research-master 0.1.40

# Research Master

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching and downloading academic papers from multiple research sources.

[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
[![Rust](https://img.shields.io/badge/rust-1.80%2B-orange.svg)](https://www.rust-lang.org/)
[![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/research-master)](https://crates.io/crates/research-master)
[![GitHub Release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/hongkongkiwi/research-master)](https://github.com/hongkongkiwi/research-master/releases)

## Overview

Research Master is a comprehensive academic research server that provides unified access to **28 major research repositories and databases**. It implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to integrate seamlessly with AI assistants like Claude Desktop, enabling powerful literature search, paper discovery, and citation analysis capabilities.

## Quick Start

### 1. Install

**macOS (Homebrew):**
```bash
brew tap hongkongkiwi/research-master
brew install research-master
```

**Other methods:** See [Installation](docs/installation.md) for Linux packages, Docker, and building from source.

### 2. Configure Your MCP Client

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "research-master": {
      "command": "research-master",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}
```

See [MCP Clients](docs/mcp-clients.md) for setup instructions for Claude Desktop, Zed, Cursor, Continue, and 15+ other clients.

### 3. Start Searching

Once configured, use natural language with your AI assistant:

```
Search for papers about "transformer architecture" from 2020 onwards
Download the paper 1706.03762 and find what papers cite it
Find papers by Geoffrey Hinton on deep learning
```

See [Tools](docs/tools.md) for all available MCP tools.

## Features

- **28 Research Sources**: arXiv, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, PubMed, PMC, bioRxiv, and [more](docs/sources.md)
- **Unified Search**: Single query searches across all sources
- **Smart Source Detection**: Automatically identifies paper IDs (arXiv, PMC, DOI, etc.)
- **PDF Download**: Save papers to your local filesystem
- **Citation Analysis**: Find papers that cite or are cited by a paper
- **Deduplication**: Remove duplicate results across sources
- **Rate Limiting**: Configurable to avoid API throttling

See [Sources](docs/sources.md) for supported databases, API requirements, and rate limits.

## Documentation

| Topic | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| [Installation](docs/installation.md) | Install via Homebrew, Docker, packages, or source |
| [Sources](docs/sources.md) | Supported research databases, API keys, rate limits |
| [Usage](docs/usage.md) | CLI commands and options |
| [Tools](docs/tools.md) | Available MCP tools reference |
| [MCP Clients](docs/mcp-clients.md) | Configuration for Claude Desktop, Zed, Cursor, etc. |
| [Configuration](docs/configuration.md) | Environment variables and config file |
| [Development](docs/development.md) | Project structure, adding new sources |

## Common Commands

```bash
# Search for papers
research-master search "transformer architecture" --year 2020-

# Search by author
research-master author "Geoffrey Hinton"

# Download a paper
research-master download 2301.12345 --source arxiv --output ./papers

# Look up by DOI
research-master lookup 10.48550/arXiv.2301.12345

# Start MCP server
research-master serve --stdio

# Show all environment variables
research-master --env
```

## Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

### Ways to Contribute

- Report bugs and issues
- Suggest new features
- Add new research sources
- Improve documentation
- Submit pull requests

See [Development](docs/development.md) for the project structure and how to add new sources.

## License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.

## Acknowledgments

- Built with [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/)
- Implements the [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)
- Integrates with numerous academic research APIs and services

## Contact

- GitHub: [@hongkongkiwi](https://github.com/hongkongkiwi)
- Repository: [https://github.com/hongkongkiwi/research-master](https://github.com/hongkongkiwi/research-master)