what is paperpal?
paperpal is an MCP extension designed to assist users in searching and writing literature reviews by providing access to academic papers from arXiv and Hugging Face.
how to use paperpal?
To use paperpal, clone the repository from GitHub, configure it with your MCP server (like Claude or Cursor), and start the server to interact with your LLMs for literature review tasks.
key features of paperpal?
- Access to a wide range of academic papers from arXiv and Hugging Face.
- Ability to discuss papers and organize ideas for literature reviews.
- Integration with popular LLMs for natural conversation.
use cases of paperpal?
- Assisting researchers in finding relevant papers for their studies.
- Helping students organize their thoughts and ideas for literature reviews.
- Facilitating discussions around academic papers with LLMs.
FAQ from paperpal?
- What is the main purpose of paperpal?
paperpal is designed to aid in literature reviews by providing easy access to academic papers and facilitating discussions with LLMs.
- Is paperpal free to use?
Yes! paperpal is open-source and free to use.
- What platforms does paperpal support?
paperpal can be used with MCP servers like Claude and Cursor.
🚨 Development has moved to https://github.com/mila-iqia/paperpal
paperpal
MCP Extension to aid you in searching and writing literature reviews
Check out this conversation with Claude to see what it can do
How it works
paperpal gives your LLMs access to arxiv and Hugging Face papers.
You can then have a natural conversation with your favourite LLMs (e.g. Claude) and have it guide you.
You can:
- Discuss papers
- Look for new papers
- Organize ideas for liteature reviews
- etc.
Of course, this tool is as good as the sum of its parts. LLMs can still hallucinate, and semantic search is never perfect.
Quickstart
There are many different ways with which you can interact with an MCP server.
Claude Desktop App
If this is your first time using an MCP server for Claude Desktop App, see https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user
First, clone this repository locally:
git clone https://github.com/jerpint/paperpal
Next, add the extension to your app. Open your configuration file (on macOS this should be ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) and and add the following to the extension:
For example on MacOS:
{
"mcpServers": {
"paperpal": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/Users/<username>/paperpal",
"run",
"paperpal.py"
]
}
}
}
Restart your Claude Desktop App and you should see it appear.
Cursor
If this is your first time using an MCP server for Cursor, see https://docs.cursor.com/context/model-context-protocol#remote-development
First, clone this repository locally:
git clone https://github.com/jerpint/paperpal
Add this to the root of the project in a .cursor/mcp.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"paperpal": {
"command": "/Users/jeremypinto/.cargo/bin/uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/Users/jeremypinto/paperpal",
"run",
"paperpal.py"
]
}
}
}