Semantic Scholar
๐ This project implements a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with the Semantic Scholar API. It provides tools for searching papers, retrieving paper and author details, and fetching citations and references.
What is Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to ๐ this project implements a model context protocol (mcp) server for interacting with the semantic scholar api. it provides tools for searching papers, retrieving paper and author details, and fetchin...
๐ This project implements a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with the Semantic Scholar API. It provides tools for searching papers, retrieving paper and author details, and fetching citations and references.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction and Knowledge & Memory categories on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- ๐ This project implements a Model Context Protocol (MCP) ser
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx semanticscholar-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Semantic Scholar
The Semantic Scholar MCP server provides AI-powered access to the Semantic Scholar academic database, which indexes over 200 million research papers across all scientific disciplines. It exposes four tools for searching papers by keyword, retrieving detailed paper and author metadata, and fetching citation and reference networks. Researchers, students, and developers use it to perform literature reviews, trace citation chains, and look up paper details through natural language conversations with Claude โ all without leaving the AI interface.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or later installed
- pip for installing Python packages
- No API key required โ Semantic Scholar has a public free tier (rate limits apply)
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop
Install via Smithery (recommended)
The easiest installation method uses the Smithery CLI, which automatically configures the server for your MCP client.
npx -y @smithery/cli@latest install @JackKuo666/semanticscholar-mcp-server --client claude --config "{}"Or install manually via pip
Alternatively, install the required Python packages directly. The server depends on the 'semanticscholar' client library and the 'mcp' framework.
pip install semanticscholar mcpClone the server repository
If installing manually, clone the repository to get the server script.
git clone https://github.com/JackKuo666/semanticscholar-MCP-Server.git
cd semanticscholar-MCP-ServerAdd the server to Claude Desktop config
Open your Claude Desktop configuration file and add the semanticscholar entry. The server runs as a Python module.
{
"mcpServers": {
"semanticscholar": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "semanticscholar_mcp_server"]
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop and test
Restart Claude Desktop to load the new server. Ask Claude to search for a paper on a topic you know to verify the connection.
Semantic Scholar Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop config entry for the Semantic Scholar MCP server using the Python module runner.
{
"mcpServers": {
"semanticscholar": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "semanticscholar_mcp_server"]
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example academic research prompts you can send to Claude once the Semantic Scholar server is connected.
- "Search for recent papers on transformer attention mechanisms and summarize the top 5 results"
- "Get the details for the paper with ID 204e3073870fae3d05bcbc2f6a8e263d9b72e776"
- "Who is Yann LeCun and what are his most cited papers on Semantic Scholar?"
- "Show me all papers that cite 'Attention Is All You Need' and find the most influential ones"
- "Find papers about RLHF published after 2022 and list their citation counts"Troubleshooting Semantic Scholar
search_semantic_scholar returns rate limit errors
The public Semantic Scholar API limits unauthenticated requests. Add a delay between queries or apply for a free API key at semanticscholar.org/product/api to get a higher rate limit. The key can be passed as an environment variable if the server supports it.
Python module not found error when Claude starts the server
Ensure the semanticscholar and mcp packages are installed in the same Python environment that the 'python' command resolves to. Use 'python -c "import semanticscholar"' to verify. If using a virtual environment, use the full path to the venv's Python binary in the config.
get_semantic_scholar_paper_details returns no results for a known paper
Semantic Scholar uses its own internal paper IDs (40-character hashes), not DOIs or arXiv IDs directly. First use search_semantic_scholar to find the paper and copy its paperId field, then pass that to get_semantic_scholar_paper_details.
Frequently Asked Questions about Semantic Scholar
What is Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that ๐ this project implements a model context protocol (mcp) server for interacting with the semantic scholar api. it provides tools for searching papers, retrieving paper and author details, and fetching citations and references. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Semantic Scholar?
Follow the installation instructions on the Semantic Scholar GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Semantic Scholar free to use?
Yes, Semantic Scholar 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 Semantic Scholar 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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