PaperPal MCP server

This MCP server extension provides seamless access to research papers from arXiv and Hugging Face, allowing you to have natural conversations with LLMs like Claude to discuss papers, discover new research, and organize ideas for literature reviews.

Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing the MCP server, ensure you have git installed on your system.

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/milatechtransfer/paperpal
   

Configuration

Claude Desktop App

To configure the MCP server with Claude Desktop App:

1. Locate your configuration file:

   • On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the following configuration to the file:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "paperpal": {
         "command": "uv",
         "args": [
           "--directory",
           "/Users/<username>/paperpal",
           "run",
           "paperpal.py"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

   Make sure to replace <username> with your actual username.

3. Restart the Claude Desktop App to apply the changes.

Cursor

To configure the MCP server with Cursor:

1. Create a .cursor/mcp.json file in the root of your project:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "paperpal": {
         "command": "/path/to/your/uv",
         "args": [
           "--directory",
           "/path/to/your/paperpal",
           "run",
           "paperpal.py"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

   Replace /path/to/your/uv with the actual path to your UV installation and /path/to/your/paperpal with the path where you cloned the repository.

Usage

Once configured, you can use paperpal to:

• Search for and discuss research papers
• Explore new research in specific areas
• Get summaries and explanations of complex papers
• Organize ideas for literature reviews

Example Workflow

1. Start a conversation with your LLM (e.g., Claude)
2. Ask questions about specific research papers or topics
3. Request the LLM to search for papers on particular subjects
4. Have the LLM summarize or explain key findings from papers

The extension handles searching arXiv and Hugging Face papers automatically and provides the relevant information to the LLM to enhance your conversation.

Limitations

Keep in mind that:

• LLMs may still hallucinate information
• Semantic search isn't perfect
• Results are only as good as the underlying search capabilities and LLM interpretation

For a demonstration of paperpal's capabilities, check out this conversation with Claude.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "paperpal" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","/Users/<username>/paperpal","run","paperpal.py"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "paperpal": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/Users/<username>/paperpal",
                "run",
                "paperpal.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "paperpal": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/Users/<username>/paperpal",
                "run",
                "paperpal.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect