CiteAssist (Citation Retrieval) MCP server

This MCP server provides BibTeX-formatted citation data from CiteAs and Google Scholar, allowing you to integrate citation retrieval directly into your applications. With this tool, you can easily retrieve properly formatted citations for academic papers using DOIs, URLs, or search queries.

Installation

Installing for Claude Desktop

You'll need to modify Claude's configuration file to add the MCP server.

MacOS Configuration

Edit the Claude Desktop config file located at:

~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows Configuration

Edit the Claude Desktop config file located at:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Adding the Server Configuration

Add the following to your configuration file:

For published servers:

"mcpServers": {
  "reference-mcp": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "reference-mcp"
    ]
  }
}

Installing via Smithery

For automatic installation, you can use Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @ndchikin/reference-mcp --client claude

Usage

The MCP server provides two main tools for citation retrieval:

Getting Citations from CiteAs

Use the get_citeas_data tool to retrieve BibTeX-formatted citations using:

• DOIs
• URLs
• Keywords

Required Parameters:

• resource: The DOI, URL, or keyword to search for

Example Request:

{
  "tool": "get_citeas_data",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "10.1145/3491102.3517582"
  }
}

Getting Citations from Google Scholar

Use the get_scholar_data tool to search Google Scholar for citations:

Required Parameters:

• query: Your search query

Optional Parameters:

• results: Number of results to return (default: 2)

Example Request:

{
  "tool": "get_scholar_data",
  "parameters": {
    "query": "machine learning applications healthcare",
    "results": 5
  }
}

Troubleshooting

If you experience issues with the server connectivity or responses, make sure that:

1. The configuration file has been correctly modified
2. You have the necessary permissions to install and run the server
3. Your internet connection allows accessing CiteAs and Google Scholar services

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 "reference-mcp" '{"command":"uvx","args":["reference-mcp"]}'

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": {
        "reference-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "reference-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "reference-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "reference-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect