How do I install Scholar?

Scholar is a local plugin. Install it using PyPI package: pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp and add the generated configuration snippet to your AI app's MCP config file. Then restart your AI app.

Is Scholar safe to use?

Yes. Scholar passed MCP Marketplace's automated security scan with a score of 10/10 (low risk). Every server on MCP Marketplace is security-scanned before it's listed; see the full security report on this page for the findings and permissions.

What credentials does Scholar need?

Scholar requires the following credentials or environment variables: SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL, SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW, SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY, SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME, SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION, SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA, SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS, FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL, FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING, SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN, SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY, SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY, SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL, SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL, SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY, SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL, SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR, SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL, SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY, SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET, SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY, SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_S, SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_S, SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECT, SCHOLAR_MCP_BASE_URL, SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_REQUIRED_SCOPES, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_ADVERTISED_SCOPES, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY, SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_VERIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN, SCHOLAR_MCP_APP_DOMAIN, SCHOLAR_MCP_AUTH_MODE, SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKENS_FILE, SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_DEFAULT_SUBJECT, SCHOLAR_MCP_HTTP_PATH, SCHOLAR_MCP_HEALTH_DETAIL, PUID, PGID. You can find setup instructions on the server detail page.

What AI apps work with Scholar?

Scholar uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and works with any MCP-compatible AI app, including Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, and more.

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Scholar MCP Server

by User

Education & ResearchLow Risk10.0Local

Free

FastMCP server for scholarly papers, patents, books and standards with docling PDF conversion

About

FastMCP server for scholarly papers, patents, books and standards with docling PDF conversion

Security Report

10.0

Low Risk10.0Low Risk

Valid MCP server (1 strong, 1 medium validity signals). No known CVEs in dependencies. Package registry verified. Imported from the Official MCP Registry. Trust signals: trusted author (4/4 approved).

4 files analyzed · 1 issue found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

What You'll Need

Set these up before or after installing:

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.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL

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`.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW

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`.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_TOOLS_DENY

Rename this server instance; defaults to the project name.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME

Concise routing context that distinguishes this deployment's material or responsibility.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION

Deployment-specific behavioral policy added to the generated MCP instructions.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA

Legacy: replaces all generated MCP instructions (deprecated; use _INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION for routing and _INSTRUCTIONS_EXTRA for policy).Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS

Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.Optional

Environment variable: FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL

Set false for plain or structured JSON log output.Optional

Environment variable: FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING

GitHub token used to raise rate limits when fetching standards documents from GitHub. Optional; unauthenticated requests work at reduced limits.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_GITHUB_TOKEN

When true, write-tagged tools (PDF download and conversion cache writes) are hidden. Set false to enable them.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY

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.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_S2_API_KEY

Base URL of a running docling-serve instance for PDF conversion (e.g. http://localhost:5001). When unset, PDF conversion tools return an error.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_DOCLING_URL

OpenAI-compatible VLM endpoint for formula and figure enrichment during PDF conversion.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_URL

API key for the VLM endpoint.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_API_KEY

Model name to use with the VLM endpoint.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_VLM_MODEL

Directory for the SQLite cache database (cache.db) and downloaded PDFs (pdfs/, md/).Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_CACHE_DIR

Contact email for the OpenAlex polite pool (improves rate limits). Also enables Unpaywall lookups as a PDF fallback source.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_CONTACT_EMAIL

EPO Open Patent Services consumer key. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset. Register at https://developers.epo.org/user/register.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_KEY

EPO Open Patent Services consumer secret. Optional; patent tools are hidden when unset.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_EPO_CONSUMER_SECRET

Google Books API key. Optional; book tools work unauthenticated at reduced rate limits.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY

Seconds a long-running tool call may run in the foreground before it is promoted to a background job and a job handle is returned instead.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_SOFT_DEADLINE_S

Seconds a background-job record (working or finished) is retained for polling before it expires from the store.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_RESULT_TTL_S

Maximum live background jobs per calling subject; further promotions are rejected until older records expire.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_JOBS_MAX_PER_SUBJECT

Public base URL of the deployed server, for example `https://mcp.example.com`. Required for OIDC. Also the fallback source of the MCP Apps domain when `app_domain` is unset.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_BASE_URL

Single shared bearer token; enables bearer auth unless `bearer_tokens_file` is set, which takes precedence.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN

OIDC discovery document URL, for example `https://auth.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration`.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL

OIDC client identifier registered with the provider.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID

OIDC client secret registered with the provider.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET

Expected `aud` claim; tokens issued for another audience are rejected.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE

Scopes a caller must present, space- or comma-separated. Defaults to `openid` in oidc-proxy mode.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_REQUIRED_SCOPES

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 (such as `groups`) without also requiring them in every token.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_ADVERTISED_SCOPES

Signing key for issued tokens; used in oidc-proxy mode only. When unset, the key is derived deterministically from `oidc_client_secret`, so tokens survive a restart. Rotating that secret then invalidates every issued token. Set this explicitly to decouple token validity from secret rotation. Generate with `openssl rand -hex 32`.Required

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY

Validate the access token instead of the id token.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_VERIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN

MCP Apps iframe domain, used for CSP sandboxing. Overrides the host derived from `base_url`.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_APP_DOMAIN

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.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_AUTH_MODE

Path to a TOML file mapping bearer tokens to subjects; overrides the single-token `bearer_token` mode.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKENS_FILE

Subject assigned to the single-token bearer mode; ignored when `bearer_tokens_file` is set, since mapped mode carries per-token subjects.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_DEFAULT_SUBJECT

Mount path for the MCP endpoint; the health routes derive their prefix from it.Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_HTTP_PATH

How much the unauthenticated /health and /health/ready bodies say: status, standard (adds name, version and per-check verdicts), or full (adds redacted reasons; trusted networks only).Optional

Environment variable: SCHOLAR_MCP_HEALTH_DETAIL

Run the server process as this UID; the container entrypoint reassigns ownership of writable paths to match.Optional

Environment variable: PUID

Run the server process as this GID; pair with PUID to match the owner of a mounted volume.Optional

Environment variable: PGID

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp": {
      "env": {
        "PGID": "your-pgid-here",
        "PUID": "your-puid-here",
        "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL": "your-fastmcp-log-level-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_BASE_URL": "your-scholar-mcp-base-url-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_READ_ONLY": "your-scholar-mcp-read-only-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_SERVER_NAME": "your-scholar-mcp-server-name-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN": "your-scholar-mcp-bearer-token-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_KV_STORE_URL": "your-scholar-mcp-kv-store-url-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID": "your-scholar-mcp-oidc-client-id-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL": "your-scholar-mcp-oidc-config-url-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-scholar-mcp-oidc-client-secret-here",
        "SCHOLAR_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY": "your-scholar-mcp-oidc-jwt-signing-key-here"
      },
      "args": [
        "pvliesdonk-scholar-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "uvx"
    }
  }
}