Academic paper search, intelligent curation, and multi-platform delivery
📚 Paper Distill MCP Server
Academic paper search, intelligent curation, and multi-platform delivery — built on the Model Context Protocol.
Compatible with all MCP clients: Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Trae, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, VS Code, Zed, and more.
⚠️ Early development stage. Many features are still being validated and may contain bugs or instabilities. Feedback and bug reports are warmly welcome!
✨ Features
- 🔍 11-source parallel search — OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, Papers with Code, CrossRef, Europe PMC, bioRxiv, DBLP, CORE, Unpaywall
- 🤖 Adaptive AI delivery — the agent tracks your evolving research interests and automatically refines search keywords and recommendations over time
- 📊 4-dimensional weighted ranking — relevance × recency × impact × novelty, fully customizable weights
- 👥 Dual-AI blind review — two AI reviewers independently shortlist papers; a chief reviewer synthesizes a final push/overflow/discard decision (optional)
- 🧹 Scraper delegation — offload abstract extraction to a low-cost agent or API to cut token spend significantly
- 🌐 Personal paper library site — Astro + Vercel auto-deploy; site updates within 30 seconds of each push
- 📬 Multi-platform delivery — Telegram / Discord / Feishu / WeCom
- 📦 Zotero integration — save papers to Zotero with one command
- 📝 Obsidian integration — auto-generate paper note cards with Zotero backlinks; supports summary and template modes
🚀 Quick Install
uvx paper-distill-mcp
That's it. Your AI client will discover all tools automatically. No API keys required for basic paper search.
No
uv? →curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | shorbrew install uv
Other installation methods (pip / Homebrew / Docker / source)
pip:
pip install paper-distill-mcp
Homebrew:
brew tap Eclipse-Cj/tap
brew install paper-distill-mcp
Docker:
docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/eclipse-cj/paper-distill-mcp
From source (developers):
git clone https://github.com/Eclipse-Cj/paper-distill-mcp.git
cd paper-distill-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pip && .venv/bin/pip install -e .
🔗 Connecting to AI Clients
Claude Desktop
Add to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config):
{
"mcpServers": {
"paper-distill": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["paper-distill-mcp"]
}
}
}
Claude Code
claude mcp add paper-distill -- uvx paper-distill-mcp
Or add to .mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"paper-distill": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["paper-distill-mcp"]
}
}
}
Codex CLI (OpenAI)
Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.paper-distill]
command = "uvx"
args = ["paper-distill-mcp"]
Gemini CLI (Google)
Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"paper-distill": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["paper-distill-mcp"]
}
}
}
OpenClaw
mcporter config add paper-distill --command uvx --scope home -- paper-distill-mcp
mcporter list # verify
To remove:
mcporter config remove paper-distill
OpenClaw — install from source
git clone https://github.com/Eclipse-Cj/paper-distill-mcp.git ~/.openclaw/tools/paper-distill-mcp
cd ~/.openclaw/tools/paper-distill-mcp
uv venv .venv && uv pip install .
mcporter config add paper-distill \
--command ~/.openclaw/tools/paper-distill-mcp/.venv/bin/python3 \
--scope home \
-- -m mcp_server.server
mcporter list
To remove:
rm -rf ~/.openclaw/tools/paper-distill-mcp && mcporter config remove paper-distill
Other clients (Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Trae)
Same JSON config, different config file paths:
| Client | Config path |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop | claude_desktop_config.json |
| Trae | Settings → MCP → Add |
| Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json |
| VS Code | .vscode/mcp.json |
| Windsurf | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json |
| Zed | settings.json |
HTTP transport (remote / hosted)
paper-distill-mcp --transport http --port 8765
🎯 Getting Started
After connecting your client, tell the agent "initialize paper-distill".
Configuration
{"mcpServers": {"paper-distill": {"command": "uvx", "args": ["paper-distill-mcp"]}}}