MCP Server
MCP
Scholar MCP
By FastMCP server for scholarly papers, patents, books and standards with docling PDF conversion
Install
uvx pvliesdonk-scholar-mcpConfiguration Example
{
"remotes": [],
"packages": [
{
"registryType": "pypi",
"identifier": "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp",
"version": "1.9.1",
"runtimeHint": "uvx",
"transport": {
"type": "stdio"
},
"environmentVariables": [
{
"description": "Persistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. `memory://` is in-process and lost on restart; `file:///path` persists on one server; `redis://`, `dynamodb://` and `mongodb://` each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to `file:///data/state` (the volume family Docker images mount), or to `memory://` — with a warning — on a host where that directory is not usable.",
"default": "file:///data/state",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL"
},
{
"description": "Comma-separated explicit tool names this instance exposes; every other tool is hidden from listings and cannot be invoked. Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_deny`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW"
},
{
"description": "Comma-separated explicit tool names hidden from this instance (absent from listings, cannot be invoked). Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_allow`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY"
},
{
"description": "Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME"
},
{
"description": "Replaces the default MCP instructions text sent to clients.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS"
},
{
"description": "Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.",
"default": "INFO",
"choices": [
"DEBUG",
"INFO",
"WARNING",
"ERROR",
"CRITICAL"
],
"name": "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL"
},
{
"description": "Set false for plain or structured JSON log output.",
"format": "boolean",
"default": "true",
"name": "FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING"
},
{
"description": "GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN"
},
{
"description": "When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.",
"format": "boolean",
"default": "true",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY"
},
{
"description": "Semantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: unauthenticated requests are limited to ~1 req/s. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY"
},
{
"description": "Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL"
},
{
"description": "OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL"
},
{
"description": "API key for the VLM endpoint.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY"
},
{
"description": "Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.",
"default": "gpt-4o",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL"
},
{
"description": "Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).",
"format": "filepath",
"default": "/data/scholar-mcp",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR"
},
{
"description": "Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL"
},
{
"description": "EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY"
},
{
"description": "EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET"
},
{
"description": "Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY"
}
]
},
{
"registryType": "oci",
"identifier": "ghcr.io/pvliesdonk/scholar-mcp:v1.9.1",
"transport": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "http://localhost:{--port}/mcp"
},
"packageArguments": [
{
"description": "Port for the HTTP transport",
"default": "8000",
"type": "named",
"name": "--port"
}
],
"environmentVariables": [
{
"description": "Public base URL of the deployed server, e.g. `https://mcp.example.com`. Required for OIDC. Also the fallback source of the MCP Apps domain when `app_domain` is unset.",
"placeholder": "https://mcp.example.com",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_BASE_URL"
},
{
"description": "Single shared bearer token; enables bearer auth unless `bearer_tokens_file` is set, which takes precedence.",
"isSecret": true,
"placeholder": "<secret>",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN"
},
{
"description": "OIDC discovery document URL, e.g. `https://auth.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration`.",
"placeholder": "https://auth.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL"
},
{
"description": "OIDC client identifier registered with the provider.",
"placeholder": "mcp-client",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID"
},
{
"description": "OIDC client secret registered with the provider.",
"isSecret": true,
"placeholder": "your-client-secret",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET"
},
{
"description": "Expected `aud` claim; tokens issued for another audience are rejected.",
"placeholder": "mcp-api",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE"
},
{
"description": "Scopes a caller must present, space- or comma-separated. Defaults to `openid` in oidc-proxy mode.",
"default": "openid",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_REQUIRED_SCOPES"
},
{
"description": "Scopes advertised to MCP clients in protected-resource metadata, space- or comma-separated. Overrides the default `openid offline_access`; `oidc_required_scopes` is always added on top. Set this when the registered client is not permitted `offline_access`, or to have clients request extra claim scopes (e.g. `groups`) without also requiring them in every token.",
"default": "openid offline_access",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_ADVERTISED_SCOPES"
},
{
"description": "Signing key for issued JWTs; used in oidc-proxy mode only. When unset, the key is derived deterministically from `oidc_client_secret`, so tokens survive a restart — but rotating that secret invalidates every issued token. Set this explicitly to decouple token validity from secret rotation. Generate with `openssl rand -hex 32`.",
"isSecret": true,
"default": "derived",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY"
},
{
"description": "Validate the access token instead of the id token.",
"format": "boolean",
"default": "false",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_VERIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN"
},
{
"description": "Persistent-state backend URL shared by every pvl-core subsystem that needs state. `memory://` is in-process and lost on restart; `file:///path` persists on one server; `redis://`, `dynamodb://` and `mongodb://` each need their matching extra. When unset, defaults to `file:///data/state` (the volume family Docker images mount), or to `memory://` — with a warning — on a host where that directory is not usable.",
"default": "file:///data/state",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL"
},
{
"description": "MCP Apps iframe domain, used for CSP sandboxing. Overrides the host derived from `base_url`.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_APP_DOMAIN"
},
{
"description": "Comma-separated explicit tool names this instance exposes; every other tool is hidden from listings and cannot be invoked. Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_deny`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW"
},
{
"description": "Comma-separated explicit tool names hidden from this instance (absent from listings, cannot be invoked). Names matching no registered tool are inert. Mutually exclusive with `tools_allow`. Takes effect through `apply_tool_visibility`.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY"
},
{
"description": "Explicit auth-mode override, accepting `remote` or `oidc-proxy` (case- and whitespace-insensitive). When unset the mode is auto-detected from which auth variables are set; the override exists because having all four OIDC variables set is ambiguous between those two modes. Other values are ignored with a warning.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_AUTH_MODE"
},
{
"description": "Path to a TOML file mapping bearer tokens to subjects; overrides the single-token `bearer_token` mode.",
"format": "filepath",
"placeholder": "/etc/scholar-mcp/tokens.toml",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKENS_FILE"
},
{
"description": "Subject assigned to the single-token bearer mode; ignored when `bearer_tokens_file` is set, since mapped mode carries per-token subjects.",
"default": "bearer-anon",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_DEFAULT_SUBJECT"
},
{
"description": "Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME"
},
{
"description": "Replaces the default MCP instructions text sent to clients.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS"
},
{
"description": "Mount path for the MCP endpoint.",
"default": "/mcp",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_HTTP_PATH"
},
{
"description": "Run the server process as this UID; the container entrypoint chowns writable paths to match.",
"format": "number",
"default": "1000",
"name": "PUID"
},
{
"description": "Run the server process as this GID; pair with PUID to match the owner of a mounted volume.",
"format": "number",
"default": "1000",
"name": "PGID"
},
{
"description": "Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.",
"default": "INFO",
"choices": [
"DEBUG",
"INFO",
"WARNING",
"ERROR",
"CRITICAL"
],
"name": "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL"
},
{
"description": "Set false for plain or structured JSON log output.",
"format": "boolean",
"default": "true",
"name": "FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING"
},
{
"description": "GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN"
},
{
"description": "When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.",
"format": "boolean",
"default": "true",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY"
},
{
"description": "Semantic Scholar API key. Optional but strongly recommended: unauthenticated requests are limited to ~1 req/s. Request one at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY"
},
{
"description": "Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL"
},
{
"description": "OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL"
},
{
"description": "API key for the VLM endpoint.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY"
},
{
"description": "Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.",
"default": "gpt-4o",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL"
},
{
"description": "Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).",
"format": "filepath",
"default": "/data/scholar-mcp",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR"
},
{
"description": "Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL"
},
{
"description": "EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY"
},
{
"description": "EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET"
},
{
"description": "Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.",
"name": "SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY"
}
]
}
]
}
mcp
model-context-protocol
pypi
oci
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