Scholar MCP

io.github.pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp

Scholarly papers, patents, books, standards and PDF conversion

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Connect this server

Add this to your MCP client config — claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) or .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor).Suits: Claude Desktop · Cursor.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL": "file:///data/state",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "INFO",
        "SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN": "<your SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY": "true",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY": "<your SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY": "<your SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL": "gpt-4o",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR": "/data/scholar-mcp",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET": "<your SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY": "<your SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_S": "25.0",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_S": "3600.0",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECT": "256"
      }
    }
  }
}
Environment variables
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URLPersistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. `memory://` is in-process and lost on restart; `file:///path` persists on one server; `redis://`, `dynamodb://` and `mongodb://` each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to `file:///data/state` (the volume family Docker images mount), or to `memory://` (with a warning) on a host where that directory is not usable.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_LOG_LEVELLog level for every logger in the process, FastMCP's included (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG. The unprefixed FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL still works for one major version and logs a deprecation warning.
  • SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKENsecretGitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLYWhen true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEYsecretSemantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: a key has an introductory 1 req/s allowance; anonymous users share capacity and may be throttled. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEYsecretAPI key for the VLM endpoint.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODELModel name to use with the VLM endpoint.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIRDirectory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRETsecretEPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEYsecretGoogle Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_SSeconds a long-running tool call may run in the foreground before it is promoted to a background job and a job handle is returned instead.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_SSeconds a background-job record (working or finished) is retained for polling before it expires from the store.
  • SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECTMaximum live background jobs per calling subject; further promotions are rejected until older records expire.

A starting point — check the repository for exact arguments and setup. Restart your client after editing the config.

Category
Developer Tools
Version
3.1.1
Registry
active
Published
11/3/2026

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