 'fetch' could be seen as overlapping actions.
Four tools is well-scoped for a bibliographic reference server. Each tool serves a clear purpose in the search-fetch workflow, and the count is within the ideal range, neither too thin nor bloated.
The tool set covers the core search and retrieval lifecycle: lightweight browsing (search), bulk full retrieval (fetch_multiple), and direct full citation lookup (search_reference). Missing features like DOI lookup or format export are minor and not critical for the stated purpose.