Scholar MCP

io.github.Liyux3/scholar-mcpv0.8.5Documents & Spreadsheets

Federated academic search, citation traversal, persistent PDF download, and temporary reading.

The current version, v0.8.5, was published to the official MCP registry on 2026-10-07. It is distributed as scholar-mcp on PyPI, filed under Documents & Spreadsheets by this index, and declares 16 environment variables. Removals and unreachable sources are measured across every server this index tracks, contract drift across the servers that answer in consecutive snapshots; the index's current counts put this record in context.

In-path gate · all MCP tools

Using Scholar MCP in Claude, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Cline, or Zed?

MCP tool contracts can change remotely with no version bump. The mcpindex gate pins each contract and HOLDs the call when it drifts-before your agent acts. Zero credentials. This is not the package install for this server itself (use Install this server for that).

Install the mcpindex gate (one command)

Rewrites your MCP host config so each server launches behind the gate. Inspect first: curl -fsSL https://mcpindex.ai/install.sh | less

uv tool install mcpindex-gate && mcpindex-config-wire

Auditable install path →Watch it hold a drift →

Trust verdict · v1 advisory · method

REVIEWstatus: PARTIALfresh until 2026-10-31 14:06 UTC

screened 2026-09-06tier: scannedgranularity: description-levelsource: registry

Semantic screen found no manipulation pattern in the description. Conformance probe not yet run.

mcpindex.integrity.descriptionpassINFO

evidence“Normal academic search capability”via static_description

Limits of this verdict

- Semantic screen only - the deterministic conformance probe has not run on this server
- Confidence is reported but not yet calibrated (v1)
- Screen reads the tool description, not the live behavior
- advisory
- registry description only no input schema
- screen model 8b
- Still current: the description we screened is unchanged, re-checked against the registry
- The registry listing (version, packages, links) changed after this screen ran - the description we assessed did not

Semantic screen: an LLM judge reads the tool description for hidden instructions (status PARTIAL). A pass means the description is not lying, not that the tool is safe: a high-capability tool with an honest description still warrants caution. The deterministic conformance probe has not been run on this server yet, so the screen here is semantic-only. Posture: advisory. Confidences are reported but not yet calibrated (calibrated=false at v1). Full verdict history is not shown on this page.

Own this server? Test a description on the public screen → It is a separate check from the verdict above, so the two can differ.

That verdict was true at screening time (snapshot 2026-10-24).

Contracts can change after screening, with no version bump. The gate pins Scholar MCP’s tool contracts on first sight and holds any silent change before your agent acts - the check that keeps being true on Tuesday.

See your first HOLD in 2 minutes →

Cite this record

People vet a server before wiring it in. One line on your project site or docs answers that with an independent record: screening verdict, registry provenance, contract drift history. It stays current as new screens and drift events land.

Markdown

[Independent trust record for Scholar MCP](https://mcpindex.ai/server/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp) - screening verdict, registry provenance, and contract drift monitoring.

HTML

<a href="https://mcpindex.ai/server/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp">Independent trust record for Scholar MCP</a> - screening verdict, registry provenance, and contract drift monitoring.

Embed this badge

A live verdict badge for your README or listing. It reflects the current screen, links back here, and updates when the verdict does.

Markdown

[![mcpindex](https://mcpindex.ai/api/v1/badge/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp)](https://mcpindex.ai/server/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp)

HTML

<a href="https://mcpindex.ai/server/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp"><img src="https://mcpindex.ai/api/v1/badge/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp" alt="mcpindex verdict" height="20" /></a>

Environment variables

SCHOLAR_DATA_DIR

no description

SCHOLAR_MCP_EXTENSIONS

no description

S2_API_KEY

secret

no description

OPENALEX_API_KEY

secret

no description

CORE_API_KEY

secret

no description

SCOPUS_API_KEY

secret

no description

DASHSCOPE_API_KEY

secret

no description

DASHSCOPE_HTTP_BASE_URL

Alibaba workspace API host or /api/v1 base URL.

SCHOLAR_RERANK_MODEL

Alibaba or custom reranker model name.

SCHOLAR_RERANK_URL

Full custom rerank endpoint; overrides Alibaba routing.

SCHOLAR_RERANK_API_KEY

secret

no description

EXA_API_KEY

secret

no description

ZOTERO_API_KEY

secret

no description

ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID

no description

NOTION_API_KEY

secret

no description

NOTION_DATA_SOURCE_ID

no description

MCP quality score · maturity, not trust · methodology

freshness

completeness

installability

documentation

stability

Alternatives in Documents & Spreadsheets

bitHuman docs

ai.bithuman/docs

The bitHuman docs over MCP: two read-only tools, search and fetch; it needs no account and no key.

file2markdown

ai.file2markdown/file2markdown

Convert docs and web pages to clean Markdown: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, EPUB, scans, URLs. Batch of 10.

EasyPDF

io.github.Lorenzino69/easypdf

Edit PDF text in place, fonts and layout kept. Compress, merge, split, convert and translate PDFs.

Install this server

Claude Desktop (uvx)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scholar-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--",
        "scholar-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SCHOLAR_DATA_DIR": "<scholar_data_dir>",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_EXTENSIONS": "<scholar_mcp_extensions>",
        "S2_API_KEY": "<your-s2_api_key>",
        "OPENALEX_API_KEY": "<your-openalex_api_key>",
        "CORE_API_KEY": "<your-core_api_key>",
        "SCOPUS_API_KEY": "<your-scopus_api_key>",
        "DASHSCOPE_API_KEY": "<your-dashscope_api_key>",
        "DASHSCOPE_HTTP_BASE_URL": "<dashscope_http_base_url>",
        "SCHOLAR_RERANK_MODEL": "<scholar_rerank_model>",
        "SCHOLAR_RERANK_URL": "<scholar_rerank_url>",
        "SCHOLAR_RERANK_API_KEY": "<your-scholar_rerank_api_key>",
        "EXA_API_KEY": "<your-exa_api_key>",
        "ZOTERO_API_KEY": "<your-zotero_api_key>",
        "ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID": "<zotero_library_id>",
        "NOTION_API_KEY": "<your-notion_api_key>",
        "NOTION_DATA_SOURCE_ID": "<notion_data_source_id>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verdict API

curl -s mcpindex.ai/api/v1/trust/server/io-github-liyux3-scholar-mcp

Free-tier verdict as JSON: decision + dimensions + severity. Call it from your agent before it invokes a tool it just discovered.

Details

version: v0.8.5
category: Documents & Spreadsheets
verdict expires: 2026-10-31
quality: 77 / 100
operator: Liyux3

Listing

Listed from the official MCP registry. Unclaimed by its maintainer. Maintainer? Email us →

Provenance

Each verdict is bound to a hash of the exact description it judged, so a re-crawl that changes the text produces a new record rather than silently inheriting this one. Verdict history is hash-chained and anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps (latest confirmed at block 972,876). Verify it yourself.

Links

Repository →