Mendeley
🐍 ☁️ - MCP server for Mendeley reference manager. Search your library, browse folders, get document metadata, search the global catalog, and add papers to your collection.
What is Mendeley?
Mendeley is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to 🐍 ☁️ - mcp server for mendeley reference manager. search your library, browse folders, get document metadata, search the global catalog, and add papers to your collection.
🐍 ☁️ - MCP server for Mendeley reference manager. Search your library, browse folders, get document metadata, search the global catalog, and add papers to your collection.
This server falls under the Knowledge & Memory category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- 🐍 ☁️ - MCP server for Mendeley reference manager. Search you
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx mendeleyConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Mendeley
The Mendeley MCP server connects Claude to your Mendeley reference manager library, giving AI assistants direct access to your personal paper collection and the global Mendeley catalog of over 100 million academic papers. It supports searching your library, browsing folders, retrieving full document metadata, looking up papers by DOI, adding new references, managing folder structures, reading PDF annotations, and exporting BibTeX citations. Researchers and academics use it to accelerate literature reviews, citation management, and knowledge synthesis directly within Claude conversations.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or higher and pip or uv package manager
- A Mendeley account registered at mendeley.com (uses Elsevier authentication)
- A Mendeley API application registered at dev.mendeley.com with Client ID and Client Secret
- The redirect URL for your Mendeley app must be set to http://localhost:8585/callback
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop
Register a Mendeley API application
Go to dev.mendeley.com/myapps.html, create a new app, set the redirect URL to http://localhost:8585/callback, select Authorization Code flow, and note your Client ID and Client Secret.
Install mendeley-mcp
Install the package using pip or uv. The uv method is recommended for isolation.
# Using pip:
pip install mendeley-mcp
# Using uv (recommended):
uv tool install mendeley-mcpAuthenticate with Mendeley
Run the auth command to complete the OAuth flow. This opens a browser for Elsevier login and saves a refresh token locally.
MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret mendeley-auth loginConfigure Claude Desktop
Add the Mendeley MCP server to your claude_desktop_config.json with your Mendeley API credentials and the refresh token generated in the previous step.
{
"mcpServers": {
"mendeley": {
"command": "mendeley-mcp",
"env": {
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret",
"MENDELEY_REFRESH_TOKEN": "your-refresh-token"
}
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop and test
Restart Claude Desktop and ask Claude to search your Mendeley library to verify the connection is working.
Mendeley Examples
Client configuration
Full claude_desktop_config.json entry for the Mendeley MCP server with OAuth credentials.
{
"mcpServers": {
"mendeley": {
"command": "mendeley-mcp",
"env": {
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID": "your-mendeley-client-id",
"MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-mendeley-client-secret",
"MENDELEY_REFRESH_TOKEN": "your-mendeley-refresh-token",
"MENDELEY_MCP_MAX_FILE_BYTES": "10485760",
"MENDELEY_MCP_MAX_TEXT_CHARS": "200000"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts for managing your research library through Claude.
- "Search my Mendeley library for papers on transformer architectures."
- "What papers are in my Machine Learning folder?"
- "Look up DOI 10.1038/nature14539 and give me a summary."
- "Export my Systematic Review folder as BibTeX."
- "What highlights and annotations did I make in the attention paper?"
- "Add a new paper to my library: search the catalog for 'BERT language model Devlin 2019'."
- "Create a new folder called 'Q3 Literature Review' in my library."Troubleshooting Mendeley
Authentication fails or mendeley-auth login returns an error
Confirm that your Mendeley app's redirect URL is exactly http://localhost:8585/callback and that you selected Authorization Code flow (not Legacy) when registering the app. Re-run mendeley-auth login with correct MENDELEY_CLIENT_ID and MENDELEY_CLIENT_SECRET.
mendeley_search_catalog returns no results for known papers
The global catalog search uses keyword matching. Try shorter, more specific queries (title words or author surnames) rather than full paper titles. For known papers, use mendeley_get_by_doi with the paper's DOI instead.
mendeley_get_file_content or mendeley_get_document_text returns an error
These tools require the document to have an attached PDF in your Mendeley library. Verify the paper has a PDF file attached in the Mendeley desktop app, and check that MENDELEY_MCP_MAX_FILE_BYTES is large enough for the file size.
Frequently Asked Questions about Mendeley
What is Mendeley?
Mendeley is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that 🐍 ☁️ - mcp server for mendeley reference manager. search your library, browse folders, get document metadata, search the global catalog, and add papers to your collection. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Mendeley?
Follow the installation instructions on the Mendeley GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Mendeley?
Mendeley works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Mendeley free to use?
Yes, Mendeley is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Quick Config Preview
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