SQLite Literature Management
A flexible system for managing various types of sources (papers, books, webpages, etc.) and integrating them with knowledge graphs.
What is SQLite Literature Management?
SQLite Literature Management is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to flexible system for managing various types of sources (papers, books, webpages, etc.) and integrating them with knowledge graphs.
A flexible system for managing various types of sources (papers, books, webpages, etc.) and integrating them with knowledge graphs.
This server falls under the Knowledge & Memory category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- A flexible system for managing various types of sources (pap
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx sqlite-literature-management-fastmcpConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use SQLite Literature Management
The SQLite Literature Management FastMCP server is a lightweight FastMCP server that manages academic papers, books, web pages, and other sources in a local SQLite database. It provides tools to add sources with multi-standard identifiers (DOI, arXiv, ISBN, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, PMID, URL), attach notes, link sources to named concept entities with typed relationships (discusses, introduces, evaluates, contradicts, etc.), and maintain a reading list with status tracking. MCP Resources expose individual sources, reading-list views, and entity lookups — making it practical for AI-assisted literature reviews and knowledge graph construction without any cloud dependency.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.9 or higher
- FastMCP installed (`pip install fastmcp`)
- SQLite3 (bundled with Python — no separate install needed)
- Git to clone the repository
- Claude Desktop or another MCP-compatible client
Clone the repository
Clone the server from GitHub.
git clone https://github.com/zongmin-yu/sqlite-literature-management-fastmcp-mcp-server.git
cd sqlite-literature-management-fastmcp-mcp-serverInitialize the SQLite database
Create the database schema using the provided SQL file. The default path is sources.db in the project directory; you can use any path and set it via SQLITE_DB_PATH.
sqlite3 sources.db < create_sources_db.sqlInstall the FastMCP server
Register the server with FastMCP, providing the database path as an environment variable. FastMCP will add it to your Claude Desktop configuration.
fastmcp install sqlite-paper-fastmcp-server.py \
--name "Source Manager" \
-e SQLITE_DB_PATH=/absolute/path/to/sources.dbAlternative: Docker deployment
Use Docker for a self-contained deployment with automatic database initialization. A missing database file is created automatically from the SQL schema.
mkdir -p data
docker build -t sqlite-lit-mcp .
docker run --rm -i \
-e SQLITE_DB_PATH=/data/sources.db \
-v "$(pwd)/data:/data" \
sqlite-lit-mcpVerify tools are available
Ask Claude to list the database tables to confirm the MCP server is connected and the schema is set up correctly.
# In Claude, ask:
# "Use the sqlite literature server to list_tables and show me the database schema"SQLite Literature Management Examples
Client configuration
Manual Claude Desktop configuration if fastmcp install is not used. Set SQLITE_DB_PATH to the absolute path of your sources.db file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"source-manager": {
"command": "fastmcp",
"args": ["run", "/path/to/sqlite-paper-fastmcp-server.py"],
"env": {
"SQLITE_DB_PATH": "/Users/me/research/sources.db"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Use these prompts in Claude after the server is connected to manage your literature database.
- "Add this paper to the database: 'Attention Is All You Need', arXiv identifier 1706.03762, status unread"
- "Show me my unread reading list using the reading-list://unread resource"
- "Link the Transformer paper to the entity 'attention mechanism' with relation type 'introduces'"
- "Find all sources in the database that are linked to the entity 'reinforcement learning'"
- "Attach a note to source ID 5 saying: key contribution is the multi-head attention formulation"
- "Update source ID 3 status to 'reading' and show me its full record"Troubleshooting SQLite Literature Management
fastmcp install fails or the command is not found
Install FastMCP first: `pip install fastmcp`. Then re-run the install command. If the command still fails, run `python -m fastmcp install sqlite-paper-fastmcp-server.py --name 'Source Manager' -e SQLITE_DB_PATH=/path/to/sources.db`.
Database error: no such table when calling tools
The database schema was not initialized. Run `sqlite3 sources.db < create_sources_db.sql` in the project directory to create all required tables. Verify with `sqlite3 sources.db .tables`.
Migrating from an older version causes errors
Check the database version with `PRAGMA user_version;` in sqlite3. If it is below 3, apply the migration scripts: `sqlite3 /path/to/sources.db < migrations/2026-03-09__normalize-identifiers.sql` followed by the entity-relation-types migration.
Frequently Asked Questions about SQLite Literature Management
What is SQLite Literature Management?
SQLite Literature Management is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that flexible system for managing various types of sources (papers, books, webpages, etc.) and integrating them with knowledge graphs. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install SQLite Literature Management?
Follow the installation instructions on the SQLite Literature Management GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with SQLite Literature Management?
SQLite Literature Management works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is SQLite Literature Management free to use?
Yes, SQLite Literature Management is open source and available under the MIT license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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