Is ScholarMCP safe to use?

ScholarMCP has no known CVEs as of the latest MCPpedia security scan. It does not require authentication, so any local process can connect — keep this in mind in shared environments. Licensed under MIT.

How do I install ScholarMCP?

ScholarMCP can be installed by cloning its GitHub repository and following the setup instructions in the README.

What can ScholarMCP do?

ScholarMCP provides 10 tools: search_literature_graph, search_google_scholar_key_words, search_google_scholar_advanced, get_author_info, ingest_paper_fulltext and 5 more. See the full tools list on the server page for descriptions and parameters.

What AI clients work with ScholarMCP?

ScholarMCP is compatible with claude-desktop, cursor, claude-code. It uses stdio transport.

Is ScholarMCP actively maintained?

ScholarMCP is recently maintained — last commit was 63 days ago. It has 17 GitHub stars.

ScholarMCP

Name: ScholarMCP
Author: lstudlo

by lstudlo

ScholarMCP - An academic research MCP server with comprehensive literature search, PDF ingestion, and citation management tools. Integrates with Google Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref, and Semantic Scholar for automated research workflows.

17 10 tools GitHub

No known CVEs

MIT license

Maintained

Last commit 63d ago

Works with most clients

Transport: stdio

10 tools · ~479 tok

Grade A · 0.2% of 200K ctx

Edit this pageView history

Search Education

Step 1

Install in your client

Config is the same across clients — only the file and path differ.

Supported in Claude Desktopstdio · Node 18+

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholarmcp": {
      "command": "<see-readme>",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Are you the author?

Add this badge to your README to show your security score and help users find safe servers.

Embed in your READMEAbout badges →

[![MCPpedia Score](https://mcppedia.org/api/badge/scholarmcp)](https://mcppedia.org/s/scholarmcp)

Read me

What ScholarMCP does

ScholarMCP is an MCP server for literature research workflows in coding agents. Official documentation: https://scholar-mcp.lstudlo.com/

Test This Server

No automated test available for this server. Check the GitHub README for setup instructions.

Loading README…

Scored, not listed

Why this score

Five weighted categories — click any category to see the underlying evidence.

Score breakdown

70/100across 5 weighted dimensions

How we score →

0255075100

−30

Security

Maintenance

Efficiency

Documentation

Compatibility

Categoriesclick a row to see evidence

Security

OSV.dev

No known CVEs.

No package registry to scan.

Inventory

Tools (10)

Click any tool to inspect its schema.

~479 tokens total

Community

Reviews

Be the first to review

Have you used this server?

Share your experience — it helps other developers decide.

How easy was setup?Did it work reliably?How was the documentation?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ScholarMCP safe to use?: ScholarMCP has no known CVEs as of the latest MCPpedia security scan. It does not require authentication, so any local process can connect — keep this in mind in shared environments. Licensed under MIT.
How do I install ScholarMCP?: ScholarMCP can be installed by cloning its GitHub repository and following the setup instructions in the README.
What can ScholarMCP do?: ScholarMCP provides 10 tools: search_literature_graph, search_google_scholar_key_words, search_google_scholar_advanced, get_author_info, ingest_paper_fulltext and 5 more. See the full tools list on the server page for descriptions and parameters.
What AI clients work with ScholarMCP?: ScholarMCP is compatible with claude-desktop, cursor, claude-code. It uses stdio transport.
Is ScholarMCP actively maintained?: ScholarMCP is recently maintained — last commit was 63 days ago. It has 17 GitHub stars.

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Search Education

Step 1

Install in your client

Config is the same across clients — only the file and path differ.

Supported in Claude Desktopstdio · Node 18+

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholarmcp": {
      "command": "<see-readme>",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Are you the author?

Add this badge to your README to show your security score and help users find safe servers.

Embed in your READMEAbout badges →

[![MCPpedia Score](https://mcppedia.org/api/badge/scholarmcp)](https://mcppedia.org/s/scholarmcp)

Read me

What ScholarMCP does

ScholarMCP is an MCP server for literature research workflows in coding agents. Official documentation: https://scholar-mcp.lstudlo.com/

Test This Server

No automated test available for this server. Check the GitHub README for setup instructions.

README

ScholarMCP

ScholarMCP is an MCP server for literature research workflows in coding agents. Official documentation: https://scholar-mcp.lstudlo.com/

Early Development Notice

This project is still in early development, and rough edges or bugs may occur. If you run into a problem, please open an issue and include:

the agent used
screenshots, if applicable
steps to reproduce the issue

ScholarMCP gives your agent tools to:

search papers across multiple sources
ingest and parse full-text PDFs
extract structured paper details
suggest citations and build references
validate manuscript citations

ScholarMCP is for...

Use this if you want Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP-compatible coding agent to run research tasks directly from chat.

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

Node.js >=20
npm (for install/publish)
pnpm (for contributors working from source)

2. Install as an npm package (recommended)

npm install -g scholar-mcp

One-off run without global install:

npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Install from GitHub Packages (scoped mirror package):

npm install -g @lstudlo/scholar-mcp --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com

3. Run

Stdio mode:

scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

HTTP mode:

scholar-mcp --transport=http

Health check (HTTP mode):

curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/health

4. Run from source (contributors)

pnpm install
pnpm dev:stdio

Use with Coding Agents

ScholarMCP works best over stdio for local coding agents. The docs site has full step-by-step guides for Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and OpenCode. Anthropic officially documents claude mcp add ... -- <command>, and OpenAI officially documents codex mcp add ...; the short forms below keep those CLI flows as the primary setup path.

Shared environment values used below:

SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio
SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350
RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true
RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true

Claude Code

Add with the Claude CLI:

claude mcp add -s user \
  --transport stdio \
  -e SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio \
  -e SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350 \
  -e RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true \
  -e RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true \
  scholar_mcp -- npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Verify:

claude mcp get scholar_mcp

Manual fallback:

add scholar_mcp under mcpServers in ~/.claude.json
use project-local .mcp.json if you want the config scoped to the repo
keep the -- separator in the CLI form; Claude needs it to stop parsing flags

OpenAI Codex

Add with the Codex CLI:

codex mcp add scholar_mcp \
  --env SCHOLAR_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio \
  --env SCHOLAR_REQUEST_DELAY_MS=350 \
  --env RESEARCH_ALLOW_REMOTE_PDFS=true \
  --env RESEARCH_ALLOW_LOCAL_PDFS=true \
  -- npx -y scholar-mcp --transport=stdio

Verify:

codex mcp list
codex mcp get scholar_mcp --json

Manual fallback:

add the server to ~/.codex/config.toml under [mcp_servers.scholar_mcp]
Codex CLI and the Codex app share that MCP config model

OpenCode

Add with the OpenCode CLI:

opencode mcp add

Recommended interactive values:

name: `scho

... View full README on GitHub

Loading README…

Scored, not listed

Why this score

Five weighted categories — click any category to see the underlying evidence.

Score breakdown

70/100across 5 weighted dimensions

How we score →

0255075100

−30

Security

Maintenance

Efficiency

Documentation

Compatibility

Categoriesclick a row to see evidence

Security

OSV.dev

No known CVEs.

No package registry to scan.

Inventory

Tools (10)

Click any tool to inspect its schema.

~479 tokens total

Community

Reviews

Be the first to review

Have you used this server?

Share your experience — it helps other developers decide.

How easy was setup?Did it work reliably?How was the documentation?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ScholarMCP safe to use?: ScholarMCP has no known CVEs as of the latest MCPpedia security scan. It does not require authentication, so any local process can connect — keep this in mind in shared environments. Licensed under MIT.
How do I install ScholarMCP?: ScholarMCP can be installed by cloning its GitHub repository and following the setup instructions in the README.
What can ScholarMCP do?: ScholarMCP provides 10 tools: search_literature_graph, search_google_scholar_key_words, search_google_scholar_advanced, get_author_info, ingest_paper_fulltext and 5 more. See the full tools list on the server page for descriptions and parameters.
What AI clients work with ScholarMCP?: ScholarMCP is compatible with claude-desktop, cursor, claude-code. It uses stdio transport.
Is ScholarMCP actively maintained?: ScholarMCP is recently maintained — last commit was 63 days ago. It has 17 GitHub stars.