Semantic Scholar MCP Server

by smaniches Your server? Claim it

local only

Semantic Scholar MCP Server runs on your own machine — the client starts it, so there is no endpoint to ping. 1 042 installs a week from pypi. Last commit 4 Sep 2026.

MCP server for the Semantic Scholar API: search 200M+ papers, citations, authors, recommendations.

Installs per day peak 622 · avg 154 · +17% w/w

a month agotoday

1 042

Installs / week

pypi · s2-mcp-server

Stars

0 open issues

4 Sep 2026

Last commit

0 releases in 90 days

MIT

License

Python

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check Semantic Scholar MCP Server every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.

Connect this server

This server runs on your own machine — install it with the package manager and the client starts it for you. Package name taken from the official registry entry.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add semantic-scholar-mcp -- uvx s2-mcp-server

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semantic-scholar-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "s2-mcp-server"
      ],
      "command": "uvx"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.semantic-scholar-mcp]
command = "uvx"
args = ["s2-mcp-server"]

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semantic-scholar-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "s2-mcp-server"
      ],
      "command": "uvx"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semantic-scholar-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "s2-mcp-server"
      ],
      "command": "uvx"
    }
  }
}

This one needs environment variables set before it will start: SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY (Semantic Scholar API key for higher rate limits (free at semanticscholar.org/product/api)). The author declared them in the registry entry; get the values from the project itself.

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Semantic Scholar MCP Server — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

Why is there no uptime for Semantic Scholar MCP Server?

Semantic Scholar MCP Server runs on your own machine over stdio — there is no network address to reach, so uptime cannot be measured for it by anyone. What can be measured is adoption: the pypi package s2-mcp-server was installed 1 042 times last week.

How do I connect Semantic Scholar MCP Server?

Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It runs locally, so the command pulls s2-mcp-server straight from pypi; nothing to host, nothing to sign up for.

How many people use Semantic Scholar MCP Server?

The pypi package s2-mcp-server was installed 1 042 times in the last week. Week over week that is +17%. We show installs rather than GitHub stars on purpose: a star is a bookmark, an install is someone actually running it.

Is Semantic Scholar MCP Server open source?

Yes — it is published under the MIT licence, written in Python and 21 stars on GitHub. The source link is on this page, so you can read exactly what it does with your data before you connect it.