unpaywall-mcp
Polski
Unpaywall Open Access scholarly API MCP server. Looks up free-to-read versionsof papers by DOI and searches article titles for OA matches.
Table of contents
- Tools
- Environment variables
- Wiring it up
- Local run
Tools
| Tool | Parameters | Description |
|---|---|---|
get_doi |
doi: str |
OA status + bibliographic metadata for a single DOI |
search_articles |
query: str, is_oa: Optional[bool] = None, page: int = 1 |
Search article titles; returns up to 50 DOI objects per page |
search_articles query modifiers: "quoted phrase" (contiguous), OR(either term), -term (exclude). is_oa tri-state: None no filter, TrueOA only, False non-OA only.
Environment variables
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
UNPAYWALL_MCP_EMAIL |
yes | Contact email Unpaywall requires on every request |
Unpaywall rate limit: 100,000 calls/day per email.
Wiring it up
Only requirement: uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/). Nothing else to install.
Claude Code
claude mcp add unpaywall-mcp -e UNPAYWALL_MCP_EMAIL=<your-email> -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/dam2452/unpaywall-mcp.git unpaywall-mcp
Claude Desktop / other MCP client
{
"mcpServers": {
"unpaywall-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/dam2452/unpaywall-mcp.git", "unpaywall-mcp"],
"env": { "UNPAYWALL_MCP_EMAIL": "<your-email>" }
}
}
}
After pushing a new version: uv cache clean and restart the client.
Local run
uv run --directory . unpaywall-mcp
Tests (manual):
uv run --directory . --with pytest pytest test/
