io.github.arxivsub/arxivsub-mcp

arxivsub-mcp

An MCP server for arXivSub — search arXiv and the top AI / CV / ML / robotics / NLP conferences, follow any paper to its related work, build research analytics, and manage a personal library, straight from your AI agent (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Claude Code, Windsurf, …).

arXivSub summarizes every paper into a structured 6-part breakdown (what it's about, innovations, techniques, datasets, results, limitations) and indexes it for semantic search across arXiv + CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, AAAI, MICCAI, CoRL, RSS, ACL, EMNLP, ICRA, IROS, IJCAI, SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia. This server puts that engine directly in your agent's hands.

Get a free key (7-day trial, no credit card)

1. Sign in at https://arxivsub.comfyai.app/skills with email or Google.
2. Copy your API key from the Skills page.
3. Put it in the server config below as ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY.

New accounts get a 7-day free trial of the full skill. After that it's part of arXivSub Pro.

Install

The server runs via npx — no manual install needed. Add it to your MCP client's config.

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json), Windsurf, Cline, etc.:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arxivsub": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "arxivsub-mcp"],
      "env": { "ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY": "your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add arxivsub --env ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY=your_key_here -- npx -y arxivsub-mcp

Codex CLI:

codex mcp add arxivsub --env ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY=your_key_here -- npx -y arxivsub-mcp

Or add it to ~/.codex/config.toml directly:

[mcp_servers.arxivsub]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "arxivsub-mcp"]
env = { ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY = "your_key_here" }

Restart your client and the tools below become available.

claude.ai (remote connector)

On claude.ai there's nothing to install, add a hosted connector:

1. Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector

2. Name: arxivsub

3. Remote MCP server URL (replace YOUR_KEY with your key from https://arxivsub.comfyai.app/skills):

   https://qtevnmgyobilaanrzidq.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp?key=YOUR_KEY
   

4. Leave the OAuth fields empty and click Add.

This is a hosted Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint, a thin adapter over the arXivSub gateway exposing the same tools. Source: supabase/functions/mcp/index.ts.

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_papers	Semantic + keyword search over arXiv and conferences. Filters: venues, recency, year, has_code. Returns each paper's 6-part summary, authors, PDF, and code link.
find_similar_papers	Nearest-neighbour "related work" for a paper you already found. Chainable for a mini literature review.
research_insight	Pivot analytics (the website's Custom Chart engine): trends, rankings, breakdowns. Pro / trial.
library_save	Save/update a paper in your personal library — notes, reading status, collections.
library_list	List your saved papers and collections.

Just ask your agent naturally — "find recent papers on LLM safety with code", "more work like this one", "how has interest in diffusion models trended by month", "save this to my "to read" collection" — and it will pick the right tool.

Notes

• Case-sensitive venues: arxiv, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, AAAI, MICCAI, CoRL, RSS, ACL, EMNLP, ICRA, IROS, IJCAI, SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia.
• Quota: each search / similar / insight call uses one daily quota unit; library calls are free. The remaining quota is returned with every result.
• Privacy / security: the server only holds your skill key and talks to the arXivSub gateway over HTTPS. It has no direct database access and no service credentials.

Development

npm install
npm run build           # tsc -> dist/
ARXIVSUB_SKILL_KEY=... node dist/index.js   # run over stdio

License

MIT