What is semantic-scholar-mcp?
semantic-scholar-mcp is a MCP server by smaniches that semantic Scholar academic papers: search, paper and author retrieval, citation-graph traversal and recommendations. It is listed under Knowledge & memory and has 23 GitHub stars.
| Type | Mcp server |
|---|---|
| Author | smaniches |
| Repository | smaniches/semantic-scholar-mcp |
| Popularity | 23 GitHub stars |
| Category | Knowledge & memory |
| Security | Low risk (80/100) |
| Rank | #1,244 of 4,418 MCP servers; #130 in Knowledge & memory |
| License | MIT |
| Last commit | 2026-10-15 |
| Runs | Locally and in the cloud |
| Language | Python |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux |
Is semantic-scholar-mcp safe to install?
semantic-scholar-mcp scores 80/100 on the MCPMods security check: Low risk. Things to review: sends your data to a cloud service. It passed 3 of 6 checks.
MCP server results come from listing signals: who publishes it, where your data goes and what it can do. The code itself is not scanned yet.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Community-built server | Note |
| Sends your data to a cloud service | Review |
| Needs an API key or account login | Note |
| Read-only by description | Pass |
| No code execution | Pass |
| Source on GitHub | Pass |
How do I install semantic-scholar-mcp?
- Find the launch command. The README says how the server starts (npx, uvx, docker or a remote URL) and which API keys it needs.
https://github.com/smaniches/semantic-scholar-mcp
- Add it to Claude Code. Replace the part after -- with the command from the README. Remote servers use --transport http with a URL.
claude mcp add semantic-scholar-mcp -- <command from README> claude mcp add --transport http semantic-scholar-mcp <server-url>
- Check it connected. This lists your MCP servers and their status.
claude mcp list
Or ask Claude to set it up
Paste this into Claude Code and it installs semantic-scholar-mcp for you:
Add the "semantic-scholar-mcp" MCP server from https://github.com/smaniches/semantic-scholar-mcp to Claude Code. Read its README for the launch command and any API keys I need, run claude mcp add, then check that it connects.