Asta Skill
Pure instruction-pack skill wrapping Ai2's Asta MCP server (Semantic Scholar). Intent-to-tool routing, safe defaults, multi-agent.
What is Asta Skill?
Asta Skill is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to pure instruction-pack skill wrapping ai2's asta mcp server (semantic scholar). intent-to-tool routing, safe defaults, multi-agent.
Pure instruction-pack skill wrapping Ai2's Asta MCP server (Semantic Scholar). Intent-to-tool routing, safe defaults, multi-agent.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Pure instruction-pack skill wrapping Ai2's Asta MCP server (
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx asta-skillConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Asta Skill
Asta Skill is an instruction-pack skill that wraps Ai2's Asta MCP server, which provides access to Semantic Scholar — one of the largest databases of academic literature. It adds intent-to-tool routing so that natural language research queries are automatically dispatched to the right Semantic Scholar API endpoint, supporting paper search, citation traversal, author discovery, batch lookups by DOI or arXiv ID, and snippet extraction for evidence grounding. Researchers, students, and engineers who need to search, cite, and explore academic literature through their AI assistant will benefit most from this server.
Prerequisites
- An Asta API key obtained by requesting access at https://share.hsforms.com/1L4hUh20oT3mu8iXJQMV77w3ioxm
- Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or another MCP-compatible client
- Node.js and npx available for installing the skill package
- The Asta MCP server registered separately before installing the skill
Obtain an Asta API key
Request an API key from the Asta access form at the URL above. The key is required in the Authorization header for all Semantic Scholar API calls.
Register the Asta MCP server in Claude Code
Add the Asta remote HTTP MCP server to Claude Code using the claude mcp add command, providing your API key as a header.
export ASTA_API_KEY=your_asta_api_key_here
claude mcp add -t http -s user asta https://asta-tools.allen.ai/mcp/v1 \
-H "x-api-key: $ASTA_API_KEY"Install the asta-skill instruction pack
Install the skill using the npx skills command. This adds intent routing and safe defaults on top of the raw MCP server.
npx skills add Agents365-ai/365-skills -gConfigure other clients (Cursor, Windsurf)
For clients other than Claude Code, add the Asta server URL and API key to the client's MCP configuration file manually.
// Example for Cursor / Windsurf settings
{
"mcpServers": {
"asta": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://asta-tools.allen.ai/mcp/v1",
"headers": {
"x-api-key": "your_asta_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}Search academic literature
Ask your AI assistant to use Asta to find papers, retrieve citations, or look up authors. The skill routes the intent to the correct Semantic Scholar tool automatically.
Asta Skill Examples
Client configuration
MCP client config for the Asta remote HTTP server with API key authentication
{
"mcpServers": {
"asta": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://asta-tools.allen.ai/mcp/v1",
"headers": {
"x-api-key": "your_asta_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Natural language prompts for searching academic literature via the Asta Skill
- "Use Asta to get the paper with DOI 10.48550/arXiv.1706.03762."
- "Search Asta for recent papers on mixture-of-experts at NeurIPS since 2023."
- "Who cited 'Attention Is All You Need'? Show me the top 20 by citation count."
- "Find snippets mentioning 'flash attention latency' in related papers."
- "Look up Yann LeCun on Semantic Scholar and list his 2024 publications."Troubleshooting Asta Skill
401 Unauthorized when calling Asta tools
Verify that the x-api-key header value matches the API key you were issued. Re-run 'claude mcp add' with the updated key if you need to change it.
Paper search returns no results for a known paper
Try looking up the paper directly by its DOI, arXiv ID, or PMID using the paper lookup tool instead of the keyword search. Semantic Scholar covers most major venues but may lag on very recent preprints.
Skill routing sends queries to the wrong tool
Prefix your query with 'Use Asta to...' so the skill's intent router recognizes the target server. Being explicit about the operation (search, lookup, citations) also improves routing accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions about Asta Skill
What is Asta Skill?
Asta Skill is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that pure instruction-pack skill wrapping ai2's asta mcp server (semantic scholar). intent-to-tool routing, safe defaults, multi-agent. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Asta Skill?
Follow the installation instructions on the Asta Skill GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Asta Skill?
Asta Skill works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Asta Skill free to use?
Yes, Asta Skill is open source and available under the MIT license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up Asta Skill in Your Editor
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Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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