PhD Skills
PhD Research Skills for Claude Code: paper reproduction, experiment design, paper review, result comparison and more.
What is PhD Skills?
PhD Skills is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to phd research skills for claude code: paper reproduction, experiment design, paper review, result comparison and more.
PhD Research Skills for Claude Code: paper reproduction, experiment design, paper review, result comparison and more.
This server falls under the Coding Agents category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- PhD Research Skills for Claude Code: paper reproduction, exp
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx phd-skillsConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use PhD Skills
PhD Skills is a Claude Code plugin that adds research-specific guardrails, skills, and commands to prevent the class of AI mistakes that cost researchers weeks of compute — from premature experiment conclusions and unverified claims to destructive file operations on hallucinated paths. It provides 12 auto-triggering skills (paper reproduction, experiment debugging, training launch pre-flight checks, literature research, and more), 6 commands for structured tasks like paper-code consistency auditing and reviewer defense, and 11 silent background hooks that catch errors before they happen. The plugin was built by a researcher with 1500+ citations based on 300+ Claude Code sessions and traces every guardrail to a real mistake.
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed (this plugin is Claude Code-specific)
- No additional dependencies or MCP servers required — the plugin has zero external dependencies
- Optional: ntfy, Slack, or email account for experiment completion notifications via '/phd-skills:setup'
Install the plugin from the Claude Code marketplace
Install phd-skills using the Claude Code plugin marketplace commands. The plugin is available under the fcakyon/phd-skills repository.
claude plugin marketplace add fcakyon/phd-skills
claude plugin install phd-skills@phd-skillsOptionally run the setup tour
Run the setup command for a 30-second tour of what was auto-detected in your environment and to opt into extras like notifications via ntfy/Slack/email and LaTeX compilation checks.
/phd-skills:setupReproduce a paper from arxiv
Use the reproduce command with an arxiv paper ID to trigger the 7-stage paper reproduction skill, which guides Claude Code through parsing the paper, setting up the environment, implementing the method, and running replication experiments.
/phd-skills:reproduce arxiv 2508.12345Use auto-triggering skills through natural language
Most skills activate automatically when you describe what you want. No command prefix is needed — just describe your research task in natural language and the appropriate skill will activate.
Run a paper-code consistency audit
Use the xray command to cross-check a research paper's claims against your code and data across five parallel dimensions simultaneously.
/phd-skills:xrayPhD Skills Examples
Client configuration
PhD Skills is a Claude Code plugin, not an MCP server. It is installed via the plugin system and does not require a separate server process or JSON configuration.
# Install via Claude Code plugin commands:
# claude plugin marketplace add fcakyon/phd-skills
# claude plugin install phd-skills@phd-skills
# No mcpServers configuration needed.
# The plugin runs inside Claude Code as instruction files.Prompts to try
Natural language phrases that trigger auto-activating research skills inside Claude Code after the plugin is installed.
- "Reproduce this arxiv paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12345"
- "Why is my training loss diverging after epoch 15?"
- "Compare run alpha to the baseline — align at the same epoch before drawing conclusions."
- "Launch the new training run." (triggers pre-flight checklist)
- "Design an ablation study to isolate the effect of the learning rate schedule."
- "What will reviewers ask about my experimental setup?"Troubleshooting PhD Skills
Auto-triggering skills do not activate when describing research tasks
Ensure the plugin was installed successfully by running '/phd-skills:help' to list all available features. If the command is not recognized, re-run 'claude plugin install phd-skills@phd-skills'. Skills auto-trigger based on keyword patterns — try phrasing your request more explicitly (e.g., 'debug why my loss is diverging' rather than 'what's wrong with my training').
Background guardrail hooks produce unexpected interruptions during destructive operations
This is intentional behavior — the plugin's hooks catch operations like 'rm -rf' on unverified paths, citation edits without verification, and training launches without config diffs. Review the check that triggered and confirm the path or action is correct before proceeding. You can run '/phd-skills:setup' to see which hooks are active and adjust them.
Notifications do not arrive after setting up ntfy/Slack integration
Run '/phd-skills:setup' again and check that the notification provider details were saved correctly. For ntfy, ensure the topic URL is publicly accessible or that you have the ntfy app installed locally. For Slack, confirm the webhook URL is valid and the target channel exists.
Frequently Asked Questions about PhD Skills
What is PhD Skills?
PhD Skills is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that phd research skills for claude code: paper reproduction, experiment design, paper review, result comparison and more. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install PhD Skills?
Follow the installation instructions on the PhD Skills GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with PhD Skills?
PhD Skills works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is PhD Skills free to use?
Yes, PhD Skills is open source and available under the MIT license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Quick Config Preview
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