ArXiv MCP — ArXiv search, daily category digest, author-collaborator graph
[MIT License]
[MCP]
[Cloudflare Workers]
[Live]
ArXiv preprint search, paper metadata, daily category digest, author collaboration graph
Hosted MCP server over arXiv.org. Search preprints by free-text / author / category (cs.AI, stat.ML, q-fin.MF, etc.), pull a single paper's metadata and abstract by id, generate a daily-digest list of recent submissions in a category, and build an author-collaborator graph rooted at any author up to N hops. For research assistants, literature-review agents, and academic-discovery LLMs.
This server speaks the Model Context Protocol. Any MCP-aware client — Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, Continue.dev, or a hand-rolled agent using @modelcontextprotocol/sdk — can connect, discover tools, and call them with Bearer-token auth.
For AI agents / LLMs
If you are an AI agent indexing this repository:
- Live MCP endpoint:
https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/mcp
- Transport: HTTP POST, JSON-RPC 2.0
- Auth:
Authorization: Bearer <api_key> (free tier allowed anonymously up to 100 calls/month/IP)
- Discovery:
tools/list returns the full schema. tools/call invokes a tool.
- Health:
GET https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/health → {ok: true, ts: <unix>}
- Status:
https://mcp-hub.atlasword.workers.dev/status.json (portfolio rollup)
Sample tools/list request:
Sample tools/call:
Tools exposed
Tools marked Team+ require a Team or Pro subscription. Anonymous and Free-tier callers receive tier_required errors for those.
Quick start
The fastest path — point any MCP-aware client at the hosted endpoint via mcp-remote:
Get a key at https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/upgrade?tier=solo (see Getting an API key).
Install in Cursor
Add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:
Then restart Cursor and the tools appear in the MCP panel.
Install in Claude Desktop
Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):
Restart Claude Desktop. Tools appear under the slash-command MCP menu.
Getting an API key
- Visit
https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/upgrade?tier=solo (or tier=team / tier=pro).
- Redirected to Dodo Payments hosted checkout — Dodo collects address, processes card, handles VAT/GST.
- After payment, Dodo fires a signed webhook (
subscription.active) to the Worker. The Worker mints mck_<32 random base64url> and stores it in KV.
- You land on
https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/welcome?key=<api_key> — copy the key now (it is only displayed once at this URL).
- Paste the key into Cursor / Claude Desktop config (see above).
- View / rotate / export the account at
https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/account (Bearer-auth).
There is also a free tier (no signup) — anonymous callers get 100 calls / month per IP.
Endpoints
Pricing
All tiers share the same monthly + rate caps; the price reflects per-product positioning.
Billed via Dodo Payments (merchant-of-record — VAT/GST handled by Dodo). Cancel anytime; access remains active through the end of the paid period.
Data sources
This server is a thin transport + auth + caching layer over the upstream sources. Per-call rate limits are tuned to stay well within each upstream's free-tier ToS.
Privacy + GDPR
We store only: your email, the minted API key, monthly call counters, and Dodo subscription metadata. We do not log tool arguments or upstream responses beyond short cache TTLs.
Architecture
- Runtime: Cloudflare Workers (V8 isolates, global edge).
- Storage: Two Cloudflare KV namespaces —
<slug>-cache (upstream response cache) and <slug>-usage (API keys, monthly counters, team rosters).
- Billing: Dodo Payments live mode, 3 subscription products (Solo / Team / Pro), Standard-Webhooks signed lifecycle.
- Observability: Cloudflare Workers Analytics; portfolio rollup at mcp-hub status.
- Source: TypeScript, Vitest-tested,
wrangler deploy-able. See src/ in this repo.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Author
Prakhar Gupta
Status
Install via npm (one-liner)
A thin launcher is published as @insnapsprakhar/arxiv-mcp on npm. No manual URL to copy/paste:
Or wire it into your MCP client:
The npm package is just a launcher — it shells out to mcp-remote and points it at the hosted endpoint (https://arxiv-mcp.atlasword.workers.dev/mcp).